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ingvild23's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-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
3.75
aleahjford's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
janaebeaver's review against another edition
I had my suspicions about whether this was going to be a good book, and then the author misused “your” when they should have used “you’re”
plumjam's review against another edition
3.0
While an easy and engaging read, the endless amount of tropes and constant arguing between the two main characters hindered how much of that was an enjoyable experience. I can't help but feel let down by what this book could've been. You see, the first four chapters of this book grabbed my full attention with it's seemingly nuanced character dynamics and I excited to see where the story went, expecting something different which may have been naive of me in retrospect. [the rest of this review won't make much sense without have reading the book]
I personally think it would have been a lot more interesting to see Sophie and Charlie have an actually functioning relationship. Not romantically or sexually considering Sophie being a closeted lesbian, but maybe have a life as best friends, and an open relationship that they keep hidden from their small town. Maybe Charlie had a lover or just had flings, the difference being it was communicative. Same for Sophie. Maybe she was even secretly (to the town not, Charlie) apart of an LGBT community out in Austin. It wouldn't be ideal for either of them, but the best they felt they could do for the sake of their reputation, their daughter, and their lasting guilt of betraying the girl they were both once in love with. Of course, this alternative would require completely changing Charlie's character and to that, I say: yes, please. This premise would've relieved the story from a number of its tropes such as the girl who dreamed of leaving for the city but didn't, the wife of a man running for senate being a closeted lesbian, the husband being a cheating and controlling asshole, and it could go on.
Overused tropes aren't the end of the world if the story has more to offer than said tropes, and to a degree The Secret of You and Me does. The characters are interesting, though not as much as I hoped based on the first four chapters. Sophie and Nora would've certainly saved themselves quite a bit of likability if it weren't for the constant, repetitive arguing. It's really a shame too because the fights that came in the later chapters were clearly meant to feel climactic and emotional and genuinely could've been if I weren't exhausted from reading it over and over in every chapter leaving the climax feeling melodramatic and anti-climatic. Even when Sophie is out to her family and dating Nora they managed to get into three different arguments within four pages.
I'm also very tired of coming out being the end all be all in every LGBT story. These are women almost in their forties for christ's sake. That's not to say people can't come out or realize they're gay at all ages, but it's somewhat frustrating that this trend can't be shaken off even in a story about queer women well into adulthood. It's not even Sophie being in the closet that bothers me so much as coming out being the conclusion to her character arc. Why does the conclusion to every gay characters' arc have to be them coming out? It's also fairly ironic that the main character arc revolves around coming out when almost every situation Nora and Sophie were outed was against their will and not their decision.
I personally think it would have been a lot more interesting to see Sophie and Charlie have an actually functioning relationship. Not romantically or sexually considering Sophie being a closeted lesbian, but maybe have a life as best friends, and an open relationship that they keep hidden from their small town. Maybe Charlie had a lover or just had flings, the difference being it was communicative. Same for Sophie. Maybe she was even secretly (to the town not, Charlie) apart of an LGBT community out in Austin. It wouldn't be ideal for either of them, but the best they felt they could do for the sake of their reputation, their daughter, and their lasting guilt of betraying the girl they were both once in love with. Of course, this alternative would require completely changing Charlie's character and to that, I say: yes, please. This premise would've relieved the story from a number of its tropes such as the girl who dreamed of leaving for the city but didn't, the wife of a man running for senate being a closeted lesbian, the husband being a cheating and controlling asshole, and it could go on.
Overused tropes aren't the end of the world if the story has more to offer than said tropes, and to a degree The Secret of You and Me does. The characters are interesting, though not as much as I hoped based on the first four chapters. Sophie and Nora would've certainly saved themselves quite a bit of likability if it weren't for the constant, repetitive arguing. It's really a shame too because the fights that came in the later chapters were clearly meant to feel climactic and emotional and genuinely could've been if I weren't exhausted from reading it over and over in every chapter leaving the climax feeling melodramatic and anti-climatic. Even when Sophie is out to her family and dating Nora they managed to get into three different arguments within four pages.
