I was hanging out with my friend the other day at the local library in my hometown when I happened to pull It Sounded Better In My Head by Nina Kenwood off the shelf. The synopsis left me slightly intrigued, and my friend suggested that I read a random page of the book to get a sense of its vibes. In this arbitrary moment of the book, the main character was processing the fact that she’d spent an hour making out with a guy in a bed the previous night and overthinking everything - her body, the guy’s expectations and his ex-girlfriend, her anxiety over potentially sleeping with him…I immediately decided to read it. Mostly because I felt like it was very honest, and the overthinking main character seemed to have similar anxieties as myself. I started reading the book the next day, and finished it not long afterwards. It was a light, enjoyable read with some deeper messages that I appreciated.
It Sounded Better In My Head is narrated by Natalie, who has just finished her last year of high school in Australia. Reeling from the sudden announcement of her parent’s divorce, she turns to her two best friends Zach and Lucy to make the most of the time they have before university acceptances are announced. While Natalie, Zach, and Lucy have been best friends for the past few years, Natalie has felt a bit like a third wheel since Zach and Lucy started dating nine months ago. Yet this summer, Natalie may get caught up in a romance of her own.
The main thing I loved about this book is that the main character felt very real and relatable to me. Natalie’s a shy introvert and an anxious overthinker just like I am, which made me easily connect with her. The way that she overthinks was very honest and reflected my own insecurities at times. I do feel like her personality could be a bit more developed - I’d love to learn more about her interests, passions, and strengths - but the parts that I do understand of Natalie’s character were very enjoyable. At times it felt like her entire personality is her insecurity and anxiety caused by her horrible experience with cystic acne, which did get annoying at times, but I understand the author’s attempts with adding that to Natalie’s character.
I also loved the MMC, Alex. He felt like a realistic teenage guy in terms of his insecurities, interactions with girls, and mannerisms. I feel like sometimes rom-com authors present these very idealized MMCs that feel almost too perfect, so I loved how Alex was realistic while also being easily likable. He has golden retriever energy and I liked seeing how his thought processes and actions began to change when he and Natalie start to get together. While Alex is definitely flawed, he definitely recognizes his errors and seems to learn a lot from them, which I really appreciated.
Because these two characters felt realistic and relatable, their relationship also felt really realistic to me as well. It seems like a romance that could truly happen to someone in high school, and the hurdles that the couple has to work through were relatable as well.
I wish I had gotten to see more moments of Alex and Natalie together, because I really liked watching them get together and I wanted to see more moments of them getting to know each other and being happy with each other. Yet instead the author decides to focus on Natalie’s growth and friendships, which I feel is also a very valid direction for the novel. I appreciated the messages of friendship in this book - watching Lucy and Natalie support each other and grow together was very heartwarming. I also really liked Vanessa’s character as well - her and Natalie’s moment of friendship was a really powerful girl’s girl moment, and I loved it so much. Zach and Natalie also have a really heartwarming moment of reconciliation as well, I loved their platonic friendship.
I liked how this book showed how there are many different types of insecurities that people can have. While Natalie is insecure about her social skills, appearance, and Alex’s experiences with girls in the past, Alex is insecure about his non-prestigious job, his lack of a solid future career plan, and his previous mistakes with other girls in the past. Lucy also has her own insecurities regarding her parents’ pressures to attend a prestigious university and become a high ranking lawyer, and Zach has his own worries and things he’s dealing with too. I liked how these insecurities gave characters more depth and room to grow, and allowed for more meaningful relationships and conversations between the different characters. I’m a sucker for the person-with-no-experience and person-with-experience romance partly because I find the way that the characters navigate that unique challenge and the insecurities it brings with it to be especially interesting and relatable, and I really liked how the author in this book handled it.
Did this book have amazing character development and a page-turning plot that kept me on my toes for hours? No. But it felt raw and honest, and seemed to answer my own deepest insecurities and overthinking anxieties. I loved the characters and I was really invested in their story. If you’re looking for a light-hearted story about realistic teenagers navigating friendship, romance, and the changes that come with finishing high school, It Sounded Better In My Head is definitely worth reading!