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valerian_honeybee's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Mental illness, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, and Violence
Moderate: Homophobia
raccoonfoo's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Cancer, Panic attacks/disorders, Mental illness, and Chronic illness
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts
alicelalicon'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
3.5
Graphic: Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Bullying, and Self harm
kestrelfire'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
4.5
Moderate: Biphobia, Bullying, Grief, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, and Mental illness
ravenk28'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
3.75
Graphic: Homophobia, Mental illness, and Bullying
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts
Minor: Torture
czoltak'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
5.0
Moderate: Bullying, Homophobia, Mental illness, and Cursing
Minor: Suicidal thoughts and Self harm
welgan'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
I sometimes had the feeling some dialogs were a bit artificial and I could see it was what info the author wanted to convey to us, instead of feeling like natural conversation. The excess of oral language was keeping me out of the book at the beginning, too, but either it got better or I got used to it because it didn't bother anymore me after a bit. All this is a bit confusing to me because the author writes mainly for a podcast and it should be its strong suit, but instead, the very best part of the book is it's main focus : emotion. The description of emotions and inner life of the two main characters (and alternate first person narrator) is STELLAR, and it is what we want from a book about an empath teenager. It works so well - Caleb power is tangible and the emotions description is so accurate and visual, it's perfect.
Another weakness I found in the book is, paradoxically, the fact that is came from a podcast. I don't know the podcast, and I'm not especially interested in it, but the ending left me with an unfinished feeling. There were questions not answered and conflicts brought in the story that were not resolved. Namely :
Keeping not all conflicts resolved, even in a one-shot book, can be OK ! Not everything has to be resolved for the book to end. But for this one especially, I felt like tension was build-up and teasing was made, giving a lot of importance to plot points who actually went nowhere. This is, I guess, because it is part of the podcast, where Caleb and Adam are characters - this conflicts are probably foreshadowing of events a reader could find in the podcast. It was not to be written in the book probably because it is actually solved in another media. From one hand, I like transmedia and think the idea is great, but on the other hand, I don't want to listen to the podcast, I was only interested in reading this cool romance about an empath (which is a romance trope I like a lot). So I feel like I'm kept from core parts of the story that were , to me, a bit too heavily teased to not be resolved in it.
I have ranted a lot about these two points, but my rating stays high because I enjoyed this book immensely! A bit less convinced by the end, but I read it to unwise hours because I couldn't put it down. It was emotionally powerful, and that's so strong it makes the small inconveniences I experienced not important.
Side note : the family relationships were really great !
Graphic: Mental illness
Moderate: Homophobia
clhtdr's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Moderate: Bullying, Mental illness, Self harm, and Suicidal thoughts
dodecashedron'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
5.0
Graphic: Mental illness and Bullying
Moderate: Self harm
Minor: Suicidal thoughts
sophiesmallhands'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
4.5
Graphic: Mental illness and Bullying
Minor: Self harm, Homophobia, Violence, Suicidal thoughts, and War