Dense is to You as Male is to Boy

Dense is to You as Male is to Boy by lulu.lemon

I had best friend Reece, semi-jackass Liam, sweet Landon, equally sweet Kara, and high on life Max. I'd be with Landon, who I'm not even sure I like. And help Reece get his girl, who he keeps anonymous. Not like best friends ever fall in love or anything.
Banner Credit: Casey

Annie Thinks: I'm not quite sure how to review this gem of a story without going into obsessive fangirl mode, so if I start randomly typing in all caps in the middle of it, just try and bear with me.

This story is definitely my favorite story on FictionPress. Of course, all the other stories I review are amazing as well, but this one is very dear to my heart. It's one of the first stories I read on FP, it introduced me to ADoR, and it ignited my love for the Girl & Best Friend cliche. If that clouds my judgment of the story, then I apologize!

It's about a girl named Carson who has been best friends with golden boy Reece since they were five, due to their parents being best friends as well. At the beginning of the story, Carson pretty much comes out and says nothing romantic has ever happened between the two of them. Obviously that'll change when their parents announce that she will be moving in with Reece and his parents while they're working in Africa for the duration of the school year. This only gives her more time to pester him about the mystery girl he's been in love with for years. He finally agrees to tell this girl about his feelings, as long as the soccer team (of which he is captain) wins their championship game. While this is going on, Reece's other best friend Liam is taking his punishment for being a bad English student by being a part of the school newspaper. He butts head with Madeline, the editor of the paper, but eventually those feelings change.

I could go on forever about how good this story is, but that would make this a very long and not very good review. I really, really loved the characters. Carson was strong and kind and smart and not totally annoying or dependent on Reece, like in many other Girl & BFF stories. Reece is such a good character as well; he's very well-rounded and genuinely likable. He was very sweet, despite being one of the most popular guys in school. He made mistakes and made up for them. He was always there for Carson, even if it broke his heart. Even Liam had his redeeming qualities. Although he was sort of a jerk, he definitely had a soft side. I loved how lulu.lemon made this story complex enough to be interesting yet simple enough for the reader to understand. All of the side characters and stories seemed very real as well. The dialogue never seemed pointless but was always realistic. The emotions the characters felt were conveyed remarkably well--lulu.lemon really seemed to have a grasp on the whole "show, don't tell" rule of creative writing. Alas, this gorgeous story is incomplete; however, there are updates every few months, which never disappoint. Obviously, there are some faults in Dense is to You, as Male is to Boy, but I guess you'll have to read it yourself to find them!