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sammymilfort's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
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
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Alcohol, Body shaming, Cursing, Sexual content, Vomit, Sexual harassment, and Sexual assault
Minor: Toxic relationship, Drug use, and Rape
pandemonicbaby's review against another edition
emotional
funny
lighthearted
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
4.5
Super fun read!! Didn't think I'd enjoy it as much as I did. The way this book discussed sex was so lighthearted and natural, and I absolutely loved being inside the MC's head. She's silly and crazy and I like to follow her thought process, which I sometimes related to lmfaoo
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault and Sexual content
Moderate: Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Vomit, Toxic relationship, and Misogyny
Minor: Rape, Biphobia, Drug use, Bullying, and Medical content
emily_mh's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Two standout things about this book is its breaking-the-fourth-wall narration, which is so refreshing and captivating, and its fun college vibes, which definitely made me nostalgic for my first year at uni. But unfortunately there were three major issues that I couldn't get past and which inevitably dropped my rating to 3.5 stars.
The first is the romance. I just couldn't get behind it, because an RA/fresher romance is just weird to me. There's a power dynamic there that I don't like, and having been in halls myself it's kind of gross to think of someone who is supposed to be your mentor/older sibling figure (and is also being paid to do the job) being in a relationship with a resident.
My second issue was with Elliot herself. I started off absolutely loving her but then she started really annoying me and some of her words and phrases were cringey to me, like tender chicken (it made me feel sick).
My third issue was that for a book that calls itself sex-positive, there were some decidedly not sex-positive things in there. For example, it doesn't dismantle the social concept of virginity when there is opportunity to do so, it doesn't use anatomical names for genitals, it calls people who don't have sex boring, and it uses the term "prostitution."
I really wish I had gotten on with this book more! Its new adult + sapphic which is RIGHT up my alley, but sadly we weren't a match.
The first is the romance. I just couldn't get behind it, because an RA/fresher romance is just weird to me. There's a power dynamic there that I don't like, and having been in halls myself it's kind of gross to think of someone who is supposed to be your mentor/older sibling figure (and is also being paid to do the job) being in a relationship with a resident.
My second issue was with Elliot herself. I started off absolutely loving her but then she started really annoying me and some of her words and phrases were cringey to me, like tender chicken (it made me feel sick).
My third issue was that for a book that calls itself sex-positive, there were some decidedly not sex-positive things in there. For example, it doesn't dismantle the social concept of virginity when there is opportunity to do so, it doesn't use anatomical names for genitals, it calls people who don't have sex boring, and it uses the term "prostitution."
I really wish I had gotten on with this book more! Its new adult + sapphic which is RIGHT up my alley, but sadly we weren't a match.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault
Moderate: Cursing, Sexual content, Alcohol, and Infidelity
Minor: Drug abuse, Body shaming, Cancer, Bullying, Fire/Fire injury, Misogyny, Transphobia, Violence, Vomit, Excrement, Fatphobia, Ableism, Drug use, War, Death, Biphobia, Homophobia, Rape, and Sexism
Loss of a loved one, hazing, divorce, abandonment, menstruationbiblio_jordyn's review against another edition
funny
lighthearted
reflective
fast-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
3.75
“I love that thing friends do when they get mad on your behalf at whatever unimportant thing you’re complaining about even though they secretly think you’re just overreacting.”
Reading this book was like staying up late in your double twin bed with girls that YOU JUST MET at freshman week orientation for college, swapping life stories and from that day forward you become best friends.
What could have been better?
Some of the pacing threw me off a bit and sometimes I wish there was more depth in certain situations.
What I enjoyed?
Elliott, like many of us I’m sure, was not prepared for what leaving home meant, and I think we can all relate to that and her stumbles along the way.
There were times I wanted to shake the main character Elliott and all her friends and there were times I wanted to hug them. And then there were times I cringed because I could…again, sadly, so relate to the missteps 😂
While, it wasn’t some lyrical piece of writing, I still found it enjoyable. It was messy, like so many of our freshman years of college. It was funny. And there was a tinge of romance. But, mostly, it was about a girl trying to stay true to herself, grow, and find her place in this crazy freshmen year experience.
This book has sex positivity and LGBTQIA+ rep.
Read this if you’re looking for a funny and easy read that will have you nostalgic over being a college freshman.
Reading this book was like staying up late in your double twin bed with girls that YOU JUST MET at freshman week orientation for college, swapping life stories and from that day forward you become best friends.
What could have been better?
Some of the pacing threw me off a bit and sometimes I wish there was more depth in certain situations.
What I enjoyed?
Elliott, like many of us I’m sure, was not prepared for what leaving home meant, and I think we can all relate to that and her stumbles along the way.
There were times I wanted to shake the main character Elliott and all her friends and there were times I wanted to hug them. And then there were times I cringed because I could…again, sadly, so relate to the missteps 😂
While, it wasn’t some lyrical piece of writing, I still found it enjoyable. It was messy, like so many of our freshman years of college. It was funny. And there was a tinge of romance. But, mostly, it was about a girl trying to stay true to herself, grow, and find her place in this crazy freshmen year experience.
This book has sex positivity and LGBTQIA+ rep.
Read this if you’re looking for a funny and easy read that will have you nostalgic over being a college freshman.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape
beforeviolets's review against another edition
dark
funny
hopeful
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
This is one of those cases when I'm rating a book in the 3-star range because I had a decent amount of negative thoughts but they mostly felt like personal opinions and not generalized critiques on the story.
