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4.01 AVERAGE
4.01 AVERAGE
lmao the part where one of the characters' roommates are chiding her about being on her phone too much instead of paying attention to them felt like the author had a roommate who was on their phone a lot and she wanted to write out how she wished a confrontation with them about it would go
emotional
funny
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
It's definitely a YA novel, and the writing style reflects that. I'll admit, though, there's a lot of lines that punched me in the gut. It did make me cry before I finished it.
emotional
hopeful
relaxing
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This was the book that I needed! I loved getting to see the way that Sophie and Jo's friendship developed throughout the book, as well as their relationships with their other friends. I loved their serious conversations, and I REALLY loved the instagram posts and online feuding (I don't know why I love online chatting in books so much, but I really do). But most of all, I enjoyed the simple random moments where Sophie and Jo were just hanging out because they were friends, or going into the city to explore, or eating a meal together. That's what friendship is about, and I'm so happy that this book displayed that.
Pre-review:
Just popping back here to say that I'm still so excited for this!!! Also yesss, that cover. I love the colors and I can tell the friendship dynamic is going to be fantastic just from the cover!
--
OH my gosh, LOOK at this.
Yes pleaseeeeee
now I have to wait till 2024 :(
Pre-review:
Just popping back here to say that I'm still so excited for this!!! Also yesss, that cover. I love the colors and I can tell the friendship dynamic is going to be fantastic just from the cover!
--
OH my gosh, LOOK at this.
Yes pleaseeeeee
now I have to wait till 2024 :(
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Damn. I was ready to love this book because ace rep, but I didn't like the main characters. We'll, I liked them, but the way they handled themselves online is what i didn't like.
Goodreads deleted my review so here we go again
Rating: 3.25 stars (extra .25 stars for the author naming a plant Adora)
Look, I don't think a novel has ever better represented what it's like to be a student at a liberal arts college - from the inedible campus food, to swiping left on someone who said something fucked up in class (""to play devil's advocate...""), to overblown campus drama, to students perpetually carrying around tote bags...like if you know, you really know.
However, while I first found the depiction of the slightly insufferable but well-meaning but also lowkey sheltered liberal arts college student to be kind of tongue-in-cheek and self-aware, towards the end it became less ironic and more just unironically irritating. The thing is, liberal arts college students are fucking annoying (source: me a couple years ago), but they don't have to be!
I think my biggest issues with this book were the rather pedantic ""telling/explaining"" after certain scenes even vaguely pertaining to modern social justice issues (e.g., the repetitive tangents about gender and pronouns, TERFs, gender nonconfortmity, etc.) which while are all very important issues, would have been much more powerfully written had the author given the reader a lot more credit than assuming that we didn't know anything about these topics going into the book. I saw this a lot in the scenes where the two characters were in their WGST classes, and on that note, can we please, please not normalize that really weird assenting snapping and nodding thing we do in classes pleaaaaaaseeeee.
I still appreciated how well the turbulent parent-child relationship between Sophie and her parents was written, and I learned so much about what it means for someone to be a-spec beyond the label. It gave me a better picture on how I can be a better friend to my a-spec friends, and there were some really powerful scenes in this book, such as when Sophie reflects that it's a lot easier for her parents to accept her sister's lesbian identity compared to her aroace identitiy due to the visibility in her community. Again, I just wish the author had more faith in her readers that we're pretty aware of most modern-day gender and sexuality-related social issues without the characters having to spell it out for us, letter by letter, word for word.
Rating: 3.25 stars (extra .25 stars for the author naming a plant Adora)
Look, I don't think a novel has ever better represented what it's like to be a student at a liberal arts college - from the inedible campus food, to swiping left on someone who said something fucked up in class (""to play devil's advocate...""), to overblown campus drama, to students perpetually carrying around tote bags...like if you know, you really know.
However, while I first found the depiction of the slightly insufferable but well-meaning but also lowkey sheltered liberal arts college student to be kind of tongue-in-cheek and self-aware, towards the end it became less ironic and more just unironically irritating. The thing is, liberal arts college students are fucking annoying (source: me a couple years ago), but they don't have to be!
I think my biggest issues with this book were the rather pedantic ""telling/explaining"" after certain scenes even vaguely pertaining to modern social justice issues (e.g., the repetitive tangents about gender and pronouns, TERFs, gender nonconfortmity, etc.) which while are all very important issues, would have been much more powerfully written had the author given the reader a lot more credit than assuming that we didn't know anything about these topics going into the book. I saw this a lot in the scenes where the two characters were in their WGST classes, and on that note, can we please, please not normalize that really weird assenting snapping and nodding thing we do in classes pleaaaaaaseeeee.
I still appreciated how well the turbulent parent-child relationship between Sophie and her parents was written, and I learned so much about what it means for someone to be a-spec beyond the label. It gave me a better picture on how I can be a better friend to my a-spec friends, and there were some really powerful scenes in this book, such as when Sophie reflects that it's a lot easier for her parents to accept her sister's lesbian identity compared to her aroace identitiy due to the visibility in her community. Again, I just wish the author had more faith in her readers that we're pretty aware of most modern-day gender and sexuality-related social issues without the characters having to spell it out for us, letter by letter, word for word.
