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spiffyb13's review
emotional
funny
hopeful
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
3.0
_moony00_'s review
challenging
funny
lighthearted
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
2.75
I liked the portrayal of the plot in general, but I guess I had some difficulties to feel attachment to the characters. This means, unfortunately, that I found the reading of this book pretty boring. I couldn't really get involved in what was happening. I think that other people, maybe younger than me, could enjoy it more though.
The only thing that pisses me off is that books can go really close to tell a good story about polyamory but they seems like they don't want to do it. This book was sooo close!
I get it that it wasn't the intention, but it was disappointing.
Anyway, I really loved the message that you can have feelings (romantically, physically, platonically, etc) for different people at the same time.
And this book sends this message and it does it pretty well (the problem was never being with another guy, but being dishonest).
Except in the end it got lost a little bit.
The only thing that pisses me off is that books can go really close to tell a good story about polyamory but they seems like they don't want to do it. This book was sooo close!
I get it that it wasn't the intention, but it was disappointing.
Anyway, I really loved the message that you can have feelings (romantically, physically, platonically, etc) for different people at the same time.
And this book sends this message and it does it pretty well (the problem was never being with another guy, but being dishonest).
Except in the end it got lost a little bit.
jsncnrd's review against another edition
2.0
I enjoyed this book, but did not love it. It was not without quite a few flaws.
THE GOOD:
Overall, I really liked the story. I, for the most part, enjoyed Jay as the main character. He did seem realistic in that he acted like a genuine hormonal, naive, still-maturing teen would. He was likable enough and although some of his actions were certainly... questionable, I found myself wanting him to have his happy ending.
I think the message of sex positivity was quite important, but at times it was completely overdone. There were also some negatives to this (see below).
Albert was such a fantastic character and love interest and the scenes between him and Jay were quite sweet and sentimental. I loved watching that relationship bloom. The back end of the book mainly dealt with righting wrongs, and I think that those plot lines were some of the best in the book.
There were some genuinely great moments that were heartfelt and charming. The book had its moments of humor, and it also had its moments of some level of seriousness that created a good balance in tone.
THE NOT SO GOOD:
The characters in this book all made such questionable choices, to the point of frustration for the reader. I understand that YA novels have peaks and valleys, and are obviously part of a "coming of age" story where mistakes are to be learned from. But, this bordered on ridiculous.
I did not enjoy Max. Like, at all. Max was incredibly toxic. He admitted to attempting to sabotage Jay and Albert's relationship so that he could have a friendship that was not connected to his ex. I'm sorry, what? And then when that was addressed, it was talked about quite briefly, and then Max and Damon pushed the narrative that ALL of the things that gone down in Jay's life, every single thing, was solely his fault when truly... Max had been doing manipulative things for some petty vengeance on the side. Max betrayed Jay's trust and revealed a secret in hopes of benefitting himself and further manipulated Jay into believing that Tony was organically interested in him when really it was him doing shady shit on the side. Max took minimal accountability and that infuriated me. Jay relying on Max to make decisions for him was not good, either. Especially when those choices were to serve himself, and not Jay.
Furthermore, Lu also had some toxic traits. Within the first 20 pages of the book, she had already made it known that she would not be going to the dance with Jay because she had (a very evidently shitty) boyfriend. What irked me the most was when she told Jay she would love his help designing a winning costume, but that she and Chip would be the ones wearing it, not she and Jay. Excuse me? And then the amount of hypocrisy from her for the rest of the book was made even more irritating.
The sex positivity -- it almost became distracting. AND, the sex positivity was mostly centered around a relationship with a toxic, unlikeable, dishonest, horrible character (Tony). The message of sex positivity became completely blurred when it came to light that Jay was unintentionally helping Tony cheat on his boyfriend. Due to sex positivity becoming associated with cheating in the story, it undid the benefits of the sex positivity message and made it look more negative than anything, like "this is what happens when you're positive about sex, it ends in adultery and heartbreak" !
Another qualm -- I was not a fan of the prose or writing itself. Some of the verbiage, word usage, expressions used, etc. felt quite juvenile. Granted, this is a YA novel -- but I felt like it was written for 6th or 7th graders, when the target audience was clearly intended to be a bit more mature. Some of the writing mixed with the subject matter being explored didn't mesh well, in my opinion.
I feel that the amount of times I've used the words "toxic" and "manipulative" in this review speaks for itself. I really wanted to love this book and had been quite looking forward to it. But before I was even halfway through, it turned into me just wanting to finish it.
THE GOOD:
Overall, I really liked the story. I, for the most part, enjoyed Jay as the main character. He did seem realistic in that he acted like a genuine hormonal, naive, still-maturing teen would. He was likable enough and although some of his actions were certainly... questionable, I found myself wanting him to have his happy ending.
I think the message of sex positivity was quite important, but at times it was completely overdone. There were also some negatives to this (see below).
Albert was such a fantastic character and love interest and the scenes between him and Jay were quite sweet and sentimental. I loved watching that relationship bloom. The back end of the book mainly dealt with righting wrongs, and I think that those plot lines were some of the best in the book.
There were some genuinely great moments that were heartfelt and charming. The book had its moments of humor, and it also had its moments of some level of seriousness that created a good balance in tone.
THE NOT SO GOOD:
The characters in this book all made such questionable choices, to the point of frustration for the reader. I understand that YA novels have peaks and valleys, and are obviously part of a "coming of age" story where mistakes are to be learned from. But, this bordered on ridiculous.
