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bersblue's review against another edition
emotional
funny
reflective
relaxing
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
A lot of good things, but at the same time a lot of failures. I don't quite understand why the author decided to have so many plots. the characters are fine. they make mistakes and learn lessons, but sometimes they behave ridiculously. i don't understand this obsession with Ophelia and her infatuation with boys, or this absurd misunderstanding of her passion for flowers. The thread with Talia is also a bit strange. I don't understand why she didn't immediately tell Ophelia that she had a boyfriend. a bit toxic behavior. Other than that it was ok, such without being crazy, but you can see that the author knew what she was writing about.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, and Sexism
maple_dove's review against another edition
emotional
lighthearted
reflective
sad
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? Yes
3.75
SDKJASLDHASDIOSADIOASDOS I DID NOT EXPECT THAT?!
Also, I took me 10 days to finish reading this book when I usually only take a few days to finish one. High school WHYYYYY--
I Liked
Also, I took me 10 days to finish reading this book when I usually only take a few days to finish one. High school WHYYYYY--
I Liked
- That this wasn't about Ophelia getting the girl or discovering her queerness because of a relationship. This book was about discovering and loving yourself, which was such a nice change. I loved it. đ
- The complexity was amazing.
- How AWARE this book is (the knowledge of a variety of identities).
I Didn't Like
Sammie. I'M NOT SORRY! Sammie was a jerk, and you know it. Hell, he even admitted it at the end of the book. I'm glad he admitted it, apologized (actually, not making excuses), and started seeing a therapist to self-improve. I didn't dislike him every time he made an appearance in the book, I'll admit. It was more like 50/50 like and dislike. - I don't belong in a big friend group (or any friend group with more than three people, tbh), nor do I like being in them so I can't relate to the friend group dynamics.
Favorite Quotes:
Virginal as I am, my golden sexual-advice rule is that if you can't talk about it, you probably shouldn't be doing it. Seriously, be a little mature.
"Ophelia, it's great to see you. What grade are you in now, tenth?"
Daf stifles a laugh. I forcefully hand him back the wine.
"I'm actually a senior."
"No way!" He gasps in that classic I'm An Adult And Cannot Process You Aging At The Same Rate As Me For Some Reason way and turns to Mom.
"But sometimes, when you've known someone for years and they build up this image of you, it's hard to talk about things that mess with that image. It feels like you'd be breaking some bond of trust between you and that person by being different than you were before. I don't just mean subtle, slow changes. I mean, like, the big things that they never saw coming."
I know kissing and liking Talia shouldn't change who I am to them, or to myself, but it does. And maybe they'd say 'Oh, this doesn't change anything!' or 'You're still the same Ophelia we know and love!' but it does, and I'm not the same. And they can't possibly understand that. It's not just that I'm scared they'll hate me for this; I'm scared they won't even see it."
"People confuse acceptance with erasure," he says with the weight of understanding that only someone else who has battled this same internal conflict possibly could. (pg. 284)
I agree with this so much. "This doesn't change anything" and "You're still the same" just never felt right. Of course being queer and/or trans changes things. That's the point.
"Did I ever tell you why I chose Ophelia though?"
"No," I admit, surprised I never asked. "I always figured you wanted something more unique. Or that Dad vetoed Juliet." Dad never wanted to watch adaptations of Romeo and Juliet, claiming it was too tragic for him. The irony of him still loving Hamlet isn't lost on me.
She laughs. "No, he always knew it was my dream to name a child after one of them. Juliet and Ophelia were always my favorite because they are two of the most quickly dismissed among people who refuse to dig past the surface narrative. Juliet is remembered as a foolish teenage girl who threw away her life for a boy she hardly knew, and Ophelia is remembered more for her virginity and inability to accept Hamlet's rejection than anything else."
"Great legacies you left me."
"But that's not who those girls were," she corrects firmly. "Romeo was just as much a hopeless romantic as Juliet, and they gave their lives to show the world that true love mattered more than senseless hatred. Juliet cared enough about her family to die so they could live brighter, wiser lives. I respected her as a character for being more mature than most give her credit for."
"Then why'd you pick Ophelia?" I ask, dusting my hands against my jeans. She narrows her eyes at the crumbs I'm spreading in the car, but keeps going.
"Ophelia was all those things too. But she also wore her heart on her sleeve. She wasn't 'mad' in her final scene; she was grieving without shame. She was begging for someone to hear her desperation beneath the offered flowers."
