Reviews - Amelia, If Only | The StoryGraph

405 reviews for:

Amelia, If Only

Becky Albertalli

3.82 AVERAGE

paigeminer's review against another edition

3.0

emotional funny hopeful lighthearted fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

patykjulia's review

4.5

emotional funny inspiring reflective 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

faithharmony's review against another edition

1.5

funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

csp_reads's review against another edition

3.5

lighthearted medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

missindyrose's review against another edition

4.0

funny lighthearted reflective 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

bookishends's review against another edition

3.5

I love a Becky Albertalli book, but I haven’t read one of her releases in a hot minute, so I was excited to pick up Amelia, If Only. It had some of the hallmarks of her writing with Jewish rep and discourse around pressure to come out or being outed. What I loved most about the book was the conversation around fan culture and parasocial behavior and the effect they can have on the celebrity.

This story was really fascinating from the perspective of someone who doesn’t stan anything or anyone anymore. Humans are fallible, and that’s way too time consuming. I like to casually enjoy things. But as a teenager, I was all about a parasocial relationship. Justin Bieber. 1D. 5SOS. Cody Simpson. Mindless Behavior. Small indie bands. At one point, every single inch of my walls was covered in posters from teen magazines. So, I could understand the draw Amelia had to Walter because of how she related to him.

The latter half of the book was my favorite because there was some serious tea spilling that had me fully invested. Being famous can sound like a horror story at times, and I truly can’t imagine what it feels like to have people think they know every facet of your being.

Amelia herself was a lot, and I think where the book lost me was with the humor. There was a lot of banter in the book that didn’t land without knowing all the lore and inside jokes of the friend group, especially since Amelia was constantly joking throughout the book. I also didn’t care much for the romance part of the story. It felt a little tacked on rather than integrated throughout the story, and I just didn’t believe in the relationship.

Overall, I think this is a read for those interested in fandom and who love good side characters. I do wish I had realized this was connected to Imogen, Obviously because I would have read that first, so I could have had more background on Imogen and Tessa.

*Thank you to the publisher for the finished copy. All opinions are my own.*

alexisnasya's review against another edition

4.0

funny 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: Yes

A sweet, queer romance that touches more on inappropriate online discourse surrounding the lives of queer folks and what the average person is entitled to from an internet personality. A bit predictable but in the romance kind of way, not in a bad way. Overall, just a cute queer group of friends growing into their identities a bit more and coming to terms with themselves. This one was maybe my least favorite of the Becky Albertalli books, but it’s not because it wasn’t her usual adorable and readable book. There was just some layer of depth missing for me, I think. I think there were moments of tension when Amelia and Natalie were feeling sort of detached or withdrawn that I wanted to dive into a bit more. I would also love more Mark POV but that would probably be a different book altogether. Anyhow, it was good, as all of Becky Albertalli’s books are, just not my favorite of hers.