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teawitheames's review
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
Content Warnings
Minor: Sexism, Sexual assault, Bullying, Toxic relationship, and Toxic friendship
robinks's review against another edition
emotional
lighthearted
reflective
medium-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? It's complicated
4.25
This story covered a lot of different topics, and I wonder where the story will go from here.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, and Sexism
Moderate: Abandonment, Grief, Child abuse, and Emotional abuse
Minor: Domestic abuse, Stalking, Violence, and Acephobia/Arophobia
shaipanda's review
emotional
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.
I actually really enjoyed this! Obviously as a 21 year old I’m not the target audience for this but I really enjoyed it, the art was great, and I really liked the messages that it encouraged! I could definitely tell it was a middle grade book at times which in some parts of the book that mildly detracted from my enjoyment. However, overall I had a good time reading this and liked this quick read.
I actually really enjoyed this! Obviously as a 21 year old I’m not the target audience for this but I really enjoyed it, the art was great, and I really liked the messages that it encouraged! I could definitely tell it was a middle grade book at times which in some parts of the book that mildly detracted from my enjoyment. However, overall I had a good time reading this and liked this quick read.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Abandonment, Sexism, Child abuse, and Sexual harassment
Minor: Toxic relationship
sarahreads2222's review
emotional
inspiring
slow-paced
2.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, and Sexism
ash_hernick's review
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
tense
fast-paced
4.0
Thank you to the publisher and to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!
"The Love Report" follows two girls navigating middle school relationships by recording information about love in a notebook called (you guessed it!) The Love Report. Our protagonists are Lola, a nerdy kid crushing on a boy for the first time, and Grace, who's slightly more popular and relationship-savvy. They're BFF's, and their relationship is DELIGHTFUL to follow! It feels sweet and genuine, but the author also allows room for moments of fighting and tension - just like in any friendship.
There were so many things I enjoyed about this book. The art is beautiful and the story is well-written, perfectly suited for a middle grade audience. I feel like sometimes middle grade authors try to talk down to their readers, and this book gracefully avoids that issue. It handles topics like divorce and consent without being too graphic, but also without ignoring the gravity of either discussion. The author writes these plotlines into the novel understanding that these are real issues middle schoolers are starting to become more aware of at this point in their lives.
Additionally, the plot itself feel pretty genuine and realistic in all respects. I know I would've really liked this book in sixth-through-eighth-grade. The only moments that felt a little weird were the standard moments of "adult author trying so hard to write teen dialogue and getting it wrong in a way where it's close but just off enough to feel strange" which mostly occurred with slang used in brief snippets of dialogue and some outdated texting abbreviations that I just KNOW would make my 14-year-old sister cringe. Other than that, I enjoyed it - the plot's a little cheesy at times, but that's to be expected from a middle grade book titled "The Love Report." The characters and conflicts are generally well-written and well fleshed-out, and I was impressed by how each of the side characters seemed like a real person - normally I've found that middle grade books (particularly graphic novels) will work to develop the main characters and maybe the antagonist a bit, but they tend to leave secondary characters behind. It was refreshing to read a middle grade book where the secondary characters all feel pretty reasonably like real people, with real lives and real personalities. This reinforces the book's central message that everything (including love) is more complicated than it seems, so that works nicely, too.
Some plot threads were predictable to me as an 18-year-old, but I'm sure that the plot twists could still work for some of the book's target audience, depending on their familiarity with plot structure. There were also some minor typos (most notably on page 109, page 138, and page 142), but these are pretty common in ARCs - I'm sure they'll be fixed by the time the book hits shelves, and I'm only mentioning them in this review to give the editor a heads-up in the off chance they read this. There were also some characters whose motives felt a little strange (the "cool older goth girl" character would sometimes lash out at the younger protagonists and I didn't always understand where she was coming from about that?) but it seems like this is going to be developed into a series, and if so, I could see those issues being resolved in a later book.
I'm definitely going to recommend this to some middle school librarians I know. This is a great book for anyone who wants a middle grade novel about navigating complex relationships (of all types - platonic, romantic, familial, and so on) as well as anyone who wants to read a book with a strong cast of female characters. I feel like this would be good for fans of Raina Telgemeier's "Drama" or Svetlana Chmakova's Berrybrook Middle School series.
"The Love Report" follows two girls navigating middle school relationships by recording information about love in a notebook called (you guessed it!) The Love Report. Our protagonists are Lola, a nerdy kid crushing on a boy for the first time, and Grace, who's slightly more popular and relationship-savvy. They're BFF's, and their relationship is DELIGHTFUL to follow! It feels sweet and genuine, but the author also allows room for moments of fighting and tension - just like in any friendship.
There were so many things I enjoyed about this book. The art is beautiful and the story is well-written, perfectly suited for a middle grade audience. I feel like sometimes middle grade authors try to talk down to their readers, and this book gracefully avoids that issue. It handles topics like divorce and consent without being too graphic, but also without ignoring the gravity of either discussion. The author writes these plotlines into the novel understanding that these are real issues middle schoolers are starting to become more aware of at this point in their lives.
Additionally, the plot itself feel pretty genuine and realistic in all respects. I know I would've really liked this book in sixth-through-eighth-grade. The only moments that felt a little weird were the standard moments of "adult author trying so hard to write teen dialogue and getting it wrong in a way where it's close but just off enough to feel strange" which mostly occurred with slang used in brief snippets of dialogue and some outdated texting abbreviations that I just KNOW would make my 14-year-old sister cringe. Other than that, I enjoyed it - the plot's a little cheesy at times, but that's to be expected from a middle grade book titled "The Love Report." The characters and conflicts are generally well-written and well fleshed-out, and I was impressed by how each of the side characters seemed like a real person - normally I've found that middle grade books (particularly graphic novels) will work to develop the main characters and maybe the antagonist a bit, but they tend to leave secondary characters behind. It was refreshing to read a middle grade book where the secondary characters all feel pretty reasonably like real people, with real lives and real personalities. This reinforces the book's central message that everything (including love) is more complicated than it seems, so that works nicely, too.
Some plot threads were predictable to me as an 18-year-old, but I'm sure that the plot twists could still work for some of the book's target audience, depending on their familiarity with plot structure. There were also some minor typos (most notably on page 109, page 138, and page 142), but these are pretty common in ARCs - I'm sure they'll be fixed by the time the book hits shelves, and I'm only mentioning them in this review to give the editor a heads-up in the off chance they read this. There were also some characters whose motives felt a little strange (the "cool older goth girl" character would sometimes lash out at the younger protagonists and I didn't always understand where she was coming from about that?) but it seems like this is going to be developed into a series, and if so, I could see those issues being resolved in a later book.
I'm definitely going to recommend this to some middle school librarians I know. This is a great book for anyone who wants a middle grade novel about navigating complex relationships (of all types - platonic, romantic, familial, and so on) as well as anyone who wants to read a book with a strong cast of female characters. I feel like this would be good for fans of Raina Telgemeier's "Drama" or Svetlana Chmakova's Berrybrook Middle School series.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual harassment and Sexism
Minor: Toxic relationship and Bullying
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