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katt's review
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
This is a young adult (YA) novel set in a high school as the primary protagonist, Allison, is suddenly burdened with being the producer for the school play. The novel follows the course of the play through the school year. Allison is a lesbian who is out to a select few people at the start of the play.
I felt like Allison, a very scholastically driven teenager, had a lot of internalized homophobia that she was trying to address but I actually didn’t feel like it ever was addressed. At one point, when discussing how awesome her parents are, Allison says they told her they’ll love her no matter what. In my opinion, this is not true acceptance because they are saying that there is something that makes them hesitate, there is a big negative “what”, but they love her despite this terrible “what”. This is just one small example. I also think there was oversimplification in the coming out of another character. Additionally, the pressure throughout the book being placed on everyone to come 100% out to everyone feels borderline unsafe. There are situations where someone can’t come out, especially in high school, due to unsafe home situations.
Additionally, I felt the characters fell a little bit flat. I felt like Allison came off as a very self absorbed person who wasn’t all that kind to her friends. Maybe it was just the overplayed drama of the whole thing.
Thanks so much to the publisher and netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Homophobia
Minor: Misogyny
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