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4.0 AVERAGE
4.0 AVERAGE
I really liked this book. Well, loved it is probably a better way to describe the way I think about it. I finished it a couple days ago. I think I liked it so much because I could relate to Alex and what they were going through. Will definitely reread at some point (and probably buy a physical copy)
(I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.)
(I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.)
emotional
inspiring
lighthearted
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
emotional
funny
hopeful
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:
Yes
Thought the story was great but the execution was lacking.
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
The message is amazing but the execution was lacking.
First of all, the representation this book gives is wonderful and authors should take note of it but that is also were this book has its flaws.
Each and every character represented some other gender or sexuality, which is great, but that's all it was. The characters felt like spokepersons for a different type of sexuality (to generalize: a different type of queer), they all had some other sexuality and their sole purpose in this book was to preach about this sexuality and what it meant. They, essentially, could have been cardboard cutouts with information about the different sexualities/genders. They had no personality, aside from what I already described, which made it really hard, as a reader, to connect with them and the story (stuff they were going through).
The characters also had no reasoning for their actions, they just did things. Like the mean guys: Olivia and Ryder. Their only purpose in this book was to be mean to the main characters but there was no explanation as to why they were being mean. Olivia is a thin rich white girl, because ofcourse in a book that is about defying stereotypes and set roles, the mean girl is thin rich and white (I believe she had blond hair too). Her looks are the only reason given why she is mean towards the main characters, there is no other single piece of information about her, provided to the reader, to clarify why she is so mean. Also, the main character is complaining about Olivia being mean but she is just as mean when she sees Olivia getting with Ryder (who the main character knows is just out for a quick fuck) and is satisfied that Olivia is being played. It is also the last time we ever hear of her (and Ryder) It's the same with Ryder, who is just the stereotypical bully and only exists to trouble the life of the main character for one page or so. Why are they there?
The main character, Alex, does not have a personality aside from being anxious and having a gender identity crisis. We are in Alex' head for almost 300 pages and it is constantely the same, always secondguessing everything in the same repetitive monologue. Her train of thought is relatable because anybody with anxiety relates to what Alex describes and how it takes over your life. In the beginning, I really related with that but after the tenth time reading the same monologue it became boring really fast. We get it. In the end, Alex is just a really selfish person because she expects everybody around her to just be their for her and comfort her, while not seeking help elsewhere. She has this whole monologue about how she knows she is selfish and should lessen that but ultimately does not. Her friends are too nice for her, she never wants to talk about things because she doesn't want to be a burden (relatable) but at the same time she expects her friends to just know what is wrong with her and to not act on her triggers, which she doesn't even know herself. It's all so messy but the bottomline is: get a therapist who studied to help you.
Alex has a boyfriend, Tate, who is only there to be her boyfriend and make her life easier (by putting up with all her shit). The chemistry between them was really non-existing and their relationship came, literally out of nowhere. Out of the blue, Tate asks her to be her boyfriend with no build-up, at all. So, they're together and that's it. If they didn't say it, you wouldn't know they were together and the only reason they keep repeating the term 'girlfirend' is for Alex to find out she is gender questioning, weren't it for Tate to say 'my girlfriend', it felt as if it wouldn't have happened at all. It all comes down to the fact that the characters are extremely underdeveloped.
Not only the characters, but the world is underdeveloped as well. This story takes place in a made-up country in the Mediterranean Sea but that does not matter at all because not once is it mentioned that they are in this country. They could've been on the moon and you wouldn't know because nothing is mentioned about the setting. The reasons for it being a fictional country seem to be the drinking age which is 18 but then again, what does it matter? They drink like one time and if it had been any other country in Europe, the drinking age would have been 18 too. This just seem an unnecessary explanation for countries where the drinking age is over 18. But then again, it does not matter because their age isn't mentioned, for all we know they could have been 22? The author also mentiones that the sports can differentiate from the real life version of them, again does not matter because the only sports mentioned, with a bit of detail, are swimming and volleyball which isn't even talked about that much. The world is basically non-existing because the only places the characters are is their room, the swimmingpool, the volleyball court and some random places at university. There is no worldbuilding outside of these places which makes it feel as if they are the only ones in this university and this university the only building in this world is.
Another issue, they attend university but never go to any classes or mention something about classes. They are only there to practise their sport and to eat, it seems. What about you diploma? You aren't getting a diploma in swimming because what does that even mean.
The writing is a whole other problem.