I recognize the look in his eyes, not quite hunger for something deeper. Longing, love, profound admiration. I'm sure he'd find the same things in my eyes when I look at Talia too, and instead of swallowing that sting of realization, I embrace it. Running from these feelings did me no good. I don't cling to the idea that I have a romantic future with Talia anymore, a future I'm still mourning the loss of, but I shouldn't have to pretend I never wanted one. (pg. 327)
Agatha was right. Prom was never about the dresses or the dates or the ridiculous theme. It was about celebrating, through all those little details, the feeling that holy shit, we actually survived high school.
Well, almost survived it. (pg. 329)
Conclusion:
In the end, my lack of interest for realistic fiction kind of blew it for me. đ I know what you're going to say, "ThEn WhY dId YoU rEaD tHiS bOoK?" Because I still wanted to read it. :) And will I continue to read realistic fiction? Yes.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Religious bigotry, Biphobia, Drug use, Homophobia, and Racism
Moderate: Outing and Sexism
Minor: Acephobia/Arophobia, Sexual content, Islamophobia, and Alcohol
vaniavela's review
emotional
funny
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
5.0
Ophelia, a botany-loving girl who is known to her parents and friends as a "boy-crazy" girl, embarks on a journey to question her sexuality during her last time in high school.
I love stories written in first person POV. Being in a character's head , reading their feelings and thoughts, is an amazing experience. And this book managed to capture that in a great way.
I liked the realism of her fears. How she fears change, and that the world around her will change the way they see her, treating her differently.
I liked the group of friends. They all have realistic flaws and attitudes, especially as teenagers about to graduate. I loved getting to know about them and their backgrounds; they weren't just put there for the plot, they were three dimensional.
I also love the ending; we weren't given a typical ending where the main character has a certainty of who who they are and is happily ever after. It shows us that she is still on her journey of learning about herself, and that we are valid even with uncertainty and doubt.
The comment about the labels, was also a good element. I loved the mention of how it was not necessary to label oneself in one thing. Also, the mention of how biromantic or bisexual identities are often erased in straight-looking relationships, was appreciated. These issues were handled with great care and made me love this book even more.
It is a beautiful, gorgeous book.
Rep: Biracial Cuban queer-questioning female MC, Korean-American biromantic asexual male SC, Black Puerto-Rican bisexual female SC, Pakistani Muslim queer-questioning male SC, Fat Black aromantic female SC, Black pansexual male SC.
CWs: Homophobia, lesbophobia, racism, cursing. Moderate: Biphobia, sexism, outing, toxic friendship. Minor: Islamophobia, alcohol consumption, drug use, acephobia, fatphobia.
I love stories written in first person POV. Being in a character's head , reading their feelings and thoughts, is an amazing experience. And this book managed to capture that in a great way.
I liked the realism of her fears. How she fears change, and that the world around her will change the way they see her, treating her differently.
I liked the group of friends. They all have realistic flaws and attitudes, especially as teenagers about to graduate. I loved getting to know about them and their backgrounds; they weren't just put there for the plot, they were three dimensional.
I also love the ending; we weren't given a typical ending where the main character has a certainty of who who they are and is happily ever after. It shows us that she is still on her journey of learning about herself, and that we are valid even with uncertainty and doubt.
The comment about the labels, was also a good element. I loved the mention of how it was not necessary to label oneself in one thing. Also, the mention of how biromantic or bisexual identities are often erased in straight-looking relationships, was appreciated. These issues were handled with great care and made me love this book even more.
It is a beautiful, gorgeous book.
Rep: Biracial Cuban queer-questioning female MC, Korean-American biromantic asexual male SC, Black Puerto-Rican bisexual female SC, Pakistani Muslim queer-questioning male SC, Fat Black aromantic female SC, Black pansexual male SC.
CWs: Homophobia, lesbophobia, racism, cursing. Moderate: Biphobia, sexism, outing, toxic friendship. Minor: Islamophobia, alcohol consumption, drug use, acephobia, fatphobia.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing, Racism, Homophobia, and Lesbophobia
Moderate: Biphobia, Outing, Sexism, and Toxic friendship
Minor: Alcohol, Fatphobia, Islamophobia, Acephobia/Arophobia, and Drug use
luananki's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
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
5.0
i donât know how to put into words that i absolutely love this book. there wasnât a single page i didnât fall in love with. i did not want the story to end.
there is so much representation and not only queer representation but also the struggle of being an interracial child, i related to ophelia a lot. her not being able to open up and basically pushing everyone away even though she clearly needed someone to talk to and her being scared of destroying the âperfectâ imagery her friends and family created of her in their heads and her feeling like she doesnât truly belong with any culture. i get her, on almost every level.
