Reviews with content warning for Hate crime - What If It's Us

Reviews tagging 'Hate crime'

What If It's Us by Becky Albertalli, Adam Silvera

6 reviews

justinekorson's review against another edition

emotional funny reflective sad tense 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

3.0

It really is a book thats been SET in it's timeline. The story was published in 2018 and honestly... that's when you should have read it. I bought it back then but never got to it. Because of this, reading it in 2024 wasn't a good experience.

All the references to Harry Potter weren't it for me. I haven't been a supporter or fan of Rowling in a long time because of all the trashy shit she's said over the part few years. This book came out JUST BEFORE she made all those TERF comments on Twitter(X) so I didn't like reading that. There was also so many references to Hamilton too that it was honestly annoying. It felt like every other page had either a Hamilton reference or a Harry Potter one and I didn't enjoy that.

Arthur and Ben's third act break up was also... so overdramatic?? I felt like I was watching some reality TV show where the people exaggerate everything. I understood where Arthur was coming from, thinking Ben was cheating on him but they were literally in a public place yelling at each other and then Arthur turns around and yells at his best friends for hiding their relationship from him. when they tried to apologize Arthur twisted their words around so badly that he upset himself AGAIN when all he had to do was listen to his friends. It was especially shitty because... Arthur never even really apologizes for being a bad friend. He'd practically dumped Jessie and Ethan when he started dating Ben and when he did talk to them, all he talked about was Ben. It was so painfully obvious that Ethan and Jessie wanted to tell Ben something too but he never caught on.

Overall... I wish I read the book sooner and I also don't know how I feel about reading the sequel I have.

Content Warnings

whosfernn's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional funny hopeful 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

4.25

A beautiful story about teenage love and longing (plus how it's possible to be friends with your exes). Totally going to read the sequel if I get chance!

Content Warnings