Fanfic Review - Boy in the Red Sweater

First off, the author summary for this summary is more foreboding than the story actually seemed to me.  Yes, there are underlying "dark" themes and "issues", but that's not what captured me about this story.  The part that drew me in was the innocence of first love.  Ultimately, this is a Coming to Age story as told by a teenage girl.  `

In this story, Bella Swan is a high school senior who is a bookworm and shy.  She can count her friends on one hand and would rather spend her time hiding in the library with BFF Alice than interact with most of the student body.  She hides her thoughts, stories, and poetry within a red notebook. 

Then along comes the "boy in the red sweater", Edward Cullen.  New to the school, he wears the same red sweater everyday, doesn't take off his backpack, doesn't speak (much), and becomes the fascination of Bella when they are paired together for a project. 

We all know how these stories work so it's not a surprise that Edward and Bella eventually find their Happily Ever After (HEA).

So, what did I love... 

• I love reading about first love.  There's an excitement that comes with those feelings that are so intense and yet so scary.  There's an innocence in every progression that you don't find once the magic of first love wains and you must find second, third, or fourth love.  Every milestone in their relationship is so stressful, yet met with such joy when discovering the other feels the same way about you as you do.  It's elation at its best.
  
• Even more entrancing is when two VERY shy people discover each other and find love.  It's hard enough when one is shy (believe me, I know), but when both people would rather look at the floor, how will they ever progress?  I liked the pace by which they did so in this story.
• The progression of teenage hormones was wonderful in this story.  It didn't feel rushed or too much.  It brought back all my own memories from my past while reading this; all that nervous energy was well written.  However, never did I experience such an embarrassing scenario as did Bella.  I think I died of mortification for her when I read that part.  O.o  And even when the relationship did progress to something more physical and bonding, it was appropriately chaste and awkward in some respects.  The story did not pretend that Edward Cullen was a sex god with a 10-in peen like so many other stories would like you to believe.  He was a typical teenage boy and performed as such. 
• I LOVED SWEATER BOY! Not even because he's "Edward Cullen" because in reality, sweater boy is so far fetched for the image of Edward that I had to make up new images...almost.  I tried to see Edward as that "Daniel Gale" type character, but far more attractive.  Like Clark Kent becoming Superman.  He always had his glasses on and his hair running wild, but Bella saw Superman. And because she saw the perfection of him, so did the reader.  It all goes back to beauty is in the eyes of the beholder.  Even though throngs of women will tell you "Edward" could never be considered anything but beautiful.
  

And, what I didn't love so much...

• Forks is a small place, yet EVERYONE has such tragic pasts.  It seemed a little overkill to have so much tragedy and psychotic behavior amongst a small group of people.  It seemed like the "Freaks Unite" crew.  While most was important to the storyline, there was a lot to take in for a story that overall had a "fluffy" feel about it.
• The relationship between Alice & Bella.  It felt very co-dependent and unhealthy at times.  With Alice's Mom being a psychologist, it didn't seem normal that she'd allow her daughter to get to the point she had with her own co-dependence on Jasper. 
  
• Plus, seriously, what mother would want her daughter to be with someone like Jasper?  Honestly, his whole storyline was kind of freaky.  He was not only "insane", but he had a criminal past.  His last stint was an an adult (18) and he should have faced criminal charges as such.  I think the rest of the players in the story didn't take his disease seriously enough.
  
• I understand that by keeping to canon pairings, everyone must stay together and have their own HEAs.  But, I get annoyed reading stories of high school sweethearts staying together, getting married, and immediately having kids.  Sometimes the formula is too "sweet" and "too precious" to be real.  In this story, I really loved it, but was then put off by the epilogue.  It was too neat for my taste; all wrapped up on in a nice red bow.  Everyone got what they wanted, no one lost anything, and everyone is successful at 22.  How many 22 year olds do you know that all find success and happiness at that age?  Not too many.
• I honestly hated that Bella's final statement was she found something to live for, and his name was Edward.  Not only is that completely cheese-fest, but heroines should never place all their life's missions on another person.  She needed to find the power within herself to see that she was worth living for and Edward complimented that.  Yes, she was extremely successful in the end, but what would happen if Edward were not in the picture?  The mental image she left me with was that she'd fade away and become just like her mother. 
  

Overall, I wish the story concentrated more on just the main characters and their issues instead of dragging in so many other players' problems.  That way when the story ended, I didn't need to care about the outcomes of these others players.  If it were only about Edward & Bella, I would have been much happier to see that through their own tragic pasts, they found each other.  That their love for each other made each one strong enough to heal themselves and move on without looking at the damage their pasts had caused.

It is this contradiction of love/hate that has left me rating this story a LIKE.

I will read Girl With the Red Notebook once it's complete.  It's the same story from Edward's POV and the fact that he didn't speak much will make it very interesting.  I always want to know what is going on in Edward's head, especially a cute shy Awkward.

Here's a cute graphic I found that may have been drawn for this story: