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3.09 AVERAGE
3.09 AVERAGE
I was expecting this to be somewhat like that of the movie THIS MEANS WAR, oh yeah, that 2012 (?) romantic action film with Tom Hardy and Chris Pine, vying for Reese Witherspoon's affection, but I was slightly disappointed that aside from the love interest angle where they compete to win the girl , it was nowhere like that. It was fun and cute but I was hoping for more.
I think the most frustrating thing about this book was that it felt like I could see the seams where the charming metafiction and the interesting YA spy thriller were grafted together. It asked questions that could be answered with metafiction (why teens? because YA books!) but that couldn't be satisfactorily answered within the worldbuilding. Likewise, some of the basic worldbuilding was sacrificed for the needs of the metafiction. It never really found a balance that made either element fully satisfying.
I also keep going back to the details that they did nothing with. Caden specifically mentions which books he reads, but his fondness for science fiction has no bearing on the story even when he is in what is essentially a science fiction story. Heck, he mentions a fondness for Ready Player One but absolutely nothing about how much RPO relies on connecting to a specific type of fandom experience connects to Caden's experience of media.
I love what this book had to say about the way that sexuality often forces people into boxes. I loved the discussion Caden and Juliet had about the reasons someone might represent their sexuality in a certain way. I loved the moment where Caden asserted that he is a protagonist. I loved what it wanted to say about heteronormativity but didn't because it was the climax of the book and there were other things to do.
This book had a lot of good things to say, but the way it said them just did not land for me.
I also keep going back to the details that they did nothing with. Caden specifically mentions which books he reads, but his fondness for science fiction has no bearing on the story even when he is in what is essentially a science fiction story. Heck, he mentions a fondness for Ready Player One but absolutely nothing about how much RPO relies on connecting to a specific type of fandom experience connects to Caden's experience of media.
I love what this book had to say about the way that sexuality often forces people into boxes. I loved the discussion Caden and Juliet had about the reasons someone might represent their sexuality in a certain way. I loved the moment where Caden asserted that he is a protagonist. I loved what it wanted to say about heteronormativity but didn't because it was the climax of the book and there were other things to do.
This book had a lot of good things to say, but the way it said them just did not land for me.
Struggling on rating this between 1 or 2 stars. This book had a great concept that was completely wasted on bad writing, the most wooden dialogue I've ever read, no characterization, and a romance that I didn't buy for not even one paragraph. God, this book sucked.
I liked the premise of this story originally. However it became too high school for me to really enjoy it somewhere in the middle.
Do you like the premise of this book but see too many bad reviews? Do you really want to read this but are you afraid of disliking it? Well, YOU'RE IN LUCK. I HAVE ADVICE FOR YOU.
Don't take it seriously.
Forreal. It's a parody. It's so obviously a parody when you read it. All the bad reviews talk about how it hits every bad YA dystopian trope and how it has horrible writing at some points. That's the point, my friends.
This is practically every generic YA, dystopian, love triangle book with a twist: the two men end up falling more for each other instead of the girl they're trying to win.
This was done really well (considering how "bad" it is). The writing style is very easy to read, there's enough plot that you're not too bored, and the characters are fun and hilarious. The amount of times it breaks the fourth wall sort of stresses me out (lmao), but as I have said before, that's the point.
Don't take it seriously.
Forreal. It's a parody. It's so obviously a parody when you read it. All the bad reviews talk about how it hits every bad YA dystopian trope and how it has horrible writing at some points. That's the point, my friends.
This is practically every generic YA, dystopian, love triangle book with a twist: the two men end up falling more for each other instead of the girl they're trying to win.
This was done really well (considering how "bad" it is). The writing style is very easy to read, there's enough plot that you're not too bored, and the characters are fun and hilarious. The amount of times it breaks the fourth wall sort of stresses me out (lmao), but as I have said before, that's the point.
adventurous
emotional
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
unadulterated campy goodness. this book doesn't take itself seriously AT ALL, and if you read it with that in mind it'll work for you more.