Reviews with content warning for Mental illness - Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute

Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute by Talia Hibbert

173 reviews

wardenred's review against another edition

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

4.5

For God’s sake, we are enemies. There are rules to this sort of thing. He’s not supposed to address me unless he’s calling me a know-it-all or challenging me to a duel.

For over half of the journey I enjoyed this book so, so damn much. It's written in such a fun way! The banter and the characters' inner thoughts made me laugh out loud all the time. I really liked how, at least at the beginning, both leads were pretty self-aware, except for when they were each other's blind spots (and except for when Bradley very relatable avoided considering specific things that caused him anxiety). I liked how Celine unapologetically owned her flaws while also trying to balance them with her need to succeed and being willing to listen to other people and learn about them. Even more so, I liked Bradley: his personality, his conflicts including his super relatable writing angst, the way his OCD was handled. Very often in YA, if there's a character with mental disorder, their arc is largely built around learning to handle it, so I expected something like that. Instead, Bradley comes into the story already pretty well equipped to manage his condition. There was that one highly relatable scene where Celine expected him to break down after encountering a trigger and he instead talked himself down, employing the same tricks I use to manage anxiety and emotional spikes, loved how that played out.

There were also a lot of cool side characters who, while at large they didn't get much page time, were all believable and interesting. The chapters that dealt with the Explorers program were my favorite because of all those characters and interactions the leads had with them, in addition to the fun camping stuff. But I also enjoyed the leads' families and how they interacted and how Celine and Bradley perceived each other's family life. Honestly, the parts of the book that were more pure YA than romance ended up my absolute favorites.

As for the romance, wellll... At first, I was hooked. While these two were in their enemies era, they were endlessly entertaining together. Besides, best friends to enemies to lovers is my favorite dynamic in the world, so I had high expectations from the get go. Up until they struck an uneasy truce and started talking about what transpired between them years ago, I was eating it up. But afterward, their dynamic started changing in ways that kind of made me feel they'd be better off as friends. Perhaps not even super close ones. Like, keep talking it out, sure. Then maybe drift comfortably apart pursuing your own goals, but keep in touch and keep reconnecting now and then. The egregious miscommunications and the third act break-up really didn't help me ship these two. There was also this overall mismatch between the way their individual character arcs and the romantic arc played out. Like the romance practically stood in the way of each of these kids from working through their individual challenges and succeeding at their individual goals. So that wasn't very shippy to me at all.

On the other hand, like I've said, the YA/coming-of-age novel parts were super well done, the humor was awesome, and the characters themselves were super fun to follow. So this book gets a high mark from me regardless.

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thehannahclaire's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful 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? It's complicated

2.5

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bookishkellyn's review against another edition

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adventurous funny

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

4.5

This was very much on the teen side of YA, but the sarcastic humor drew me in. I’m aging myself, but the vibe reminded me of MTV’s Daria. With Brad and Celine’s dynamic reminiscent of its Black characters, Mack & Jodie–if they were British and in denial about their feelings for one another. The book’s synopsis covers such a small part of the plot. Their feud is dispatched rather quickly, and their rekindled friendship is the highlight of the book. Points deducted for the third-act “breakup.”

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peculiarmademoiselle's review against another edition

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emotional funny 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

4.0

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kxtielouisexo's review against another edition

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4.0

every book i've read by Talia i've loved and it was no different for this one. i love her take and honesty on chronic illness / mental illness - especially as someone who lives with one.

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lindseyhall44's review against another edition

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emotional 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

5.0

In my opinion, Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute was a perfect romcom. Talia Hibbert can do no wrong, and her signature humor and wit is all over these pages. Seeing a black love story like this made my heart so incredibly happy!!

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kyrstin_p1989's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful 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

3.5

I loved her other books but this one was more of a slow burn for me initially. I ended up enjoying it by the end. It’s a really adorable friends to enemies to lovers and coming of age all wrapped up in one. Like in Hibbert’s other novels, the characters are well-written, distinctive, and so very loveable.

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bzliz's review against another edition

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emotional funny lighthearted fast-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

This book was in fact Highly Cute and made for a perfect palate cleanser as I’m reading some heavier books as well. Talia Hibbert always delivers adorable characters and she really captured the feeling of teen love here. The supporting cast wasn’t super fleshed out but Celine and Bradley felt so real to me. It’s hard to toe the line between gritty realism and YA romance but I think Hibbert did a damn good job.

I’d hesitate to call this enemies to lovers- can someone really be your enemy if you have to trade witty barbs while sitting next to each other in Philosophy class?- so I’ll call it ex-friends to friends to lovers instead. I don’t know if there’s a tropey name for “school age people who have to do an activity outside of school so they have a reason to be away from their parents for plot to happen but they still ultimately get to be young and innocent” but if that exists, this is a perfect example of it.

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becksusername's review against another edition

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emotional 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

3.5

Fun, cute, PG (thank god)

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batesbarb's review against another edition

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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

4.25

Talia Hibbert strikes again. I've never read a book by her that I didn't love. I don't tend to be terribly enthusiastic about YA romances, since it's been a VERY long time since I was a teenager, and I don't always relate to the perspectives and dynamics. But, this book is an absolute masterpiece of characterization and even when I wanted to shake the various characters and encourage them to make better choices, everything that happened made perfect sense with what we know about the characters, and what they've done before.

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