Scan barcode
giulsfloris's review
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
! Spoilers ahead !
This story follows the friends-to-lovers relationship between the protagonist, Henry Hamlet, andhis best friend Lennon Cane.
First of all I’d like to say that this book was cute and I enjoyed the typical ups and downs of a “first-love in high-school” novel.
I liked the characters, even though I didn’t find their personalities to be that deep or fully shaped.
Being Italian, I sadly didn’t understand many of the references, but I did catch the one about McGonagall and I honestly find it hard to let this go. A queer story with references to the work of someone who openly disrespects the community? I mean… wasn’t there any other old white and stern-looking lady to compare that person to?
Furthermore, I’d like to understand why an incestuous relationship between cousins was mentioned more than once? I mean… was that necessary?
Overall, the story wasn’t bad. The romance was full of clichés and the characters felt incredibly bland at times, but the book per se was a nice reading altogether.
I found myself imagining Len completely different than how he was described by the author. In my head, he had typically asian features, with dark brown eyes and black hair.
To me, this book lacked diversity and I know for a fact that Australia is a pool of different ethnicities.
It just may be the fact that I am always looking for different kinds of stories, the ones with people who aren’t always represented, but this book was compared to Red White and Royal Blue or Becky Albertalli’s and Adam Silvera’s novels. In those novels I pretty much always found some representation, but here… this was literally two white people falling in love and they just happened to be gay. There was no self-discovery, no fully trying to understand their sexualities or questioning them. As part of the lgbt community, I know that we don’t all have the same experience, but this made me feel like I was reading about a straight relationship. I don’t know how to explain it any better than that. At times, their relationship felt… unseasoned?
Overall, I’ll still say that this story was cute and a nice read, but I probably wouldn’t read it again. I hope I wasn’t too harsh because I did enjoy reading parts of it, especially once the story took a faster pace (the beginning was a bit slow).
Thank you to NetGalley and Charlesbridge for the opportunity to read this book
This story follows the friends-to-lovers relationship between the protagonist, Henry Hamlet, and
First of all I’d like to say that this book was cute and I enjoyed the typical ups and downs of a “first-love in high-school” novel.
I liked the characters, even though I didn’t find their personalities to be that deep or fully shaped.
Being Italian, I sadly didn’t understand many of the references, but I did catch the one about McGonagall and I honestly find it hard to let this go. A queer story with references to the work of someone who openly disrespects the community? I mean… wasn’t there any other old white and stern-looking lady to compare that person to?
Furthermore, I’d like to understand why an incestuous relationship between cousins was mentioned more than once? I mean… was that necessary?
Overall, the story wasn’t bad. The romance was full of clichés and the characters felt incredibly bland at times, but the book per se was a nice reading altogether.
I found myself imagining Len completely different than how he was described by the author. In my head, he had typically asian features, with dark brown eyes and black hair.
To me, this book lacked diversity and I know for a fact that Australia is a pool of different ethnicities.
It just may be the fact that I am always looking for different kinds of stories, the ones with people who aren’t always represented, but this book was compared to Red White and Royal Blue or Becky Albertalli’s and Adam Silvera’s novels. In those novels I pretty much always found some representation, but here… this was literally two white people falling in love and they just happened to be gay. There was no self-discovery, no fully trying to understand their sexualities or questioning them. As part of the lgbt community, I know that we don’t all have the same experience, but this made me feel like I was reading about a straight relationship. I don’t know how to explain it any better than that. At times, their relationship felt… unseasoned?
Overall, I’ll still say that this story was cute and a nice read, but I probably wouldn’t read it again. I hope I wasn’t too harsh because I did enjoy reading parts of it, especially once the story took a faster pace (the beginning was a bit slow).
Thank you to NetGalley and Charlesbridge for the opportunity to read this book
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death of parent
Minor: Incest
More...