wes is (like the author mentions in the acknowledgments) a precious cinnamon roll. iâm so glad he became friends with ophelia and supported her even though they didnât even really know each other in the beginning. he also sounds like a very comforting person to be around. the development of their relationship was one of the thinks i enjoyed the most throughout this book.
i had fun with every single character. their friend group made so much sense. all of them felt real because they all had their own ongoing struggles and flaws to deal with. the emphasis on healthy communication, saying sorry and that queer relationships are about more than having sex, as well as friendship and that no relationship is more important than the other make me so happy.
sammie and agatha are amazing and also lindsay (i appreciate the relationship between her and ophelia so much, itâs sort of painful but also very real) and oâs parents and the youth center and the unexpected aro and ace representation - loved it
i was expecting it to be a full on romance book but iâm even happier it turned out the way it did. the ending fits the story perfectly.
this was a treat in so many ways. i wish i had this when i was younger.
i will hopefully come back to this one day and decide to reread because good queer latine representation is really something i need more of.
thank you racquel marie for writing this story and thank god for booktok for getting this on my fyp <3
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Cursing, Homophobia, and Lesbophobia
Moderate: Misogyny, Sexism, Outing, Toxic friendship, and Biphobia
Minor: Mental illness, Alcohol, Acephobia/Arophobia, Islamophobia, Sexual content, and Drug use
cyan_altaria's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
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
4.5
While some of Ofelia's actions were frustrating, over all this book is a great story.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Homophobia
Minor: Racism and Sexism
foreverinastory's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
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
5.0
Thank you to Bookish First for a finished copy in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
This was so damn good!!
Ophelia After All is a YA Contemporary that follows Ophelia Rojas. She's a biracial Cuban-American senior in high school. In her spare time, she spends it in her rose garden, caring for the various breeds of roses she has. Ophelia has always had such a clear image of herself, but when she develops romantic feelings on her classmate Talia Sanchez, all the things she thought were true are thrown into question.
This book has my whole heart. I loved Ophelia so much. Her journey of questioning and not quite settling on a label is so easy to relate to. I've cycled through several labels myself in the past years before finding ones that truly fit. I loved that this isn't driven by romance. It's driven by Ophelia's internal conflict and all the way her friend group relationship affect each other.
I loved that we find out by the end of this book, Ophelia's whole friend group is basically queer. Also I hardcore headcanon Lindsey as a lesbian. It makes sense. Besides Lindsey, I really came to love every one of Ophelia's friend group. I loved that Ophelia brings Wes, Talia and Zach into their group too. Wes and Ophelia's friendship through chem lab was one of my absolute favorite things of this book. They're just too precious. I hope they remain friends forever.
There's one scene in this book that really spoke to me. It's when Ophelia sees her friend, Lindsey, in an all glam look wearing a super sexy black dress. The way her attraction hit her and she is just like oh fuck is that what this feeling is, sooooo relatable. The way she shoves down her realization and attraction was also extremely relatable. The way women are sold only men as attractive has ingrained this type of response and I'm so glad to see it called out. I kind of want a sequel because I need more of Ophelia. I want to see her at college, super queer, and navigating all the various labels.
Ugh, thinking about this book just makes me think about how much I loved it. Can I live in this book?
Rep: Biracial Cuban queer-questioning female MC, Korean-American biromantic asexual male side character, Black Puerto-Rican bisexual female side character, Pakistani Muslim queer-questioning male side character, fat Black aromantic female side character, Black pansexual male side character, white female side character, various BIPOC and queer side characters.
CWs: Homophobia/homomisia, lesbophobia/lesbomisia, racism, cursing. Moderate: Biphobia/bimisia, sexism, outing, toxic friendship. Minor: Islamophobia, alcohol consumption, drug use, acephobia/acemisia, fatphobia.
This was so damn good!!
Ophelia After All is a YA Contemporary that follows Ophelia Rojas. She's a biracial Cuban-American senior in high school. In her spare time, she spends it in her rose garden, caring for the various breeds of roses she has. Ophelia has always had such a clear image of herself, but when she develops romantic feelings on her classmate Talia Sanchez, all the things she thought were true are thrown into question.
This book has my whole heart. I loved Ophelia so much. Her journey of questioning and not quite settling on a label is so easy to relate to. I've cycled through several labels myself in the past years before finding ones that truly fit. I loved that this isn't driven by romance. It's driven by Ophelia's internal conflict and all the way her friend group relationship affect each other.
I loved that we find out by the end of this book, Ophelia's whole friend group is basically queer. Also I hardcore headcanon Lindsey as a lesbian. It makes sense. Besides Lindsey, I really came to love every one of Ophelia's friend group. I loved that Ophelia brings Wes, Talia and Zach into their group too. Wes and Ophelia's friendship through chem lab was one of my absolute favorite things of this book. They're just too precious. I hope they remain friends forever.