The writing was very juvenile and beginner-like. I understand English is not the authors first language but that does not excuse this writing because some things could have been easily fixed during editing or proofreading. Some sentences were grammatically very weird for example: "Tate's reply didn't come right away like it did when he was free, so I understood he was still training.' There is inherently nothing wrong with this sentence but it is just framed weirdly and unnatural. It also shows the next problem which is that this whole book is written in the pattern of 'I did this and then I did that and then this happened', the whole time. That is the way you learn writing when you just learn English (or any language) and it does not read well for a book. After a while it gets very repetitive and boring to read which takes you out the story and keeps the reader at a distance. The conversations between the characters, also, felt very stiff and written English, by which I mean the sentences in the conversations make sense in writing but not in speaking. No one would talk like that. Example: 'That is a rather general and random question. Would you mind elaborating a little.' It makes sense when you write it down but when someone speaks to you like that it's just weird.
Alex is also used to say these long monologues about different sexualities, ... and to say it's okay to be that way but this is also the character that's afraid of talking to other people. It just doesn't make sense. She gives Uriah, her aro-ace friend, about what being aromentic/asexual entails despite not having any experience going through those feelings. She gives Tate a whole monologue about how he should feel accepted as a trans person and should not mind these negative comment of others. She always, out of the blue, gives a text-book monologue about some sexuality or gender thing which, again feels very unnatural and very non-friendly. She just knows everything at the right time because she is *the main character*
Throughout the whole book the same vocabulary is used for expressing different things, there is no variating in synonyms or something like that. It is always the same word used for expressing something, hence also why it feels juvenile.
All in all, the representation is excellent but not enough to save this book.
First of all, the representation this book gives is wonderful and authors should take note of it but that is also were this book has its flaws.
Each and every character represented some other gender or sexuality, which is great, but that's all it was. The characters felt like spokepersons for a different type of sexuality (to generalize: a different type of queer), they all had some other sexuality and their sole purpose in this book was to preach about this sexuality and what it meant. They, essentially, could have been cardboard cutouts with information about the different sexualities/genders. They had no personality, aside from what I already described, which made it really hard, as a reader, to connect with them and the story (stuff they were going through).
The characters also had no reasoning for their actions, they just did things. Like the mean guys: Olivia and Ryder. Their only purpose in this book was to be mean to the main characters but there was no explanation as to why they were being mean. Olivia is a thin rich white girl, because ofcourse in a book that is about defying stereotypes and set roles, the mean girl is thin rich and white (I believe she had blond hair too). Her looks are the only reason given why she is mean towards the main characters, there is no other single piece of information about her, provided to the reader, to clarify why she is so mean. Also, the main character is complaining about Olivia being mean but she is just as mean when she sees Olivia getting with Ryder (who the main character knows is just out for a quick fuck) and is satisfied that Olivia is being played. It is also the last time we ever hear of her (and Ryder) It's the same with Ryder, who is just the stereotypical bully and only exists to trouble the life of the main character for one page or so. Why are they there?
The main character, Alex, does not have a personality aside from being anxious and having a gender identity crisis. We are in Alex' head for almost 300 pages and it is constantely the same, always secondguessing everything in the same repetitive monologue. Her train of thought is relatable because anybody with anxiety relates to what Alex describes and how it takes over your life. In the beginning, I really related with that but after the tenth time reading the same monologue it became boring really fast. We get it. In the end, Alex is just a really selfish person because she expects everybody around her to just be their for her and comfort her, while not seeking help elsewhere. She has this whole monologue about how she knows she is selfish and should lessen that but ultimately does not. Her friends are too nice for her, she never wants to talk about things because she doesn't want to be a burden (relatable) but at the same time she expects her friends to just know what is wrong with her and to not act on her triggers, which she doesn't even know herself. It's all so messy but the bottomline is: get a therapist who studied to help you.
Alex has a boyfriend, Tate, who is only there to be her boyfriend and make her life easier (by putting up with all her shit). The chemistry between them was really non-existing and their relationship came, literally out of nowhere. Out of the blue, Tate asks her to be her boyfriend with no build-up, at all. So, they're together and that's it. If they didn't say it, you wouldn't know they were together and the only reason they keep repeating the term 'girlfirend' is for Alex to find out she is gender questioning, weren't it for Tate to say 'my girlfriend', it felt as if it wouldn't have happened at all. It all comes down to the fact that the characters are extremely underdeveloped.