I'm also very tired of coming out being the end all be all in every LGBT story. These are women almost in their forties for christ's sake. That's not to say people can't come out or realize they're gay at all ages, but it's somewhat frustrating that this trend can't be shaken off even in a story about queer women well into adulthood. It's not even Sophie being in the closet that bothers me so much as coming out being the conclusion to her character arc. Why does the conclusion to every gay characters' arc have to be them coming out? It's also fairly ironic that the main character arc revolves around coming out when almost every situation Nora and Sophie were outed was against their will and not their decision.
dani_1405's review against another edition
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
This entire review is essentially going to be spoilers because I have so many issues with the contents of this book. Before that, I will say the overall writing of this book isn’t horrific, however the contents and the interactions between characters are where most of my issues lie.
Where do I even start? Let’s start with the hypersexualisation of queer people, more specifically sapphic relationships. This is a harmful trope in media and this book is riddled with it. At one point in an argument with Charlie, Sophie describes "I flinched at how he turned my time with Nora, something beautiful and full of love, into something crude and dirty" and yet, unless I missed something, all descriptions of their relationship had been involved with heavy make out sessions and sex. That's not me saying sex is dirty in anyway, but there had been no 'domestic' moments between Nora and Sophie to show the genuine love between the two. Another issue I had linked to sexuality and queerness is when Sophie asked Nora how she was supposed to trust her because she's bisexual. this is just another very harmful stereotype about bisexual people, and as a bisexual woman myself I really didn't like it.
The fact that the only Muslim character (one of the only character's who isn't white) was told that she "sounds like a terrorist" while speaking Farsi and again is later described as Nora's "terrorist girlfriend". Disgusting. I get that the small town is homophobic, racist and just prejudiced in every way possible but this just felt really unnecessary.
Speaking of the small town, as I said this small town is repeatedly presented as outwardly homophobic, racist, very conservative, very Christian. But it is overbearing. Characters make comments randomly in conversations just to prove their prejudice and then when Sophie finally announces that she's a lesbian in front of a crowd of these very conservative, very Christian people, not a single comment is made. I didn't want to have to read more homophobic abuse directed towards the characters, however it made absolutely no sense that they were suddenly so quiet when one of their most popular town members came out.
As well as this, pretty much every character in the book cheats on another character at some point, in fact I think the only relationship that doesn't have any instance of cheating is the one between Logan and Joaquin but even then they break up by the end of the book. This just makes the grown adult characters seem very childish and also seems ridiculous that again in a small town where everyone knows everyone's business, people are able to so easily get away with cheating on their spouses. As a separate point that is semi-linked to this because it's about relationships between the characters, the arguments that Nora, Sophie and Charlie have throughout this book are ridiculous and so selfish and sometimes Nora is in the wrong then Sophie says something outrageous and she's in the wrong and it's just a mess.
And now we come to Sophie's mother. The most Christian and homophobic of them all. Now while Sophie's mother is an abhorrent person, my first point about her is actually to do with Nora and Sophie's interaction with her after they've rekindled their relationship. Nora and Sophie repeatedly antagonise Sophie's mother with jokes about them making out, having sex and in general just being together. And while I understand the comedy in purposefully making a bigot uncomfortable, it happens to often and so it starts to feel childish? Anyway, the other issues I had involving Sophie's mother is the ending.
We end the book with Sophie's mother coming to Nora's house, finding Nora and Sophie together and once again berating them for even being in the same room. Nora and Sophie stand up for themselves, which is a good thing, but then Sophie's mother reveals that she was going to charge Nora with rape when they were younger. This is then explained as the reason why Nora's father sent her to basic training, to protect her, while Nora thought he couldn't deal with having a queer daughter. And so, Nora's whole perception of her life is turned on it's head, and then the book just ends with Nora and Sophie saying they love each other. Considering there were so many other random plot points that got development or some form of resolution it felt so strange to have a pretty major reveal on literally the second to last page of this book.
Overall, the book was awful, the reading experience was even worse and I wouldn't even recommend this to my worst enemy.