There's one scene in this book that really spoke to me. It's when Ophelia sees her friend, Lindsey, in an all glam look wearing a super sexy black dress. The way her attraction hit her and she is just like oh fuck is that what this feeling is, sooooo relatable. The way she shoves down her realization and attraction was also extremely relatable. The way women are sold only men as attractive has ingrained this type of response and I'm so glad to see it called out. I kind of want a sequel because I need more of Ophelia. I want to see her at college, super queer, and navigating all the various labels.
Ugh, thinking about this book just makes me think about how much I loved it. Can I live in this book?
Rep: Biracial Cuban queer-questioning female MC, Korean-American biromantic asexual male side character, Black Puerto-Rican bisexual female side character, Pakistani Muslim queer-questioning male side character, fat Black aromantic female side character, Black pansexual male side character, white female side character, various BIPOC and queer side characters.
CWs: Homophobia/homomisia, lesbophobia/lesbomisia, racism, cursing. Moderate: Biphobia/bimisia, sexism, outing, toxic friendship. Minor: Islamophobia, alcohol consumption, drug use, acephobia/acemisia, fatphobia.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Lesbophobia, Cursing, Homophobia, and Racism
Moderate: Sexism, Outing, Biphobia, and Toxic friendship
Minor: Fatphobia, Drug use, Acephobia/Arophobia, Alcohol, and Islamophobia
plumpaperbacks's review
challenging
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
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? Yes
4.5
[Early copy from Netgalley. This doesnât affect my opinions/review.]
Iâve followed Racquel on social media for years, as she worked on this book in various stages, so itâs exciting to see Ophelia After All as a finished book. Not only that, itâs an amazing book from cover to cover, simultaneously a lighthearted, refreshing story that makes you smile and an emotional, impactful one that will undoubtedly make so many teens feel seen.
I loved Ophelia and all of her friends. Theyâre a bunch of flawed teens doing their best to cope with all the ways their lives are about to change as high school graduation approaches, yet each one also felt well-rounded and genuine. I wouldâve loved hanging out with a group like this when I was in high school.
When I started reading, I thought this book featured a sapphic romance. Thatâs not the case. Instead of romance, the story focuses on self-discovery, and the realization that thereâs more to life than what happens in high school, no matter how all-encompassing those things seem. Despite my misconceptions, I still liked the book, and ultimately, I think this was the right choice to make.
If I had one complaint, it would be that I wouldâve liked just a little bit more from the ending. Specifically, I wish weâd gotten to see prom night, since a decent amount of the book involves the group discussing and planning for it. Donât get me wrong, the ending wraps everything up nicely and is quite satisfying, but still.
Overall, though, I thoroughly enjoyed and would definitely recommend Ophelia After All. Itâs a brilliant debut across the board, and I canât wait to see what Racquel does next.
Representation
Iâve followed Racquel on social media for years, as she worked on this book in various stages, so itâs exciting to see Ophelia After All as a finished book. Not only that, itâs an amazing book from cover to cover, simultaneously a lighthearted, refreshing story that makes you smile and an emotional, impactful one that will undoubtedly make so many teens feel seen.
I loved Ophelia and all of her friends. Theyâre a bunch of flawed teens doing their best to cope with all the ways their lives are about to change as high school graduation approaches, yet each one also felt well-rounded and genuine. I wouldâve loved hanging out with a group like this when I was in high school.
When I started reading, I thought this book featured a sapphic romance. Thatâs not the case. Instead of romance, the story focuses on self-discovery, and the realization that thereâs more to life than what happens in high school, no matter how all-encompassing those things seem. Despite my misconceptions, I still liked the book, and ultimately, I think this was the right choice to make.
If I had one complaint, it would be that I wouldâve liked just a little bit more from the ending. Specifically, I wish weâd gotten to see prom night, since a decent amount of the book involves the group discussing and planning for it. Donât get me wrong, the ending wraps everything up nicely and is quite satisfying, but still.
Overall, though, I thoroughly enjoyed and would definitely recommend Ophelia After All. Itâs a brilliant debut across the board, and I canât wait to see what Racquel does next.
Representation
- Cuban-Irish queer protagonist
- Black-Puerto Rican bisexual side character
- Muslim Pakistani side character
- Korean-American biromantic asexual side character
- Black fat aromantic side character
- Black pansexual side character
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia
Moderate: Racism and Sexism
Homophobia is seen on page and challenged. Racism* and sexism are discussed but not seen on page. (*I donât believe so, at least. As a white person, there could be instances I missed.)
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