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lawbooks600's review
emotional
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
3.0
Representation: Black and Asian characters, character with a physical disability
Score: Six out of ten.
Is it me or have I seen something like this before? I saw Dress Coded circling my recommendations till I finally saw it in a library and decided to pick it up. I glanced at the blurb, noticing similarities with another flawed and okay novel called Does My Body Offend You, and I felt the same way when I closed the final page of Dress Coded.
It starts with Molly going to her school when she notices some school authorities pull over her women peers over their clothes, saying they break the dress code, causing Molly to start a podcast about the issue. I like the concept, the theme of rebellion and the message of defying systemic sexism, but there were so many flaws I didn't know where to begin, but I'll try: for a book barely over 300 pages, it's slow paced with some pages not dedicated to the central theme that if removed could've tightened the reading experience. The characters are hard to connect or relate with, but I don't think that's Firestone's fault, instead I might not be the target audience, and another reason might be seeing dress coding as an American problem. Where I live, schools don't have dress codes--they have uniforms and don't allow free dress unlike in America, so I can see why I couldn't relate to Dress Coded. The plot has so many subplots that detract from it I found it disjointed, like the ones about traumatic brain injuries, cerebral palsy, drug use and most prominently, vaping (unfortunately, it is a problem here too,) but what has that got to do with dress coding, I struggle to understand. Removing unneeded subplots could be an improvement. Dress Coded is Does My Body Offend You for a younger audience since both discuss similar themes, but the former's writing style is basic (I think that's intentional,) but I found Dress Coded to be unrealistic sometimes. This dress coding issue has been going on for years according to the narrative and people tried to stop it but that didn't work, but that begs the question of how has this been a problem for so long? How? The characters were on their own as adults weren't by their side, which I found polarising (adding more supportive adults would've balanced everything out.) At least the conclusion is a high note when I saw a new rewritten dress code.
Score: Six out of ten.
Is it me or have I seen something like this before? I saw Dress Coded circling my recommendations till I finally saw it in a library and decided to pick it up. I glanced at the blurb, noticing similarities with another flawed and okay novel called Does My Body Offend You, and I felt the same way when I closed the final page of Dress Coded.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug abuse, Sexism, Ableism, Bullying, Drug use, Racial slurs, Racism, and Body shaming
Full trigger warnings: Racism, racist slur, sexism, ableism, bullying, drug use and abuse mentioned, body shamingrebeccarudisill's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
I love this book! I wish I had a friend like Molly when I was in middle school. Her inclusiveness and heart for justice are so delightful! If you’ve ever struggled with self-esteem, worried about what you wore to school, or wondered if there are good kids in the world, you should read this book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Bullying, Sexism, Body shaming, and Ableism
This is specific to me but TBI and post-TBI recovery is mentioneddaniellesharp's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
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? No
5.0
This book was amazing.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body shaming, Drug abuse, Sexism, and Sexual harassment
Moderate: Addiction, Misogyny, Bullying, and Racism
Minor: Transphobia
jojo_'s review
hopeful
inspiring
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body shaming and Bullying
Moderate: Addiction, Misogyny, Racism, and Drug abuse
Minor: Ableism and Transphobia
lady_of_books's review
challenging
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
4.25
Absolutely beautiful. This was such a well-written story with the varying styles of storytelling (the podcast, Molly's letters, lists, first-person); usually when authors use that many different styles it gets quite confusing, but this felt perfectly balanced. The same went for the characters - there were a lot of them, and it was hard to keep track at times, but it didn't feel overly chaotic. It was clean, and realistic. I tend to enjoy middle grade books that err more on the side of "unrealistic" (that isn't quite the right word - just contemporary stories that stretch a bit beyond what would reasonably occur in the main situation), but the realism of this book was oddly refreshing. Of course, the story was about a bad situation, but it nevertheless felt really hopeful.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug abuse
Moderate: Body shaming, Bullying, and Sexism
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