The fact that the only Muslim character (one of the only character's who isn't white) was told that she "sounds like a terrorist" while speaking Farsi and again is later described as Nora's "terrorist girlfriend". Disgusting. I get that the small town is homophobic, racist and just prejudiced in every way possible but this just felt really unnecessary.
Speaking of the small town, as I said this small town is repeatedly presented as outwardly homophobic, racist, very conservative, very Christian. But it is overbearing. Characters make comments randomly in conversations just to prove their prejudice and then when Sophie finally announces that she's a lesbian in front of a crowd of these very conservative, very Christian people, not a single comment is made. I didn't want to have to read more homophobic abuse directed towards the characters, however it made absolutely no sense that they were suddenly so quiet when one of their most popular town members came out.
As well as this, pretty much every character in the book cheats on another character at some point, in fact I think the only relationship that doesn't have any instance of cheating is the one between Logan and Joaquin but even then they break up by the end of the book. This just makes the grown adult characters seem very childish and also seems ridiculous that again in a small town where everyone knows everyone's business, people are able to so easily get away with cheating on their spouses. As a separate point that is semi-linked to this because it's about relationships between the characters, the arguments that Nora, Sophie and Charlie have throughout this book are ridiculous and so selfish and sometimes Nora is in the wrong then Sophie says something outrageous and she's in the wrong and it's just a mess.
And now we come to Sophie's mother. The most Christian and homophobic of them all. Now while Sophie's mother is an abhorrent person, my first point about her is actually to do with Nora and Sophie's interaction with her after they've rekindled their relationship. Nora and Sophie repeatedly antagonise Sophie's mother with jokes about them making out, having sex and in general just being together. And while I understand the comedy in purposefully making a bigot uncomfortable, it happens to often and so it starts to feel childish? Anyway, the other issues I had involving Sophie's mother is the ending.
We end the book with Sophie's mother coming to Nora's house, finding Nora and Sophie together and once again berating them for even being in the same room. Nora and Sophie stand up for themselves, which is a good thing, but then Sophie's mother reveals that she was going to charge Nora with rape when they were younger. This is then explained as the reason why Nora's father sent her to basic training, to protect her, while Nora thought he couldn't deal with having a queer daughter. And so, Nora's whole perception of her life is turned on it's head, and then the book just ends with Nora and Sophie saying they love each other. Considering there were so many other random plot points that got development or some form of resolution it felt so strange to have a pretty major reveal on literally the second to last page of this book.
Overall, the book was awful, the reading experience was even worse and I wouldn't even recommend this to my worst enemy.
merrmaidbar's review against another edition
3.0
i think i wouldve liked this more if it wasn’t packaged as a romance novel??? it was a bit hard to read in places due to the EXTREME homophobia and lesbophobia and just the general unaccepting views
I also honestly …. preferred nora and alima’s relationship???? idk i didnt think sophie and nora had a good healthy relationship even by the end tbh
i did however love love love the mother daughter relationship developing between sophie and logan and i also loved that sophie used the word lesbian to describe herself 99% of the time, and i loved that nora was so comfortable identifying as bisexual. i think the actual discussion of identity was really good in this
I also honestly …. preferred nora and alima’s relationship???? idk i didnt think sophie and nora had a good healthy relationship even by the end tbh
i did however love love love the mother daughter relationship developing between sophie and logan and i also loved that sophie used the word lesbian to describe herself 99% of the time, and i loved that nora was so comfortable identifying as bisexual. i think the actual discussion of identity was really good in this
isla03_6's review against another edition
4.0
I really loved this book, and the way the f/f romance felt so familiar and was very comforting as a queer woman myself. There is a very strong trigger warning for completely uncensored homophobia and internalized homophobia in this book that might be really hard for LGBTQ+ people to read, so just think about that when going into this book. It is super fast-paced and extremely well-developed characters; even the side characters feel so real and you understand so much about them, no matter how little you actually read about them.
gabsmarchand's review against another edition
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
pixieqirl's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
sambabiak's review against another edition
emotional
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
4.0