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chrisljm's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Homophobia, Religious bigotry, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Outing, Racism, and Sexual harassment
Minor: Toxic friendship
theespressoedition's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
The beginning reminded me a lot of Paper Towns, aka my favorite book from my high school years and still my top pick by John Green. In fact, there's even a moment during the story where they say something along the lines of, "this isn't a John Green novel," and it made me burst out laughing because that's precisely what it felt like.
However, as time went on, the story shifted away from mystery and intrigue to a very typical high school contemporary. It had drama, hormones, and angst and while all of that is fine and dandy, it didn't feel unique at all. I completely lost interest in the second half of the book and truthfully, remember very little of how it even ended.
I wanted so much more from this one but it wound up being a bummer.
Graphic: Toxic friendship and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Homophobia, Bullying, Drug use, and Religious bigotry
Minor: Cursing
foldingthepage_kayleigh's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Outing, Lesbophobia, Homophobia, Gaslighting, Transphobia, Toxic relationship, and Bullying
msimmons13's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Moderate: Religious bigotry, Homophobia, and Toxic relationship
amandalorianxo's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Moderate: Religious bigotry, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship
Minor: Lesbophobia and Acephobia/Arophobia
emily_journals's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Overall, this book was fine, but I found myself extremely disappointed with it because of how much I've loved McQuiston's previous works. This book was perfectly average, with (mostly) vanilla characters, and a dull plot, which is not a way I would describe either of McQuiston's previous works. I think that this book had a lot of important themes for younger readers, but I don't think it stands close to McQuiston's other works, and might recommend people to skip this one if they're reading it solely because they enjoyed those two books.
Graphic: Bullying and Gaslighting
Moderate: Misogyny, Transphobia, Biphobia, Classism, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Toxic relationship, and Toxic friendship
Minor: Death of parent, Deadnaming, Racism, and Outing
bookishfaye's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
🍂 positives:
- yassification of John Green novels like Looking For Alaska/Paper Towns meets Rachel Berry x Quinn Fabrey Glee fanfic
- the plot was entertaining, the writing style kept me intrigued & the character dynamics & tropes were fun
- academic rival tropes are just so elite
- I do love that pretty much every character was queer
🍂negatives:
- this book just felt reaaally basic & average however, like it was enjoyable, but very much gave written by a white queer person.
- like not live laugh love Karen per say, but more like live laugh love McKinlin (gen x/millennial vibes)
- I just expected more from Casey & their writing with how much hype their books have, & honestly feel very like “that’s it…?”
- the pop culture references were sometimes entertaining, but usually quite the eye roll
Moderate: Homophobia, Outing, Religious bigotry, and Toxic relationship
missrosymaplemoth's review against another edition
3.25
Graphic: Biphobia, Bullying, Lesbophobia, and Homophobia
Moderate: Toxic relationship, Outing, and Racism
Minor: Sexism, Alcohol, Religious bigotry, and Classism
sarahna's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Homophobia, Religious bigotry, Lesbophobia, Classism, and Toxic relationship
isabel_c's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Graphic: Homophobia, Toxic relationship, Lesbophobia, and Outing