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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
amarilikestoread's review
emotional
funny
lighthearted
relaxing
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
I absolutely adored this book. I think it was a mixture of nostalgia, the beautiful art, and how funny it was. The characters are so cute and makes you think about how you were at that age. Also, how realistic they are comes into play. They are middle schoolers, but they kiss, they have relationships, they are self-aware etc. The two best friends have their ups and downs, and have a genuine relationship with each other. I have read this book about twice now and I look forward to the sequel.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual harassment and Sexual assault
lit_with_lauren's review
emotional
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault, Bullying, and Sexual harassment
Minor: Eating disorder
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
leavesinpages's review
emotional
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
fast-paced
3.25
Content Warnings
Minor: Bullying and Sexual harassment
The Love Report is a graphic novel centered around the curiosity of two BFFs regarding love. Grace and Lola have only glimpses into what ‘love’ could mean. In their attempts to decode the mystery, they produce the “Love Report” - a journal filled with analysis based on interviews with fellow students and their observations of relationships around them, such as their parents and fellow peers. Along the way, they discover more questions and doubts concerning love in all aspects of their life. But most of all, they learn that not everything is as it seems. This lesson itself breaks judgements that can be seen by the girls in the beginning of this book. I was a bit offput by the amount of preconceived judgements coming from the girls both towards each other and their respective female students. However, when I look at the ending and the sweet, heartfelt moments centered around female friendship - this book is a winner. I can happily say I’d be eager to read more of this series. Grace, Lola, and Adele are a fun trio to follow! And I’m curious to see where their journey in discovering more about love takes them.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
inkdrinkers's review
emotional
fast-paced
2.0
Grace and Lola are best friends just trying to figure out what's so great about love. It seems like everyone in their middle school has a crush or a partner, but when the two girls set out to figure out why everyone loves love so much, they make a few realizations about themselves and each other.
I adored the art style chosen for The Love Report! Maya did a fantastic job with the anime-esque illustrations that really brought all the characters to life. Not to mention the color palettes and tones really made this inviting.
There was a bizarre amount of slut-shaming and name-calling in this middle grade/YA graphic novel. The main girls call their peer a "bimbo" for simply being a girl that some of the boys are attracted to, and slut-shame another for wearing skirts and fishnets. Though both instances are eventually resolved and show the characters having rounded personalities, the name-calling is never addressed or explained that it's wrong. The Love Report also deals with some heavy topics like rumors, sexual assault / unwanted touching, and child abuse (emotional). I feel like, though middle grade/young YA books can handle heavy topics such as these, the ages of the characters might have needed to be pushed forward because this book focuses so much on love and the things that come with it.
I wish that the serious topics had been handled with a little more fine-tuning. At some points the dialogue felt like it was translated / missing a little context from situations and I found myself wondering if this was previously published before being reworked. Overall, I feel like this graphic novel had its heart in the right place, but the execution could have been better.
Thank you to NetGalley, Astra Publishing House, and Hippo Park for providing me with a copy for an honest review.
I adored the art style chosen for The Love Report! Maya did a fantastic job with the anime-esque illustrations that really brought all the characters to life. Not to mention the color palettes and tones really made this inviting.
There was a bizarre amount of slut-shaming and name-calling in this middle grade/YA graphic novel. The main girls call their peer a "bimbo" for simply being a girl that some of the boys are attracted to, and slut-shame another for wearing skirts and fishnets. Though both instances are eventually resolved and show the characters having rounded personalities, the name-calling is never addressed or explained that it's wrong. The Love Report also deals with some heavy topics like rumors, sexual assault / unwanted touching, and child abuse (emotional). I feel like, though middle grade/young YA books can handle heavy topics such as these, the ages of the characters might have needed to be pushed forward because this book focuses so much on love and the things that come with it.
I wish that the serious topics had been handled with a little more fine-tuning. At some points the dialogue felt like it was translated / missing a little context from situations and I found myself wondering if this was previously published before being reworked. Overall, I feel like this graphic novel had its heart in the right place, but the execution could have been better.
Thank you to NetGalley, Astra Publishing House, and Hippo Park for providing me with a copy for an honest review.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child abuse and Sexual harassment
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