Reviews

I Kissed a Girl by Jennet Alexander

mothmans_mum's review against another edition

4.25

My favourite things about this book were the setting (the set of a B movie) and that the characters were Jewish.

The drawbacks were the contrived plot complications, and the fact that

Noa never properly dealt with and apologised for her snooty opinions, and Lilah never opened up properly about her insecurities relating to her appearance. I wanted Noa to properly tell Lilah about how she finds her smart etc. I’m glad she said she only kept complementing Lilah’s appearance because she couldn’t express her full feelings, and I’m glad she started enjoying romance novels, but they needed to have a conversation about Lila’s feelings about pageants, that she enjoyed them but also they instilled body image issues in her. We also know that Lilah read Radcliffe Hall, but did she genuinely like reading that or was it to impress Noa and subtly come out to her? I need to know! And lastly, and most annoyingly, they never had a conversation about candy floss! Lilah never found out what that meant, and Noa never properly confronted the fact that she is into femmes. That would be so important to their relationship and their individual identities! It’s so frustrating!

But overall I really liked it.

caityclarkreads's review

lighthearted tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

2.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Stalking

sapphics_reads's review

I could not for the life of me get into this omg. 

Maybe I’ll try again when I’m not in a slump idk

majabaur's review

lighthearted medium-paced

3.0

ashlee_fuchs0530's review

funny lighthearted 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

3.25

b3xbex's review

mysterious slow-paced

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

2.5

rachel_tb's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious 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? Yes

4.0

svalletutti's review

adventurous emotional funny mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

I really wanted to like this book because I had heard great things, but I just could not get into it. The first bit of the book caught my attention, but it felt like it just went on and on. A lot of buildup for a disappointing end. 

The couple was cute, but I could not stand Noa most of the time. Yes they both had their flaws, but she really just rubbed me the wrong way. 

The storyline was fairly cute, but it felt like the author just used the same plot points for the whole book and just dragged it out for the whole book. Not the worst book I’ve ever read, but definitely not the best. 

lexrobinson_11's review

lighthearted medium-paced

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

3.0

lezreadalot's review against another edition

2.0

“You’re a butterfly, Final Girl, and everything’s gonna work out okay.”

2.5 stars. This really was not a bad book. But unfortunately it's kind of an energy vampire of a book. I found it to be SO EXHAUSTING, and most of the good feelings I had at the beginning had been leached away by the end. I'm honestly going to try to keep this short because I don't really want to think about it for very long. The parts of this that I enjoyed were pretty much all the movie and production aspects. We're following and up-and-coming actress and a makeup artist/special effects artist as they work together on a new B-list creature horror film. All of the details about makeup and practical effects, the preparation for certain types of scenes and gore, all of the little odds and ends that go into producing a movie (especially a low-budget, sorta cheesy/campy horror flick) and what it's like being on set: all of that was really interesting. I liked both main characters a lot at first. Lilah is closeted and bi, trying to find a way to come out and find community, juggling all the expectations of perfection that have been placed on her; Noa is out and proud, a big movie geek, a huge fan of Lilah's, and has problems with being judgemental. They're both Jewish, and while they're not necessarily devout, it's important culturally to them both.

My problem was that this book would not sit still and let the characters exist on equal footing for any length of time. From day one, they were misunderstanding each other about something or other, and as soon as one thing got cleared up, it felt like there would be another. Miscommunication/misunderstandings aren't always a bad trope, but here it was so constant, it was literally exhausting. I feel like we barely got to see them just exist and get to know each other as people and then as a couple; those moments were unfortunately really rare, imo. There's always some suspicion that one woman has about the other, or a secret that she's holding back, something that she won't say. There are, of course, reasons why they don't talk to each other about certain things, but it felt SO contrived. And then there were moments where you would THINK that something had been resolved, but then it would still be used later on as a point of tension/conflict? Like when Noa tells Lilah that Denise doesn't want any cast/crew fraternising, and Lilah is pretty frustrated about it. Noa explains that she doesn't want to come out about their relationship because there's a good chance that Denise might literally fire her (which is a big deal, because Noa has no job stability). Lilah says okay, but then a few chapters later she's back to accusing Noa of 'hiding from Denise'. What? She literally explained that she could lose her job? Idk, they both annoyed me so much on different occasions, and while I could see the potential for chemistry and spark, it didn't feel like enough of the page time was used for that. There was a bit of an intrigue with Lilah's stalker, but the fact that she never TOLD Noa or anyone about it made me want to tear me hair out. And that makes me sad, because this was honestly pretty well written, and the characters were so cute. But as a romance, it was barely enjoyable.

Listened to the audiobook as read by Natalie Naudus. Thank god. I mean, I genuinely think she has one of the best voices out there, with so much range, never any over-acting, a lot of emotion. But I literally can't imagine getting through this without the aid of the audiobook. I do think that with some better plotting and restructuring of the romantic arc, this could have been great. As is... even thinking about this book makes me tired. I'm glad to put it down.