Not only the characters, but the world is underdeveloped as well. This story takes place in a made-up country in the Mediterranean Sea but that does not matter at all because not once is it mentioned that they are in this country. They could've been on the moon and you wouldn't know because nothing is mentioned about the setting. The reasons for it being a fictional country seem to be the drinking age which is 18 but then again, what does it matter? They drink like one time and if it had been any other country in Europe, the drinking age would have been 18 too. This just seem an unnecessary explanation for countries where the drinking age is over 18. But then again, it does not matter because their age isn't mentioned, for all we know they could have been 22? The author also mentiones that the sports can differentiate from the real life version of them, again does not matter because the only sports mentioned, with a bit of detail, are swimming and volleyball which isn't even talked about that much. The world is basically non-existing because the only places the characters are is their room, the swimmingpool, the volleyball court and some random places at university. There is no worldbuilding outside of these places which makes it feel as if they are the only ones in this university and this university the only building in this world is.
Another issue, they attend university but never go to any classes or mention something about classes. They are only there to practise their sport and to eat, it seems. What about you diploma? You aren't getting a diploma in swimming because what does that even mean.
The writing is a whole other problem.
The writing was very juvenile and beginner-like. I understand English is not the authors first language but that does not excuse this writing because some things could have been easily fixed during editing or proofreading. Some sentences were grammatically very weird for example: "Tate's reply didn't come right away like it did when he was free, so I understood he was still training.' There is inherently nothing wrong with this sentence but it is just framed weirdly and unnatural. It also shows the next problem which is that this whole book is written in the pattern of 'I did this and then I did that and then this happened', the whole time. That is the way you learn writing when you just learn English (or any language) and it does not read well for a book. After a while it gets very repetitive and boring to read which takes you out the story and keeps the reader at a distance. The conversations between the characters, also, felt very stiff and written English, by which I mean the sentences in the conversations make sense in writing but not in speaking. No one would talk like that. Example: 'That is a rather general and random question. Would you mind elaborating a little.' It makes sense when you write it down but when someone speaks to you like that it's just weird.
Alex is also used to say these long monologues about different sexualities, ... and to say it's okay to be that way but this is also the character that's afraid of talking to other people. It just doesn't make sense. She gives Uriah, her aro-ace friend, about what being aromentic/asexual entails despite not having any experience going through those feelings. She gives Tate a whole monologue about how he should feel accepted as a trans person and should not mind these negative comment of others. She always, out of the blue, gives a text-book monologue about some sexuality or gender thing which, again feels very unnatural and very non-friendly. She just knows everything at the right time because she is *the main character*
Throughout the whole book the same vocabulary is used for expressing different things, there is no variating in synonyms or something like that. It is always the same word used for expressing something, hence also why it feels juvenile.
All in all, the representation is excellent but not enough to save this book.
This was a pretty quick read. The book had a very diverse cast in a world that mostly lacked the discrimination that these characters would likely face anywhere else. The characters lived their truth and explored who they were with very little challenge. One of the best qualities of this story is the communication between the characters, as they discussed their identities. Honestly, I believe people could learn a thing or two about how to talk about these potentially confusing parts of life, and listen to those whose experience might not be the same as your own.
While this is by no means a spicy book, I loved how the characters respected each-other's boundaries in a very proactive way. What I mean by this is before the characters did an activity that could put another character in what could be an uncomfortable position, they always ensured the characters comfort and asked for consent. Like I said, this book is not spicy in the slightest, but it is important to respect other's boundaries and acquire consent in all activities, which Margheritta did a great job showing here.
I've read book with "diversity" where everyone is essentially the same character (same personality, quirks, interests) with a different label slapped on them, but that is not the case here. Each character is different in their own charming way. Now lets get to character talk.
If I'm being honest, at first everything Alex did annoyed me quite a bit but they grew on me as I continued to read. Alex is a character who is plagued with anxiety and self-doubt, and they have a very strong emotional and physical reactions to those feelings. Adding to these challenges they already faced and external stressors (like their swimming competitions), they experienced an identity crisis, quickly becoming a beautiful evolution, which stressed them out further. I found myself connecting with Alex and I was surprised when I seen bits of myself in the character that I could not stand initially. As the story progressed, with the help of their amazing friend group, Alex developed more confidence (not only in their skill but also their identity) and learned how to communicate what they were feeling in a healthy way.
Tate made the whole book worth it. He was funny but sincere at the same time, and really acted as a safety net for Alex while they explored their identity. I don't want to give too much away, but he is a king. He is respectful, a great listener, and considerate of all the characters. In a way, he gives me wise old soul vibes.
The other characters, in my opinion, didn't play a huge role in the story, but created a loving environment that Alex flourished in. I do not say that to minimize their contribution to the story as a whole, though, because even as side characters, they had their own journey and goals.
