Sometimes I think my main issue with contemporary novels is just how cliched everything is. Oh, look, those people have no depth since they're popular and jocks. And, oh, those people must be nerds which means they're brainy and awkward, but probably will have some depth. 
 Why can't both groups have deep characters? What is it with contemporary today that has the world pegged into good-looking, popular, interested in sports = fluffy and stupid 
 and interested in books, games, kind of brainy = nerdy, but probably deep. 
 This isn't true of life, so why does it dominate in fiction? I've met plenty of jerk-ish nerds and geeks, and met kind, deep jocks. We need to break away from the Mean Girls picture of the social hierachy. Sure, that can be what it looks like, but that image has been overdone. Let's branch out, please. 
 -------------- 
 Okay, so that rant wasn't really specifically about The Beginning of Everything though it does explain one big issue I had with this book. It's not just that I find that image to be a faulty idea of reality, but it's also that I'm just plain bored by it. It gets predictable. The characters become flat and you can just switch them out with the other prom queen, nerdy guy, nerdy gay guy, jock that were in such-and-such a book. They're just not new anymore. 
 Is it too harsh to judge The Beginning of Everything because it takes the stereotypical, fictional high school? Aren't I missing the main point of the entire novel? Maybe I am. 
 Don't get me wrong, I didn't hate this. I laughed at some parts, winced along with Ezra at others, and adored Toby all the time.The writing was good. A lot of the dialogue made me grin. And, yes, the final point, I liked. The ending was good. The idea of giving one person too much credit when you really are the cause for the changes inside of you, when others helped, when circumstances helped... I liked all that. 
 But that was only a tiny drop in the book and I was way more irritated by the stereotypes and the one dimensional characters. 
 2.5 stars, rounded up to three because of the bow-tie wearing Toby. Bonus points for quoting the Doctor.