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Excellent Ace rep! Such a fun story!
When I seen this had aroace rep, I was so excited to read it. However, I couldn’t have been more wrong - the whole book of what I had read felt like it lacked personality.
The characters felt incredibly flat, like there was nothing of substance to them which made it really hard for me to care for them. I also find it hard to believe that two people’s experiences of being aroace are exactly the same, which also made it hard for me to distinguish between both of their POVs and remember who was who, as their voices were just not distinctive enough for me. They seemed to blend together. There are other reviews that go into other issues about this book and the queer characters, better than I can as 40% was enough for me to draw the line and DNF. The reason for both of the main characters being in a feud online felt so incredibly petty, to the point where I was shocked to find out they were 18 years old and not younger, as they both acted childish. Also, every single man who was introduced in this book was spoken about awfully, which I truly didn’t expect at all going into this book. I have a hard time believing that every single man these people have encountered have all been awful. To sum up, I just wasn’t interested in any of the characters, the plot or how this book ended.
Some parts of the writing came across so juvenile and made me cringe by how silly it often sounded. A example is “people are still debating whether asexual people are queer. I mean, hello, what do they think the A in LGBTQIA stands for?” which then not even a page later it says, “I’m fairly sure my parents don’t think hi people exist.” “What the fuck? What do they think the B in LGBTQ stands for?”. As the author would say, hello?? Why are you forgetting to include the same community in a acronym that you’ve just said not even a page earlier that people are debating asexual people being queer, which by you not including them in the acronym you’re adding to the exact thing you’re complaining about? Make it make sense. It’s truly not hard to use the acronym LGBTQIA+ to ensure that every single queer community is represented. There’s probably other instances that I’m sure other reviews would have pointed out but this is the main one that stuck with me and had me debating DNFing.
It is such a shame as it truly did have potential and would have been lovely to have some much needed aroace rep, if it truly reflected that community.
The characters felt incredibly flat, like there was nothing of substance to them which made it really hard for me to care for them. I also find it hard to believe that two people’s experiences of being aroace are exactly the same, which also made it hard for me to distinguish between both of their POVs and remember who was who, as their voices were just not distinctive enough for me. They seemed to blend together. There are other reviews that go into other issues about this book and the queer characters, better than I can as 40% was enough for me to draw the line and DNF. The reason for both of the main characters being in a feud online felt so incredibly petty, to the point where I was shocked to find out they were 18 years old and not younger, as they both acted childish. Also, every single man who was introduced in this book was spoken about awfully, which I truly didn’t expect at all going into this book. I have a hard time believing that every single man these people have encountered have all been awful. To sum up, I just wasn’t interested in any of the characters, the plot or how this book ended.
Some parts of the writing came across so juvenile and made me cringe by how silly it often sounded. A example is “people are still debating whether asexual people are queer. I mean, hello, what do they think the A in LGBTQIA stands for?” which then not even a page later it says, “I’m fairly sure my parents don’t think hi people exist.” “What the fuck? What do they think the B in LGBTQ stands for?”. As the author would say, hello?? Why are you forgetting to include the same community in a acronym that you’ve just said not even a page earlier that people are debating asexual people being queer, which by you not including them in the acronym you’re adding to the exact thing you’re complaining about? Make it make sense. It’s truly not hard to use the acronym LGBTQIA+ to ensure that every single queer community is represented. There’s probably other instances that I’m sure other reviews would have pointed out but this is the main one that stuck with me and had me debating DNFing.
It is such a shame as it truly did have potential and would have been lovely to have some much needed aroace rep, if it truly reflected that community.
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Not rating because I think I'm not the ideal audience--this seems like an indulgent book for an a-spec person, especially a young adult in high school or college, which personally is not me. The story is pretty plodding, just people going along with their day, occasionally referencing media they like or little anecdotes or getting on a soapbox about particular issues in regards to asexuality, romance, and/or immigrant parents.
I literally slapped my knee in delight when the instagram reveals happened--I thought that drama was fun (and the running in the rain to meet the other was a great subversion/play on a big romance trope), but overall the book doesn't have a big drive or larger structure. Once things were sorted out and the two main characters were friends again, I spent most chapters afterwards being like "this HAS to be the last chapter, right???"... In other words, lots of fluff all around. May be good if you want to see characters just going through their day-t0-day, but personally I was bored, and thought the story could have been significantly shorter.
Might be good to read if you miss Wellesley college specifically--it is seeped in that. It is definitely YA in tone and level of complexity, but I found as someone out of the YA demographic I didn't get much out of it.
I literally slapped my knee in delight when the instagram reveals happened--I thought that drama was fun (and the running in the rain to meet the other was a great subversion/play on a big romance trope), but overall the book doesn't have a big drive or larger structure. Once things were sorted out and the two main characters were friends again, I spent most chapters afterwards being like "this HAS to be the last chapter, right???"... In other words, lots of fluff all around. May be good if you want to see characters just going through their day-t0-day, but personally I was bored, and thought the story could have been significantly shorter.
Might be good to read if you miss Wellesley college specifically--it is seeped in that. It is definitely YA in tone and level of complexity, but I found as someone out of the YA demographic I didn't get much out of it.
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes