A Taxonomy of Love by Rachael Allen

🌟🌟 out of 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Synopsis:

The moment Spencer meets Hope the summer before seventh grade, it’s . . . something at first sight. He knows she’s special, possibly even magical. The pair become fast friends, climbing trees and planning world travels. After years of being outshone by his older brother and teased because of his Tourette syndrome, Spencer finally feels like he belongs. But as Hope and Spencer get older and life gets messier, the clear label of “friend” gets messier, too.

Through sibling feuds and family tragedies, new relationships and broken hearts, the two grow together and apart, and Spencer, an aspiring scientist, tries to map it all out using his trusty system of taxonomy. He wants to identify and classify their relationship, but in the end, he finds that life doesn’t always fit into easy-to-manage boxes, and it’s this messy complexity that makes life so rich and beautiful.

^{*I received this copy from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*}

This book was just okay for me. It was hard for me to keep track of what age each of the characters were throughout the book because it was not said. There were only two points in the book that I was aware of where the author says their age and/or hints at what age they are. I wish that she would have had their age as a chapter heading or something every time that they were another year older. It made certain parts of the book uncomfortable for me because they have sexual relationships but it seems like they are still thirteen like when the book started. 
I had a hard time with Hope and Spencer's relationship. I didn't like Hope very much at all. She seemed selfish to me because she did whatever made her feel good regardless of how it made everyone around her feel. Spencer was the one shining light in this book. He may not have made very good decisions at times but he tried to think of others. He attempted to help those around him and just wanted to be treated like a human being rather than a problem or mistake. I loved that the book was from his point of view. He was going through something extremely difficult and it broke my heart to see how people treated him especially members of his own family. I was rooting for him the entire book because he grew so much over the course of the book. He took a lot of beatings but he came out on top in my opinion.