Reviews with content warning for Sexual content - Idlewild

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Idlewild by James Frankie Thomas

9 reviews

hannahpings's review

dark emotional funny reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

idlewild makes for an exceptional debut, but for me there's an even higher ceiling that it could––but frustratingly, doesn't quite––hit. that it could is a marvel enough on its own, though

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everesto's review

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emotional funny reflective slow-paced

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? Yes

4.25

This book was hard to put down, it was written in a way that made me need to know what happened to the characters. Here are some miscellaneous thoughts I have:
- I love the way the author utilized the different perspectives of Fay, Nell, the F&N unit, and the invert society. I really enjoyed how the chapters that were the F&N unit and the invert society were in first person and used the 'we' pronoun whereas the Fay and Nell chapters were in third person and were reflective on the events in high school.
- knowing how close Fay and Nell were in highschool and that they did not talk at all after highschool really made me curious about what could have happened to separate them.
- The faunfic was weird (don't write fanfic about real people, ESPECIALLY don't write smut. It's just weird)

and though it ended up being and important plot point

it still made me feel weird.
-

the ending was pretty unsatisfying to me. I don't know what could have been different but I don't think the story was concluded really. I think that makes sense given the way their relationship ended but still.

I think Fay's plot point of being a gay trans man was NOT resolved in the slightest, though I think that Fay wouldn't end up resolving it at all and would stay living as a woman. Despite this, I wish that something went different with it due to the miscommunication about gay stuff between Fay and Nell being a big point of tension in their friendship (at least for Nell).

-I want to know more about Theo.

Overall I really enjoyed the book and thought that the characters and their relationships were written really well!

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kitta's review

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emotional reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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mmccombs's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny reflective medium-paced

5.0

Completely wowed by this book! I didn’t really know what this was about going into it, and I am so impressed by the bold character work and stunning writing! A complex portrait of high schoolers and burgeoning queerness and obsession and post 9/11 anxiety, I don’t think I’ve read a queer coming of age novel quite so lived in, so mushy and confused and goofy.

I loved the approach of making Fay and Nell’s friendship so fully meshed as to take on a 2nd person POV. I also loved the flashback, past-tense format of this book. Often, I find books using a look-back approach or time jumps do so in order to hide plot or character issues, but Thomas was leveraging this tense to fully investigate faulty memories and how characters can experience the same situation so differently. (Also the act of looking back at your high school self thinking about what would have been if you had made different friends or different choices, especially gay ones, feels SO relatable in an ouch kind of way)

I had a great time listening to this; the mood, the vibe, the plot that quickly spiraled out of control, and these endearing (and totally annoying! lol) characters came together to form an excellent whole.

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jojothefool's review against another edition

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emotional funny inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

This book was an absolute JOY to read. It takes a minute to get used to the writing style and the format, but I ended up LOVING it. The main duo is so intertwined, entire chapters are told from their joint perspective known as “we the F&N Unit.” It’s a fun twist, very unique and personal to the story and adds a lot to the relationships and story-telling.

The ending made me saaaaad, I wanted them to reunite so badly, for Fay to come out and hopefully they’d be friends again, but I understand the reality. There’s also that feeling all the time of accidentally seeing your lesbian teenage intensely homoerotic situationship and freaking out and wondering what if and also gay has a history so maybe they will reunite one day and it kinda left it open and slightly hopeful so I Understand the ending ultimately and kinda love it for those reasons too

god tier absolutely

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jkross1986's review

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adventurous funny fast-paced

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

4.0

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duzzle's review

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emotional funny sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

Thomas's writing was so disgustingly relatable. It shocked me how well he was able to articulate and dredge up feelings I hadn't thought about since my own teenage-queer-friend-obsession fraught with exploratory RPs, insomnia-inducing anxiety, and being a little SHIT. Idlewild does a wonderful job exploring the many different ways teens can be fucking awful, and I'm so here for it. Don't come expecting a fuzzy-feel-good story.

The only gripe I'd have is with a certain scarecrow-esque figure in the book who isn't really given much humanity (but at the same time, we all know a person like them, so I feel like the author knew what he was doing there).

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breanneporter's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny reflective 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

5.0

I loved this. Idlewild follows two former students of the titular Quaker school in NYC as they became best friends (on 9/11) and explored their queerness over the last year and half of their high school careers. I absolutely adored the sweet anxious young lesbian Nell and was utterly captivated by Fay’s self-exploration. I rushed to finish (staying up way too late to do so) because I couldn’t put it down. The only slight disappointment was the ending:

Fay’s future felt so heartbreakingly bleak. I wanted more for Fay.

But overall it was a gorgeous exploration of queer and trans coming of age in the early aughts and I would highly recommend!!

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raisinreads's review against another edition

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dark reflective medium-paced

Loveable characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

Bonkers

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