I did not enjoy Max. Like, at all. Max was incredibly toxic. He admitted to attempting to sabotage Jay and Albert's relationship so that he could have a friendship that was not connected to his ex. I'm sorry, what? And then when that was addressed, it was talked about quite briefly, and then Max and Damon pushed the narrative that ALL of the things that gone down in Jay's life, every single thing, was solely his fault when truly... Max had been doing manipulative things for some petty vengeance on the side. Max betrayed Jay's trust and revealed a secret in hopes of benefitting himself and further manipulated Jay into believing that Tony was organically interested in him when really it was him doing shady shit on the side. Max took minimal accountability and that infuriated me. Jay relying on Max to make decisions for him was not good, either. Especially when those choices were to serve himself, and not Jay.
Furthermore, Lu also had some toxic traits. Within the first 20 pages of the book, she had already made it known that she would not be going to the dance with Jay because she had (a very evidently shitty) boyfriend. What irked me the most was when she told Jay she would love his help designing a winning costume, but that she and Chip would be the ones wearing it, not she and Jay. Excuse me? And then the amount of hypocrisy from her for the rest of the book was made even more irritating.
The sex positivity -- it almost became distracting. AND, the sex positivity was mostly centered around a relationship with a toxic, unlikeable, dishonest, horrible character (Tony). The message of sex positivity became completely blurred when it came to light that Jay was unintentionally helping Tony cheat on his boyfriend. Due to sex positivity becoming associated with cheating in the story, it undid the benefits of the sex positivity message and made it look more negative than anything, like "this is what happens when you're positive about sex, it ends in adultery and heartbreak" !
Another qualm -- I was not a fan of the prose or writing itself. Some of the verbiage, word usage, expressions used, etc. felt quite juvenile. Granted, this is a YA novel -- but I felt like it was written for 6th or 7th graders, when the target audience was clearly intended to be a bit more mature. Some of the writing mixed with the subject matter being explored didn't mesh well, in my opinion.
I feel that the amount of times I've used the words "toxic" and "manipulative" in this review speaks for itself. I really wanted to love this book and had been quite looking forward to it. But before I was even halfway through, it turned into me just wanting to finish it.
aabaileyauthor's review
Clunky writing, self centred character with juvenile but still sexual narration - didn’t strike a balance and felt weird to read
sylvia221's review
5.0
I was actually waiting for atleast 5 months to read this book. As the days was getting nearer I became restless to get this book on my hands finally it happened and now I am completely in the clutches of this book. I really adored this one.
It's the first positive LGBTQ book I've read where everyone accepted Jay's Sexuality. I was really happy because of it. Only that chip guy made harsh comment, so I ignored him completely. Overall I am so happy to read this book.
Jay got everything he wanted in the eighteen years of age but he totally screwed it up. I seriously loved the way he apologized to everyone. He's such a cutie pie. Hope he and Albert will be together in the next book.
Max is another cutie pie in this book. I loved the way he carried himself with self-confidence. It was wonderful. His dressing style was awesome and he helped Jay in settling down. The only thing I didn't liked was he ignored his friends when they wanted to help him.
Albert and Jay's first meeting was epic. He fell down the first day in school and met the cutest boy in school. I also freaking loved when Albert's robot came into Jay's class in an attempt to ask him for the homecoming dance. They created more special moments and I cherished them all.
The plot line was awesome. Everything was perfect and I can't think of anything I hated about this book except the chip's comment. He was completely irritating guy and thank god he didn't made any appearance further in the book.
It's the first positive LGBTQ book I've read where everyone accepted Jay's Sexuality. I was really happy because of it. Only that chip guy made harsh comment, so I ignored him completely. Overall I am so happy to read this book.
Jay got everything he wanted in the eighteen years of age but he totally screwed it up. I seriously loved the way he apologized to everyone. He's such a cutie pie. Hope he and Albert will be together in the next book.
Max is another cutie pie in this book. I loved the way he carried himself with self-confidence. It was wonderful. His dressing style was awesome and he helped Jay in settling down. The only thing I didn't liked was he ignored his friends when they wanted to help him.
Albert and Jay's first meeting was epic. He fell down the first day in school and met the cutest boy in school. I also freaking loved when Albert's robot came into Jay's class in an attempt to ask him for the homecoming dance. They created more special moments and I cherished them all.
The plot line was awesome. Everything was perfect and I can't think of anything I hated about this book except the chip's comment. He was completely irritating guy and thank god he didn't made any appearance further in the book.
dkllr's review
4.75
REASONS I LIKED THIS BOOK (in the style of one of Jay’s lists)
- It balanced the romance with real life. It wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows (literally, a gay romance set mostly in rainy Seattle).
- The main love interest was Asian (yay for representation, #TeamAlbert!).
- As an Earth sign, seeing the pitfalls made by my fellow Earth sign protagonist felt relatable, as did his penchant for list-making.
- The best friend love between Jay and Lu was just as important as the chemistry between Jay and Albert.
- All of the recurring “supporting” characters mattered.
Minor deduction in rating only for predictability and some confusion around world-building (Seattle/Washington references, random names that I couldn’t remember had been mentioned or not earlier), but overall, SWOON! 💓
davidbythebay's review
emotional
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
It was cute. Jay, our MC, was a bit too much of a horny, sex obsessed gay stereotype who unironically fought against the whole stereotype world view of gays, while also fulfilling several stereotypes. The constant recital of the agenda list - with or without modifications- was overused. You saw where the triangle was going and everyone comes together in the end rather perfectly despite it possibly being strained given the character traits of the persons involved. But it was cute and full of adorkable moments. (That's right- adorkable, adorable and dorky.)
jailene's review against another edition
emotional
inspiring
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.5
tg9129's review
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0