Tell Me Three Things

Tell Me Three Things is Julie Buxbaum's first young adult novel, published in 2017. Sixteen-year-old Jessie Holmes narrates this contemporary story in real-time over the course of two months, as she navigates the daunting halls of a new high school, a life without her mother, and anonymous messages from a classmate. Buxbaum intersperses Jessie's narration with digital conversations in the forms of text messages, emails, and instant messages (IMs), adding a modern epistolary element to the story. 

Plot Summary

Jessie receives her first anonymous email from a classmate calling himself “Somebody Nobody” a week into her junior year at Wood Valley High School. She is new to Los Angeles, having just moved from Chicago with her father, Bill, after he married a woman named Rachel from his online bereavement group. It has hardly been two years since they lost Jessie's mother to cancer, and Jessie is still entrenched enough in her grief that she feels relatively numb to all the upheaval in her life. Somebody Nobody (SN) initially offers to be her virtual guide at Wood Valley, giving Jessie practical advice, but their relationship quickly evolves into a deep friendship that Jessie comes to rely on as she adjusts to her new life.

Jessie also relies on her best friend from home, Scarlett, who frequently reassures her that things will get better. Jessie thinks the ultimate solution to her problems is to move back to Chicago, but a weekend trip there proves that to be untrue. She is forced to acknowledge that in her misery, she has neglected Scarlett's needs, and that everyone is collectively moving forward in life; Jessie realizes it is time she does too. As Jessie forms friendships with her classmates Dri, Agnes, Ethan, and even her new stepbrother, Theo, she finds that adjusting to her new life becomes incrementally more manageable, and the burden of her grief is a little lighter.

The more Jessie and SN share with each other, the more intimate and meaningful their relationship becomes. She is desperate to find out who he is and make their online connection “real,” and she convinces herself that SN is a senior at Wood Valley named Caleb. She is continually disappointed by his lack of interest when they see each other at school and crushed when he cancels their date. When she finally drunkenly asks SN about it, he realizes that he needs to reveal his identity to avoid losing the important relationship he has built with her.

The big reveal does not go as planned: the moment Jessie is supposed to meet SN in person, all three of the boys she has at one point suspected—Caleb, Liam, and Ethan—appear at once, creating an intense moment of confusion and tension. She had been hoping it was Ethan, because he is the only one to truly understand her grief, having lost his brother Xander last year, and over the course of two months, Jessie's crush has turned into serious romantic feelings for him. Jessie is overwhelmingly relieved and glad that she does not have to make the impossible choice between pursuing a relationship with SN or pursuing one with Ethan, because it turns out that they are the same.

The novel ends with a note from the author, who shares that she also lost her mother as a teenager and counts the time that has passed. While writing the novel, she wanted to “delve into those feelings of first loss and their immediate aftermath,” as well all of the “firsts” that come during young adulthood (328). Buxbaum explores the themes of overwhelming grief, cultivating a sense of self, and all the conflicting emotions that accompany the “firsts” of teenage intimacy, while propelling this relatable story forward with the suspense of a mystery.