Reviews with content warning for Homophobia - Ophelia After All

might actually be my favorite book now, despite me saying this for a lot of new books i read. but seriously this was a really good book!!
i really liked the diversity of the characters and how when i read, they seemed to come to life. it was a realistic situation, how ophelia was scared of coming out to her friends and family to avoid shattering their image of a boy-crazy girl. it was relatable to a certain degree given that i am also a queer teenager that hasnt properly figured out labels.
my favorite character is definitely wesley. he is just a generally very lovable character, although i will admit i disliked him at the beginning. he kind of is like a precious cinnamon roll! i dont really know exactly why i love him, but he seems like the kind of person i would desperately want to be acquainted with.
a character that i mildly dislike is lindsay. shes one of those people that i would avoid being associated with, but thats just a personal opinion.

im not over her telling only ophelia and agatha about having no interest in the boys after graduating, also that she jumped to conclusions so fast, but it was all resolved in the end so 🤷🏻‍♀️.

they really are just fictional people and a fictional plot, but it’s a lot like reality tbh
i have yapped for too long and i should stop procrastinating my assignments, but i absolutely love this book and would absolutely recommend reading this!!

Content Warnings

bookcaptivated's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

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

4.25

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jodierose14's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful lighthearted 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

5.0

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cor_luz's review against another edition

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emotional funny lighthearted fast-paced

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

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emmieanna's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

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

3.75

I went into this book with no expectations, as I don’t really read romance but this has always been on my radar and was chosen for a YA bookclub that I run. It is safe to say that I loved it! The Hamlet references were stunning but not too in your face and the cast of characters were all likeable in their own ways. Did not expect Ophelia’s greatest help to come from where it did and enjoyed that the characters surprised me by falling outside of the roles I had predicted for them at the beginning. I felt more attached to Ophelia than any protagonist in a romance novel, maybe because it fed into the ‘anti-romance’ trope that I love so dearly.

I think I really needed this book to open my eyes to some of my own internalised homophobia towards bisexuality, but didn’t realise it until I read it. Raquel Marie has a way of manipulating the characters’ experiences that made me look inward and such a beautiful understanding of character development.

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sapphicurse's review against another edition

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hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

I really really loved this book. I was worried it would be like a lot of other YA contemporaries I’ve read but the author took it in a really unique direction and I’m very grateful. It was just gritty enough to make it feel realistic and had flawed characters that were hard to love at times.
I think a lot of teens will see themselves in the pages of this book, with the queer questioning and identity struggles.
mc rep: latina (mixed cuban), queer/questioning/unlabelled
sc rep: korean, black, pakistani, black/latinx, ace, aro, pan, bi, plus-sized, muslim

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jachnax's review against another edition

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emotional inspiring lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Content Warnings

mel_muses's review against another edition

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4.5

”Maybe I don’t know myself with the same certainty I’ve always claimed.”

Ophelia After All follows Ophelia Rojas, a senior in high school, who’s always let herself be defined by the things she does. She’s described as “boy-crazy” and dedicates herself in her spare time to her rose garden, when she’s not at school or hanging out with her friends. But then she gets a crush on a girl in her class, and Ophelia starts doubting who she is… Has she changed? Does she even want to change?

Ophelia After All has taken queer booksta by a chokehold, and I am happy to report that it is very well-deserved. This book is everything I was expecting it to be. It’s coming of age at its finest, it’s a book where our messy protagonist gets in her head and doesn’t always know what the best choice is. It’s a book with bits of Cuban culture, a biracial protagonist, and a lovable group of friends. It’s a book with rose gardening, Shakespeare references, crushes, and even a taste of a love triangle. It’s a book that feels real and has snuck into so many of our hearts.

Ophelia is a character who’s scared of letting people see her how she is. She has this great group of friends — people she’s known for years — but that doesn’t keep her doubts from seeping in. She doesn’t know who she can even share these feelings with, and that’s a feeling I know all too well (albeit for different reasons). Where Ophelia gets crush after crush, I haven’t gotten one. And while at first I felt like this was distancing myself from her, I’ve come to realize that the inner turmoil is similar. We (Ophelia and I) don’t know how to express ourselves when the things we feel are so different than what we expect and what we want for ourselves. It’s this that connected me to Ophelia.

We need more books like this, with a book not centered on a romance, but on coming of age. We often see the two intertwined, which is fun, but also not always accurate. People need to see themselves as who they are before they can let others take a peek. I want more books with characters who don’t do the right thing the first, second, or even third time they express themselves. We need messy friendships, messy feelings, messy love. That’s what makes this book real.

Content Warnings: mentions of underage drinking and vaping, mentions of sex, cut-off use of a homophobic slur (challenged), condemned homophobia, discussion of anti-Blackness within a mixed-race Latine family (challenged)

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