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shrikebait's review
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
tense
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
This book has so much feeling packed into these pages. A+E are messy, harsh, weird, queer, and above all… real.
Their story follows two social outcasts you can't help but want to see thrive, but… this is no fairytale. I adore how the author writes characters with complex and oft-conflicting feelings. Merey portrays queer, punk, and teen culture in all its harsh and wonderful glory.
I went ahead and signed up to read both A+E and the next book. I'm now thanking myself! Very excited to see what happens next. I'm not much of a graphic novel person, but I'm considering checking that out at some point as well.
The cover art is also a perfect fit!
Thank you to the author and to BookSirens for the chance to read this book for free. I'm leaving this review of my own accord.
A few major content warnings: Sexual assault, dubious consent, drug use and drugging, disordered eating
Their story follows two social outcasts you can't help but want to see thrive, but… this is no fairytale. I adore how the author writes characters with complex and oft-conflicting feelings. Merey portrays queer, punk, and teen culture in all its harsh and wonderful glory.
I went ahead and signed up to read both A+E and the next book. I'm now thanking myself! Very excited to see what happens next. I'm not much of a graphic novel person, but I'm considering checking that out at some point as well.
The cover art is also a perfect fit!
Thank you to the author and to BookSirens for the chance to read this book for free. I'm leaving this review of my own accord.
A few major content warnings: Sexual assault, dubious consent, drug use and drugging, disordered eating
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Sexual violence, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Dysphoria, Sexual harassment, Alcohol, Eating disorder, Drug use, and Drug abuse
Minor: Homophobia, Xenophobia, Transphobia, Toxic relationship, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Toxic friendship, Body shaming, Child abuse, Classism, Antisemitism, Pedophilia, Cursing, Domestic abuse, and Incest
raincorbyn's review
inspiring
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
stromberg's review
dark
emotional
funny
reflective
tense
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? It's complicated
5.0
“A” is Ash, an anorexic and androgynous high school boy from what some would call a troubled home. “E” is Eulalie, a brash misfit at the school Ash transfers into, prickly and aloof from the normies. They bond over a love of art and grow close, together experiencing what might be thought of as the universal adolescent problems of love, friendship, desire, and a sense of self and of one’s place in society—while also experiencing the pleasures and dangers of a fluid exploration of sexuality and identity, as well as discovering how negotiating and living with the repercussions of past trauma can be an emotional minefield.
The prose economically transports one into, or back into (or, in this reader’s case, very far back into) the raw emotion and innocent selfishness of nascent adulthood. Eulalie and Ash are at an age where the heart yearns to expose its vulnerabilities but knows this is likeliest to be rewarded with cruelty, be it unwitting or casual or vindictive. Only when two hearts synchronise, becoming ready to risk vulnerability at the same time and at the right time, can young souls finally meet. The narrative is driven by will-they-or-won’t-they energy, with no outcome ever entirely certain, and young readers who feel themselves an ill fit with the aggressive mediocrity of high school are likely to find this book very much on their emotional wavelength.
My sole criticism of the story is that there is a certain family relationship (about which, to avoid spoilers, I will not say more) which I wish had been developed more fully or dwelt upon with more “intentionality”, if that is indeed the right word. Perhaps further entries in the “Seasons” series will fill this out.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault
Moderate: Biphobia, Drug abuse, Body shaming, Eating disorder, Alcohol, and Homophobia
Minor: Incest and Bullying
zillanovikov's review
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
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
5.0
I was 12% of the way through A+E when I realized it was going to break my heart.
Remember when you were young and queer and neurodiverse in a world that only had words for one of the three? Remember those friendships which lived in the liminal spaces between love and admiration and need and desire, and you didn't have words for any of those either, and you were a mess and so was your friendship-love but it was also the only thing that mattered in the world? You don't know if you want to be them, or be with them, but you know you can't survive without.
YA stories - well, stories about young adults - don't usually get me. They're didactic and clean and tidy, spoon-feeding the Reader a set of Important Messages. They're about what some adult wants a hypothetical teenager to learn. But sometimes, there's books about life as a teenager which are painfully, messily real. Books which I can't read in one sitting because I need to stop and let the memories subside safely back under the waters. Books which I can't stop reading, and can't stop thinking about when I finish.
A + E is that kind of story.
Ash and Eu are the rejects who find each other, who are open wounds in uncertain bodies, who are trapped in the vicious system to enforce compliance and conformity that is high school. I recognize the bands they listen to, the orange tic tacs they eat, the books on their shelves. I recognize the homophobia, though it was never that bad for me. I hope we left that behind in the 1990s, I hope things are easier for the Youth of now. I recognize the messy, hopeful, desperate friend-loves. Relationships that shaped my life, and that I have no words for, that don't exist in the lexicon of clean, tidy love, finally reflected back to me on the page. I won't ever leave those relationships behind; even if I never see the people again, they're still burned into me.
I was right. I was in tears by the end of A + E.
Remember when you were young and queer and neurodiverse in a world that only had words for one of the three? Remember those friendships which lived in the liminal spaces between love and admiration and need and desire, and you didn't have words for any of those either, and you were a mess and so was your friendship-love but it was also the only thing that mattered in the world? You don't know if you want to be them, or be with them, but you know you can't survive without.
YA stories - well, stories about young adults - don't usually get me. They're didactic and clean and tidy, spoon-feeding the Reader a set of Important Messages. They're about what some adult wants a hypothetical teenager to learn. But sometimes, there's books about life as a teenager which are painfully, messily real. Books which I can't read in one sitting because I need to stop and let the memories subside safely back under the waters. Books which I can't stop reading, and can't stop thinking about when I finish.
A + E is that kind of story.
Ash and Eu are the rejects who find each other, who are open wounds in uncertain bodies, who are trapped in the vicious system to enforce compliance and conformity that is high school. I recognize the bands they listen to, the orange tic tacs they eat, the books on their shelves. I recognize the homophobia, though it was never that bad for me. I hope we left that behind in the 1990s, I hope things are easier for the Youth of now. I recognize the messy, hopeful, desperate friend-loves. Relationships that shaped my life, and that I have no words for, that don't exist in the lexicon of clean, tidy love, finally reflected back to me on the page. I won't ever leave those relationships behind; even if I never see the people again, they're still burned into me.
I was right. I was in tears by the end of A + E.
clari's review
5.0
This book is a heartaching portrayal of friendship. The characters are teenagers and experience everything with first-time intensity. There are only brief glimpses of adults in this novel, but the broken-dream dullness of their existences give a background beyond the schoolyard bullying of the life Ash and Eu are desperate to avoid. They dance, they draw, they listen to music, have complex relationships with food, and fall in love...but not necessarily with each other at the same time. Everything feels very real, both Ash and Eu are flawed, and this makes it a painful read which occasionally I had to put down because I felt so much empathy for these young people trying to make their relationship work within the chaos which is real life.
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