Crazy Messy Beautiful

From National Book Award finalist Carrie Arcos--a fresh take on happily ever after, and friendship, that is anything but a love story.

When your namesake is Pablo Neruda--the greatest love poet of all time--finding "the one" should be easy. After all, sixteen-year-old aspiring artist Neruda Diaz has been in love many times before. So it's only a matter of time before someone loves him back.

Callie could be that someone. She's creative and edgy, and nothing like the girls Neruda typically falls for, so when a school assignment brings them together, he is pleasantly surprised to learn they have a lot in common. With his true love in reach and his artistic ambitions on track, everything is finally coming together.

But as Neruda begins to fall faster and harder than ever before, he is blindsided by the complicated nature of love--and art--in more ways than one. And when the relationships he's looked to for guidance threaten to implode, Neruda must confront the reality that love is crazier, messier, and more beautiful than he ever realized--and riskier, too, than simply saying the words.

Praise for Crazy Messy Beautiful

This satisfying and unconventional love story explores the various meanings of the word. --Kirkus Reviews

Arcos has written a classic story of a budding artist finding out the reality behind the artifice, and does sowhile keeping a wonderful sense of humor. --Booklist

Arcos capably probes the mysterious without attempting to solve it as Neruda discovers the difference between crushing on someone he doesn't know and loving someone he does, learning that friendship, too, is a kind of love. --Publishers Weekly

With readily relatable characters who, nonetheless, surprise readers as they tackle life's many challenges and gifts, Crazy Messy Beautiful . . . explores the complexities of human emotions, aspirations, creativity, and relationships. This eminently readable book will appeal to male and female readers alike. --VOYA

The thematic thread of love as work between flawed people is woven through both language and situations, its subtlety affording different readings; romantics like Neruda will empathize with his frustration and failures, while more pragmatic readers may feel wryly superior and even slightly amused at the ways his heightened expectations butt up against modern high school life and characters.--BCCB

Author: Carrie Arcos
ISBN-10: 0399175539
ISBN-13: 9780399175534
Publisher: Viking Books for Young Readers
Language: English
Published: 02/07/2017
Pages: 320
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 0.90lbs
Size: 8.20h x 5.60w x 1.30d

Accelerated Reader:
Reading Level: 4.4
Point Value: 9
Interest Level: Upper Grade
Quiz #/Name: 187650 / Crazy Messy Beautiful


Review Citation(s):
Kirkus Reviews 11/15/2016
Booklist 12/01/2016 pg. 53
Publishers Weekly 11/28/2016
Voice of Youth Advocates 02/01/2017 - Recommended - Better Than Most
Bulletin of Ctr for Child Bks 03/01/2017
School Library Journal 03/01/2017
Hornbook Guide to Children 07/01/2017 pg. 118 - Recommended, Satisfactory

About the Author
Carrie Arcos (carriearcos.com) was born in Albany, New York, and still mourns the day her family left for the West Coast. She earned an MA in creative writing and English literature and writes young-adult fiction. She has taught English--both high school and college. Carrie lives in Los Angeles with her husband and three children. She is also the author of National Book Award finalist Out of Reach, and There Will Come a Time. You can follow her on Twitter @carriearcos.