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gdrake's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Moderate: Miscarriage
imlaurenshelton's review
- 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
Graphic: Miscarriage, Car accident, Alcohol, Vomit, and Cursing
Moderate: Pregnancy, Body shaming, Racism, Infidelity, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Adult/minor relationship and Sexual harassment
nicolelovesbooks's review
4.0
Moderate: Car accident and Miscarriage
lunep's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Bullying, Fatphobia, Injury/Injury detail, Alcohol, Vomit, Body shaming, Medical content, Miscarriage, and Grief
Moderate: Racism, Cursing, Infidelity, Misogyny, and Pregnancy
Minor: Sexual harassment, Classism, Animal cruelty, Addiction, and Alcoholism
Additional CWs: Manipulation, and groomingconsiderthelily's review
- 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
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Miscarriage, and Car accident
Moderate: Fatphobia
Minor: Vomit
carleneslibrary's review
- 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
Only one thing kept me from loving it more. It has a jarring pregnancy loss and I've had 3 of those. That took me off guard and brought up emotions in not the best way. But if I'd known it was there I may not have read the book and I did enjoy it, so I suppose it worked out alright in the end.
Moderate: Miscarriage
leahjanespeare's review
- 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
4.0
What I did like:
-the writing. It's great for a debut.
-Marnie's internal narration/voice. It's funny and nerdy. This is definitely classified as a bildungsroman and not a 'YA rom com' because a lot of the plot is moved forward by her self growth and working through things that a lot of teenagers struggle with. Fitting in, family love, self worth etc.
-I did appreciate that as part of this growth, the inclusion of Marnie's crush on an unattainable asshole. This is where I had to repeat my mantra of "she is a teenager" for some of the stupid, naive decisions she makes and situations she finds herself in. She doesn't handle it all well, but I think this creepy situation played out realistically for someone her age: comments were dismissed and she doesn't tell people everything. Her feelings go from heart-eyes obsessed to self-doubt with a rollercoaster in between and I haven't seen this kind of plot in any YA contemporary before. (Probably plots like this are often in the slightly darker YA contemporary which I don't tend to read.)
-boarding school setting, her friendships
What I didn't care for as much:
-Alright so for a giant twist in this sweet genre, there is a BIG TRIGGER WARNING for a miscarriage by way of car accident. It was almost triggering to me and I don't have kids and likely won't ever. But holy shit that part of the book was maybe a little unnecessary in its extremity. To be clear it's not Marnie's, but a side character's. But the trauma of that character is described pretty intensely. I feel like a different traumatic situation could have been introduced and had the same plot-result. This was just unexpected for a relatively lighthearted YA with otherwise mild themes.
-The love interest was the definition of...'that escalated quickly'. Because this is a bildungsroman YA story, a lot of the book focused on Marnie as a teenager, and not developing a romantic relationship for the center of the plot. I liked the slow burn side romance that was something Marnie was thinking about, but not her main concern. (that's technically a pro in my list here) BUT then on like the last page she is like 'omg i love you!' and kisses him for the first time and then the story ends and I was like...wtf no? So it was good until the literal last moment.
-also a minor trigger warning for a couple fatphobic comments from Marnie's mom, but from how I read it, these comments were not supported by any other characters or the narrative, so it was her mom being a bitch. That being said, no one really said anything to defend Marnie from those small comments.
- Marnie is also part of a super rich family and her privilege could have been acknowledged more since she seemed a pretty socially savvy character for a cishet white person. But it's not that kind of story, so I get why it wasn't touched upon.
All in all, great read and I am definitely going to pick up Lola's story next!
Graphic: Miscarriage
Minor: Sexual harassment
pointeshoebookworm's review against another edition
- 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
1.0
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship
Moderate: Car accident, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Child death, and Miscarriage
Minor: Classism
kermjordan's review
- 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
3.25
Her anxiety and literary references eventually won me over. And seeing her jealousy of her sister chip away, and seeing the family come together over a tragedy was very heartwarming.
Graphic: Pregnancy and Miscarriage
Moderate: Car accident and Gaslighting
Minor: Adult/minor relationship and Abandonment
erin_curry's review
- 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
Moderate: Miscarriage