Scan barcode
divergentpixie's review
- 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
5.0
I love the friend group and Sam’s dad.
I felt like I was really there with Sam, reliving everything.
The writing is so well done.
The ending was wrapped up so nicely, there were no questions left unanswered.
-autistic rep
-queer
-found family
-ghosts?
*homophobia, assault, transphobia
Graphic: Grief
Moderate: Biphobia, Transphobia, Stalking, Physical abuse, Hate crime, and Child death
Minor: Alcohol and Vomit
acasiamae's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Graphic: Child death, Violence, Murder, and Death
Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Homophobia, Transphobia, and Mental illness
Minor: Outing, Vomit, and Bullying
emily_mh's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.25
Graphic: Death, Mental illness, Stalking, Hate crime, Transphobia, Violence, and Murder
Moderate: Cursing, Child death, Self harm, Biphobia, and Gun violence
Minor: Classism, Vomit, Fire/Fire injury, Excrement, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Cancer, Terminal illness, Death of parent, Suicide, Alcohol, Car accident, Racism, Alcoholism, Addiction, War, Grief, Police brutality, Sexual content, and Ableism
Major: queerphobia, medical emergency, anaphylactic shock Moderate: migraines Minor: foster system, loss of a loved one, drowningmerle_bookdragon'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? It's complicated
5.0
I'm usually not big on murder mystery but I guess if you package it in a YA queer contemporary with a wonderful protagonist it works. I really enjoyed Sam's POV, learning more about how they see the world and of course the wonderful realizations they had when they were finally surrounded by good friends. And my god are good friends groups one of my favorite things in literature. Sam, Shep, Sky, Aidan, and Ronnie and Jax, too, are such a wonderful group and I just wish everyone could be surrounded by such a safe group of people.
I think while this might sound cheesy one of my other favorite things was the wonderful representation we had in this book. Sam is autistic and nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns, and they also identify themselves as panromantic and being on the ace spectrum. We also see Latina, Black, Vietnamese, bi, and aroace rep (and more I'm sure) in Sam's friend group and in the LGBTQIA+ club at school.
The murder mystery part starts slowly and then grows more apparent towards the second half of the book when it becomes obvious that Sam and Shep have stirred a pot that somebody clearly doesn't want to have stirred. I really liked the dynamic development and without any spoilers - I didn't guess who the murder was.
And just for a little bit of emotional pain, because Sam was really good at inflicting that on me:
"I'm not afraid of the dead, Dad. They're dead. [...] The living are scarier."
Graphic: Transphobia, Bullying, Homophobia, and Violence
Moderate: Biphobia, Death, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Stalking
Minor: Self harm, Alcoholism, Cancer, Domestic abuse, Vomit, and Outing
spark_879's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Murder
Moderate: Child death, Toxic friendship, Violence, Sexual content, and Transphobia
Minor: Vomit, Gun violence, Biphobia, Self harm, and Domestic abuse
transphobia = misgendering & harming someone because they're queer • murder = (accidental) attempted murder • sexual content = kissingmariebrunelm's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Child death, Grief, and Transphobia
Moderate: Biphobia, Murder, and Bullying
Minor: Gaslighting and Vomit
sarah984'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? No
1.5
I will say first off that I really liked Sam's relationship with their dad, and the way that emotions are described being interpreted through facial expressions and the general autistic point of view.
Every character that wasn't Sam or their dad was pretty one-note, though. I kept forgetting about Sky even though he was part of the core friend group, and it took me like half the book to realize Aidan and Dylan were two different guys. There were two different characters whose entire personality was "mean girl". The slang is really embarrassing (stop saying emoji!) and the constant brand name and meme references are already dated.
The mystery was also just really bad. The perpetrator is pretty easy to guess
Graphic: Hate crime and Panic attacks/disorders
Moderate: Biphobia, Bullying, Death, Child death, Stalking, Ableism, Alcohol, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Murder, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, and Transphobia
Minor: Police brutality, Toxic friendship, Racism, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Cancer, Death of parent, Chronic illness, Cursing, and Child abuse
imstephtacular's review
- 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
4.25
Graphic: Bullying, Transphobia, Grief, Mental illness, Hate crime, Homophobia, and Suicidal thoughts
Moderate: Biphobia, Cursing, Gun violence, Alcoholism, Emotional abuse, Death, Dysphoria, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, and Alcohol
Minor: Vomit, Suicide, Classism, Cursing, Gaslighting, Physical abuse, and Stalking