Reviews

Un peu malgré eux by Becky Albertalli, Aisha Saeed

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happylilkt's review against another edition

Felt like tokenism to me. Token anxiety, token gay friends mentioned in passing, token minority religious representation that only goes skin-deep with the main characters (or it's tell, not show), token interracial relationship... there wasn't really any cultural differentiation just talk of bat mitzvahs and Ramadan. If anything, what sets this book apart is that this it has a one-sided political perspective—I happen to know and love people of various political persuasions and so that wasn't what I was looking for in this kind of a read. Moving on...

smit1286's review against another edition

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slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.0

jenmangler's review against another edition

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3.0

This is the first YA book I’ve read that focuses on an election, and the democracy geek in me liked it.

blurrypetals's review against another edition

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2.0

Becky Albertalli has never been my favorite writer. I thought Simon Vs. was sweet and charming enough, though its movie definitely felt much more rewarding and fun, which fits, because all of her solo projects feel like they would have been better off as teen movie screenplays. My favorite solo novel of Albertalli's is certainly Leah On the Off Beat because it was interesting, fun, romantic, and really left little room for disappointment. She was at her best, though, when she co-authored What If It's Us with Adam Silvera, though I'll admit that I believe most of that book's success is due mostly to Silvera's aching, bittersweet prose and premise, though I obviously won't ever know how much of it was Albertalli and how much was Silvera.

Because of this, I was really intrigued to see how Albertalli performed in a different collaboration and...well, look at that! Neither of the authors were able to competently carry this story! I am not familiar with Saeed's writing prior to this, but Albertalli, for her faults, at least is capable of creating and writing generally likable, interesting characters, even if those characters might tend to feel a bit flat or undeveloped on some occasions.

Neither main character read well to me. They both felt melodramatic and whiny whenever they experienced push back in regards to their political agenda...which is often, because this is a book focused on an election both characters are involved in.

It wasn't even that I disagreed with their viewpoints, because I didn't, but they portrayed each and every little thing as though they were Fox News caricatures of what a millennial bleeding heart liberal might look like and they got on my nerves because of it.

This book is also hellbent on having a romantic subplot without anything actually romantic ever happening, not even the clear desire from either of our main characters to have a romantic relationship. Instead, it's the folks around our protagonists who tell them they're in love, and it's only until then that either of them even really considers doing anything about their feelings, and there's not enough time left in the audiobook for anything of real merit to occur.

You may also notice I've only referred to our protagonists as...our protagonists. I think I know their names; Jamie and Maya, I think? But, other than the fact that their chapters are literally read by two different actors, their individual voices felt so similar, their personalities becoming one amorphous blob, making me wonder if this was ever actually written by two different people at all.

This is, by far, Albertalli's worst endeavor, and it doesn't inspire confidence in me about Saeed's writing either. This is certainly an experience I hope to soon forget.