Overall, the book was an easy read. The content was not too heavy that I had to put the book down and take a break or process some horrible event that the characters experienced. Like with any book, there are a few things that could have been better. The biggest turn off for me here is the writing. It read like a Wattpad story, which was a nostalgic experience itself, but not quite what I was hoping for. There was a lot of repetition, uncomfortable sentence/paragraph structures, a lack of overall flow and awkward transitions. A scene would end and it was like a black curtain came down for a second, as soon as the curtain was raised, the characters were in a completely different setting, a lot of time without warning. The characters do a lot of really random things without much (or any) consideration before hand. I would have preferred more setting description, to really immerse the reader into the story. Instead of becoming a part of the setting, it felt as though I was watching the main character from a distance as they interacted with the world around them.
With all that said, I read the whole book, bonded with the characters, blushed so hard I'm sure I was cherry red while at school, and enjoyed the dialogue. It could have easily been a five star read, if the writing style was more of what I was expecting (the idea has amazing bones). I look forward to reading Margheritta's book in the future and watching them grow as an author. Their ideas are great and I think their stories are going to become even better.
While this is by no means a spicy book, I loved how the characters respected each-other's boundaries in a very proactive way. What I mean by this is before the characters did an activity that could put another character in what could be an uncomfortable position, they always ensured the characters comfort and asked for consent. Like I said, this book is not spicy in the slightest, but it is important to respect other's boundaries and acquire consent in all activities, which Margheritta did a great job showing here.
I've read book with "diversity" where everyone is essentially the same character (same personality, quirks, interests) with a different label slapped on them, but that is not the case here. Each character is different in their own charming way. Now lets get to character talk.
If I'm being honest, at first everything Alex did annoyed me quite a bit but they grew on me as I continued to read. Alex is a character who is plagued with anxiety and self-doubt, and they have a very strong emotional and physical reactions to those feelings. Adding to these challenges they already faced and external stressors (like their swimming competitions), they experienced an identity crisis, quickly becoming a beautiful evolution, which stressed them out further. I found myself connecting with Alex and I was surprised when I seen bits of myself in the character that I could not stand initially. As the story progressed, with the help of their amazing friend group, Alex developed more confidence (not only in their skill but also their identity) and learned how to communicate what they were feeling in a healthy way.
Tate made the whole book worth it. He was funny but sincere at the same time, and really acted as a safety net for Alex while they explored their identity. I don't want to give too much away, but he is a king. He is respectful, a great listener, and considerate of all the characters. In a way, he gives me wise old soul vibes.
The other characters, in my opinion, didn't play a huge role in the story, but created a loving environment that Alex flourished in. I do not say that to minimize their contribution to the story as a whole, though, because even as side characters, they had their own journey and goals.
Overall, the book was an easy read. The content was not too heavy that I had to put the book down and take a break or process some horrible event that the characters experienced. Like with any book, there are a few things that could have been better. The biggest turn off for me here is the writing. It read like a Wattpad story, which was a nostalgic experience itself, but not quite what I was hoping for. There was a lot of repetition, uncomfortable sentence/paragraph structures, a lack of overall flow and awkward transitions. A scene would end and it was like a black curtain came down for a second, as soon as the curtain was raised, the characters were in a completely different setting, a lot of time without warning. The characters do a lot of really random things without much (or any) consideration before hand. I would have preferred more setting description, to really immerse the reader into the story. Instead of becoming a part of the setting, it felt as though I was watching the main character from a distance as they interacted with the world around them.
With all that said, I read the whole book, bonded with the characters, blushed so hard I'm sure I was cherry red while at school, and enjoyed the dialogue. It could have easily been a five star read, if the writing style was more of what I was expecting (the idea has amazing bones). I look forward to reading Margheritta's book in the future and watching them grow as an author. Their ideas are great and I think their stories are going to become even better.
emotional
funny
lighthearted
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
emotional
hopeful
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
First of all, is the author in my head?
I feel exactly like the main character.
The author did a great job at encapsulating what it is to grow up as someone who has always felt out of place and like they weren’t in the right body.
This books was almost perfect for me. I feel like if this book was a little longer, maybe even just by 50 pages, it would have helped the flow a lot.
I feel exactly like the main character.
The author did a great job at encapsulating what it is to grow up as someone who has always felt out of place and like they weren’t in the right body.
This books was almost perfect for me. I feel like if this book was a little longer, maybe even just by 50 pages, it would have helped the flow a lot.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Transphobia
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
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:
Complicated
Enjoying it & well written but just not in the place for these feels