Reviews with content warning for Racism - Not Your Sidekick

Reviews tagging 'Racism'

Not Your Sidekick by C.B. Lee

17 reviews

missytwrites's review against another edition

adventurous funny lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

More of a 3.5, not closer to a 4 or a 3, very much a solid 3.5 star book. Happy that I finally got to this. But man... I'm like... ugh.

I did have a great time reading this, and so much representation is really nice. However, it feels weird that it's ~*~the future~*~ and people are still -phobic? Or like... there's really weird discussions about pronouns. Like, not saying that everyone has to be queer and up with the lingo, but as another reviewer stated, it felt rather modern in such a futuristic setting.

Like I appreciate the parents being chill with a bisexual daughter who has a girlfriend and the girlfriend's mum is chill with her gay daughter. And that Jess' parents are (possibly) chill with their son being (possibly) gay or bi. But yeah it just feels so weird to have folks be -phobic about something that doesn't feel like a big deal. I mean tbh, it's not a big deal here in 2023 but apparently to some it is.

The worldbuilding IDEAS are great, but they feel so like, weird? I love the whole setting, the ideas in this is super neat, but they're not super fleshed out tbh. But I'm glad that C.B. Lee didn't just focus on worldbuilding America which often happens in these books. Immigrants is a huge component of Jess' story, so talking about other countries was sweet (Australia representation!!! Fallout could never).

The plot twists were pretty predictable. Like,

it was pretty obvious that M was Abby

and I don't understand how Jess can be so oblivious to it. I get that sometimes you can not realise things but the fact that Jess is like oblivious to certain things is just... wild. I will admit,

Bells being Chameleon sort of got me, only that Bells was the Chameleon character

but I knew something was up with him and knew he

had to have powers of sort

.

The "villain" felt rather one dimensional too tbh. I know sometimes it's great to have a basic villain, but like... "rahh I'm a bad guy, so I must hate the queers and anyone who isn't white and blahh! I'm secretly a bad guy this WHOLE TIME!". That and the ending felt so rushed and the last ten pages felt like an afterthought.

Also why didn't Jess' parents bring up what Claudia did? I don't know if Jess ever explained to them what Claudia is like but yeah.

I enjoyed the romance, a lot, and the characters are great, very cheesy but that's what life is like as a 16 y/o.

Overall, it was a good book to read, but yeah... I just wish it could've been better in some spots. Also noticed some, not just spelling mistakes but there was one section of the book where there was an extra full stop (period). So minute but still weird.

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meecespieces's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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piphux's review against another edition

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2.75

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khakipantsofsex's review against another edition

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adventurous funny lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

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caterwaul's review against another edition

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adventurous dark lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

Is the plot twist a bit predictable and cliche? Sure. Did I see some identify reveals a mile away? Also yes. However, I'd be lying if I said I didn't eat up books like this as a kid, and I'd also be lying if I said I didn't greatly enjoy this one. Honestly, it's got everything. Post-apocalyptic, rebuilt society that has just a few too many suspicious rules. A main character with the world's biggest crush. Identity porn shenanigans. Superpowers. Conspiracies. Literally read it in a day and enjoyed every minute of it. Wonderful light read.

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skylarkindareads's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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melaniereadsbooks's review against another edition

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adventurous fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

This was a truly adorable and light superhero book that I definitely recommend! Jess is a wonderful main character and I love the discoveries she makes about herself throughout the book. I'm excited to see where things go for the rest of the series. I loved Jess and Abby's relationship! They are so adorable. This is a very fun book!

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foreverinastory's review against another edition

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adventurous funny lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This was a lot of fun even though some stuff was a little predictable.

Rep: Vietnamese-Chinese bisexual female MC, sapphic female love interest, Black trans male side character, Latinx side character.

CWs: Forced imprisonment/confinement, drugging of characters against their will, kidnapping, racism, violence, discussions of coming out, physical assault that leads to injury/scarring.

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bluejayreads's review against another edition

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adventurous medium-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

I didn't have a lot of expectations going into this book. I needed a book for work, this one was immediately available at the library. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it.

On the whole, this book was really just fun. There is some dark stuff that happens, high schoolers nearly dying, and some heavy themes, but despite all of that the prevailing mood reading this story is fun. There's superhero stuff and a big conspiracy, sure, but there's also friendship and crushes and romances and high school and in a way it portrays how complicated life is. Jess may have parents and an older sister who are literally superheroes, but she still has to deal with school and internships and a crush on a girl who probably isn't even into girls.

I hope the world gets explored further in the rest of the series, because it was fascinating. It's set in the future, where people watch TV on holoscreens and cars are so self-driving they don't have steering wheels at all and roombas have AI and personalities. And, of course, superheroes exist and are big stars. At first there are only hints that all may not be as cool as it seems, but as Jess and friends start to uncover the big conspiracy, it begins to look like this is a dystopian world where the people in charge are so thorough that nobody even realizes their world is dystopian. I expect and hope there will be more on that in book two.

On one hand, I do have a tendency to guess plot surprises way ahead of time. On the other hand, I feel like all the superhero-related surprises were telegraphed from a mile away. Everything that was superpower- or secret identity-related and trying to be a plot twist I called almost immediately. However, I didn't guess anything related to the big conspiracy. And even though I guessed all the superhero-related twists, I didn't mind too much because I was just having fun with the story.

This was a surprisingly enjoyable book. Not perfect and leaning towards the "mindless entertainment" end of the scale, but I enjoyed it a lot and it was an absolutely fun read. And the biggest plot thread in the book didn't get wrapped up hardly at all, so I totally intend to read the next book.

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moon_bee's review against another edition

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adventurous funny hopeful lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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