Review: I Love You, Beth Cooper

Title: I Love You, Beth Cooper
Author: Larry Doyle
# of Pages: 274
Published: May 29, 2009 (first edition April 7, 2008)
Publisher: Harper Collins Publishers
Rating: 3/5

I Love You, Beth Cooper is Doyle's first attempt at a fictional novel after a career of writing for screen productions such as The Simpsons, and quite honestly it shows through his writing. The novel is the plight of Denis Cooverman, one of the biggest geeks in school, who believes he is in love with Elizabeth Cooper, the head cheerleader. On graduation day he announces: "I love you, Beth Cooper" in his speech, and thus begins 24 hours of mayhem and ridiculousness.

I'll be honest, I only picked up this book because I'd seen the trailer for the movie; had I been browsing and simply read the summary on the back of the book, I'm certain I would have put it back down and moved on. However, I was pleasantly surprised: though the story of a "geek" who loves some popular girl has been overused and exhausted, Doyle manages to put a new spin on the concept and has a knack for comedic writing that is laugh out loud funny. Even though the story is told in third person, the author manages to make readers feel Denis' awkwardness, anxiety and general nerdiness. Denis then becomes humanized and less of a generalized stereotype of a high school smartass.

The same can be applied to the rest of the characters in the novel, who are obviously based on stereotypes like the marine-esque boyfriend, the weird sidekick/best friend, the clique of girls, etc. Though many of them have personalities that scream typical and unoriginal, I found myself entirely invested in each one through Doyle's style. Each is humanized and contributes a different kind of comic relief to the narrative, sealing the success of Doyle's novel as a comedy.

The structure of Doyle's narrative is appropriate, though at times a little slow. It is difficult to write a novel that takes place entirely in 24 hours or less, and therefore there are no jumps in time: everything is documented, even if it is dull or filler, until the next big event. Though Doyle attempts to make almost all the situations comical in some way, it gets tiring and drawn out and sometimes fairly repetitive. Several of the same type of event occur and become a bore to read as nothing new happens until the ending. That being sad, the character development coincides well with the structure of the novel, so I forgive portions of the repetitiveness.

I Love You, Beth Cooper is an easy read, there are no confusing or complicating scenarios; everything is pretty straightforward. This tends to be the case with third person works, and though I am partial to first person narratives, I Love You, Beth Cooper still managed to impress me with its storytelling and lure me into believing Denis' adventure. However, there's no denying that the novel overall feels like a simple novelization of a film, and this is where the novel lost a lot of my respect. Each chapter feels like a scene, the minor flashblacks/flashforwards recall those done in film, and overall there is little additional information given in the book than what you would see on screen. Doyle's background as a television writer is transparent in this first attempt at a novel, and this was a large disappointment for me. There are numerous ways to expand and give depth to a story through word, but instead Doyle remains in the safety net of a storyboard structure.

Overall, I did not dislike I Love You, Beth Cooper, but it was not one of my favorite novels. I award it with a 3/5 for making an unoriginal storyline interesting, fresh and different, as well as the comedic elements Doyle adds into the narrative. It also gains points for dimensioned characters who, though based on stereotypes, are quite unique and humanized. Doyle's faults include a strict structure, as well as an overall feel that the work was simply a novelization. I Love You, Beth Cooper is still a light, simple and hilarious read for the summer, and of course a good book to recall the craziness that is high school graduation night.