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vaguely_pink's review against another edition
- 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
4.75
Graphic: Homophobia, Hate crime, Racism, Lesbophobia, Cancer, Death of parent, Grief, Terminal illness, and Medical content
Moderate: Death, Biphobia, Infidelity, and Religious bigotry
Minor: Drug use, Bullying, Cursing, Gun violence, Fatphobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Vomit, Alcohol, Child abuse, Body shaming, Classism, Pandemic/Epidemic, Abandonment, Sexism, Murder, Sexual content, and Slavery
livreittoashley's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Graphic: Grief
Moderate: Cancer, Terminal illness, Toxic friendship, Homophobia, Outing, Police brutality, Racism, Death, Emotional abuse, and Murder
Minor: Fatphobia
spookily's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
Graphic: Grief, Terminal illness, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Outing, Cancer, Death, Police brutality, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, and Racism
Moderate: Child abuse, Drug use, Alcohol, Murder, and Vomit
Minor: Bullying, Gun violence, Abandonment, Alcoholism, Biphobia, Car accident, Classism, Cursing, Pandemic/Epidemic, Slavery, Medical content, Sexual harassment, and Fatphobia
lasafica_reads's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Terminal illness, Grief, Homophobia, Police brutality, Violence, Death of parent, and Racism
Moderate: Alcoholism, Death, Outing, Murder, and Religious bigotry
Minor: Sexual assault and Fatphobia
solenophage's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
There were a few aspects that I thought could have been done better. I was uncomfortable with how casual and dismissive Avery was towards Simone's fear of being outed to her homophobic mother in what seems to be a conservative town. I could accept this as just part of her character - not really understanding the real danger this could have for Simone - but it felt like the narrative supported this attitude or at least didn't contradict it. I didn't feel like Simone's feelings and Avery's dismissiveness weren't fully addressed and by the end Avery's 'everything will be fine, don't worry' attitude was proven correct. Simone's mother did come around and Avery's and Simone's relationship picked right back up easily.
I was kind of irritated by how useless and uninvolved Avery's dad was for a lot of the book. I get that the focus wasn't on him, but if your family's have screaming matches and breaking down crying, shouldn't you be doing something? He got better towards the end, but it was still annoying.
Those were pretty minor problems for me though, what really took this down to only 3 stars was the ending. **Spoilers ahead** Avery finds out her grandmother most likely murdered one of her best friend's, Jade's, parents in the last 20 pages and that's that, end of the book. She has no feelings or thoughts on that, we don't see it affect their friendship, she doesn't even think about breaching that subject with Jade. It's made extra off putting by the fact that Avery finding out that Jade's grandfather and great-grandfather murdered her grandfather was rightfully treated as a big deal that really messed with her. She had a big fight with Jade and had to work through a lot of anger and complex feelings before she could get to thinking about whether they could still be friends after finding out something like that. Then she discovers this and has no empathy towards Jade, doesn't want to help her find closure or decide for herself how she feels about hanging around the family of the woman who killed her mother. Avery can have that, but she'll deny it to Jade. It wasn't even a satisfying conclusion to the 'mystery' of Jade's mother's death, because that never felt like a major part of the story, just a part of Jade's backstory. It felt like a weird and unnecessary note to end an otherwise good book on.
Graphic: Racism, Cancer, and Grief
Moderate: Cancer, Death, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Outing, Vomit, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, and Murder
Minor: Fatphobia