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saintyeehaw's review
challenging
emotional
hopeful
reflective
tense
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
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcohol, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Terminal illness, Child abuse, Classism, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Chronic illness, and Fire/Fire injury
thaliareads's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
medium-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
4.5
This book was an absolute delight! I really appreciated the growth Nina went through as she discovered who she could be outside of her family's expectations. I think that Morty was indeed exactly what she needed to help her grow and discover herself more fully and to find her own confidence and footing. While I do agree with some of the reviews saying that they probably wouldn't have been together if not for the unusual circumstances, I personally enjoy this sort of "fated mates" situation and I think they still grew the relationship further in a healthy way, they just sort of were given a reason to jump past their previous reservations and get to know each other better.
I do think the plot secondary to the romance was a little smaller than the previous books in the series, but again, I felt like the flow was so nice that I didn't mind and I powered through this book so fast.
What was a problem was the nonbinary representation. Other than Morty being labeled as nonbinary and a brief discussion on pronouns it seemed that they were described as a cis male with he/him pronouns for the rest of the book. The other characters treated Morty as a guy, and other than the not traditionally masculine style of dressing that Morty used, you wouldn't know or could easily forget they were nonbinary.
I do think the plot secondary to the romance was a little smaller than the previous books in the series, but again, I felt like the flow was so nice that I didn't mind and I powered through this book so fast.
What was a problem was the nonbinary representation. Other than Morty being labeled as nonbinary and a brief discussion on pronouns it seemed that they were described as a cis male with he/him pronouns for the rest of the book. The other characters treated Morty as a guy, and other than the not traditionally masculine style of dressing that Morty used, you wouldn't know or could easily forget they were nonbinary.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Emotional abuse, and Child abuse
Moderate: Cursing and Transphobia
Minor: Terminal illness
Nina grew up in a very emotionally abusive household, and a good part of the book deals with her breaking free of how she was shaped by these experiences. There is a scene heavy in cursing, but not a lot in the rest of the book. The sexual content was fairly thoroughly detailed. Morty's dad struggles with a degenerative disease - not necearily immediatly terminal, just begining to more severly affect how he can live. In this case, the transphobia is tricky because some characters obviously only refer to Morty as a cis male, and while this could have been a learning opportunity, they were never corrected and Morty's identity really fell on the back burner and got ignored. None of the characters who knew Morty well and heard this misgendering never corrected the speaker or felt outraged for that reason on their behalf.
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