I will start off by saying that I am a tough sell on YA contemporaries so I know I'm not the target audience for this one.
Overall, I loved the messy college vibe. The way Elliot (our MC) was forced into a reckoning of self-reflection and required an immense change of perspective about what being a responsible and independent human being looks like was an incredibly accurate depiction of a by-product of going off on our own that most of us face. Though the specifics of the drama with her friends was all-too-predictable, I did appreciate the way it was used as a tool for Elliot to learn what good friendship and bad friendship looks like and how to know when it's something worth fighting for versus when its not. This is something I am still learning about to this day, and I thought this was well portrayed in the book throughout.
I also loved the way that Margot Wood took risks with her writing style. I thought the "choose your own adventure" and screenplay inserts and such were incredibly creative and helped keep the pace and the excitement of the story up even through the more conceptually monotonous events. It was incredibly fun and I honestly feel like more books for younger audiences should start implementing these tactics.
This book is quirky, cheesy, and sex positive in a way that is refreshing for YA. However, I fear that it falls into the issue I find with a lot of media aimed towards younger audiences, which essentially creates a stigma and judgment around people who are late bloomers and who don't have any romantic or sexual experiences in high school and college. I found this mostly during the beginning of the book, when Elliot immediately shamed her roommate for never having had a boyfriend and essentially telling her that she needs to get laid ASAP. There just didn't seem to be a lot of nuance in approaching the experience levels of different characters. This wasn't a huge issue, just one that I wish was offered a bit more care.
I think my biggest issue with the book was the narrative tone. The author's attempt to be relatable was far too visible, which, in my opinion, created distance between the reader and the character. It ended up just coming across as so performative that I didn't feel able to really drop into Elliot's feelings or her story as deeply as I wanted to. This might have partially come from the choice to have Elliot cognizantly narrate the story instead of just allowing us to live through her thoughts and actions, as well as the consequence of having an unreliable narrator that struggles with emotional intimacy and likes to laugh her way through situations and therefore might've been keeping even the readers at arm's length. But especially since she was our guide through this world and this story, it was just frustrating to feel as though I wasn't able to fully access her feelings and experiences.
This story also dealt with some DEEP topics and this lack of emotional intimacy between the narrator and the reader felt like it kept this book from being able to explore those topics in full. I would have loved to see some more time spent in those moments to allow both the characters and the audience to cope with the difficulties they were facing. Especially as a YA book, it's important to show impressionable audiences the reality of those situations and how they can affect your world. It felt so focused on the larger plot that I felt that those moments were really missed.
I would recommend this book to anyone who's starting off in college and is afraid of their own mistakes. I think this would be so comforting to so many people during a time when everyone feels pretty alone and confusing and caught up in a whirlwind of new experiences.
I will start off by saying that I am a tough sell on YA contemporaries so I know I'm not the target audience for this one.
Overall, I loved the messy college vibe. The way Elliot (our MC) was forced into a reckoning of self-reflection and required an immense change of perspective about what being a responsible and independent human being looks like was an incredibly accurate depiction of a by-product of going off on our own that most of us face. Though the specifics of the drama with her friends was all-too-predictable, I did appreciate the way it was used as a tool for Elliot to learn what good friendship and bad friendship looks like and how to know when it's something worth fighting for versus when its not. This is something I am still learning about to this day, and I thought this was well portrayed in the book throughout.
I also loved the way that Margot Wood took risks with her writing style. I thought the "choose your own adventure" and screenplay inserts and such were incredibly creative and helped keep the pace and the excitement of the story up even through the more conceptually monotonous events. It was incredibly fun and I honestly feel like more books for younger audiences should start implementing these tactics.
This book is quirky, cheesy, and sex positive in a way that is refreshing for YA. However, I fear that it falls into the issue I find with a lot of media aimed towards younger audiences, which essentially creates a stigma and judgment around people who are late bloomers and who don't have any romantic or sexual experiences in high school and college. I found this mostly during the beginning of the book, when Elliot immediately shamed her roommate for never having had a boyfriend and essentially telling her that she needs to get laid ASAP. There just didn't seem to be a lot of nuance in approaching the experience levels of different characters. This wasn't a huge issue, just one that I wish was offered a bit more care.
I think my biggest issue with the book was the narrative tone. The author's attempt to be relatable was far too visible, which, in my opinion, created distance between the reader and the character. It ended up just coming across as so performative that I didn't feel able to really drop into Elliot's feelings or her story as deeply as I wanted to. This might have partially come from the choice to have Elliot cognizantly narrate the story instead of just allowing us to live through her thoughts and actions, as well as the consequence of having an unreliable narrator that struggles with emotional intimacy and likes to laugh her way through situations and therefore might've been keeping even the readers at arm's length. But especially since she was our guide through this world and this story, it was just frustrating to feel as though I wasn't able to fully access her feelings and experiences.
This story also dealt with some DEEP topics and this lack of emotional intimacy between the narrator and the reader felt like it kept this book from being able to explore those topics in full. I would have loved to see some more time spent in those moments to allow both the characters and the audience to cope with the difficulties they were facing. Especially as a YA book, it's important to show impressionable audiences the reality of those situations and how they can affect your world. It felt so focused on the larger plot that I felt that those moments were really missed.
I would recommend this book to anyone who's starting off in college and is afraid of their own mistakes. I think this would be so comforting to so many people during a time when everyone feels pretty alone and confusing and caught up in a whirlwind of new experiences.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault, Alcohol, and Sexual content
Moderate: Drug use
Minor: Fatphobia and Rape
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