He Said, She Said by Kwame Alexander

Series: Standalone

Release Date: November 19th, 2013

Rating: 3.5/5 stars

He Said, She Said was really interesting, it focused heavily on South African culture but also had so much slang my mind was confused at times! The plot, though, was the clichéd ‘playa,’ Omar (T-Diddy) wanting to ‘hit’ the totally out of his league Golden Girl, Claudia. The twist? He starts a revolt to impress her! But soon enough, Omar becomes invested in the protest, and Claudia is probably the most surprised and impressed, leading to her maybe, sort of liking Omar.

The plot developed fast and had a rapid pace. The heavy use of slang was perfect for Omar’s characterization–as he is Omar “T-Diddy” Smalls. However, it confused me and sometimes led me off track since I was so focused on trying to figure out what the slang meant. Also, the quotes kinda jumbled me up, but they still went well with the story.

Since He Said, She Said is told in dual POV you get the story from both Claudia and Omar’s perspective. You get the playa who doesn’t realize he’s changing his ways for Claudia, and you get Claudia letting down her walls to finally, maybe trust a high school boy for once.

The subplot was basically focused on Omar wanting to get with Claudia and Claudia, refusing to just be another notch on his belt. So, Omar had to put in some effort and try. But before we got to that stage of the novel, we got to see Omar in all his playa glory. Yes, people, I’m talking about a guy that talks about women as if they are things for his amusement. Having read some reviews on this book, I was hesitant going into it, thinking that Omar was going to be a huge pig. Surprisingly enough, he’s the same kind of “pig” you find in other books that also have bad-boy/player male protagonists. I really liked Claudia. She was annoying at times, but I understood her because she comes across as very authentic. Her hesitancy about dating Omar was grounded in her history of having already being burned–could she trust Omar?

The part before the ending was kind of weird (sorry to be vague but no spoilers). I felt like the whole antagonistic attitude of Omar’s football rival team didn’t really mesh with the plotline and was just another way to add drama to the book–highly unnecessary drama.

The ending, although receiving many controversial comments, I actually liked. It’s a very open-ended ending but also the most realistic one since we’re regularly informed throughout He Said, She Said that Omar is going to the University of Miami and Claudia’s going to Harvard. I fully understood why Claudia did what she did, and the fact that she had a backbone and stood up for what she needed for herself was a blessing! We didn’t see the heroine forgive and forget for the hero just because he says a few sweet words.

The ending is definitely something that allows you to come up with your own conclusion, but it also gives you hope.

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