Reviews with content warning for Abandonment - Hot Dog Girl

Hot Dog Girl was a huge disappointment and I honestly was expecting better. I was expecting a sweet summer love story about two girls discovering their feelings for each other. Instead I got something totally different then what I was expecting.

The writing in this book was not that great, it felt like it could have used more polishing and at times didn't make sense like it should have. Not too mention that besides Seely and Lou's father I didn't like any of the other characters. They just felt flat and weren't really that memorable to me. They just seem like they were boring and didn't have that much of a personality that were different from each other.

My main problem with this book was the main character Lou. I didn't like her at all, she was selfish and didn't care about anyone but herself the whole time! She not only used her best friend Seely to try to get the attention of a guy but this guy she wanted so badly was taken already by a girl named Jessa. Which she for some reason had so much hatred towards her. I don't know why she hated her so much except that she was dating the boy she liked. No other reason was really given to why Lou would hate her. I thought useless girl hate was in the past and we moved past all that. Of course toward the end they had to make Jessa do something that made Lou's hate of her justified which felt out of now where and forced. It felt like they had to give a reason for the hate whether it made sense or not. Lou's actions and schemes throughout the book made her appear so selfish such as ruining her friend's reputation where they worked and not seeming to care that her friend was watching her grandmother die slowly. She just honestly ruined the experience of the book for me!

A big disappointment to start of the new year which I hope can only get better and I hope I can find more success which are not like this book!

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thesigilwitch's review

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hopeful lighthearted reflective 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? It's complicated

4.0

Hot dog girl was a really happy surprise for me, I definitely picked it up based on aesthetics and I saw that a lot of the featured reviews were more negative. I'm so glad I borrowed the audiobook on Libby and gave it a chance anyway. This is the kind of beautiful and believable young-adult romcom I wish I'd had a chance to read when I was in High School.

Elouise (Lou) is a teenage girl on a mission, to have the best summer ever, to get the boy she has a huge crush on (despite him being in a relationship) and to discover what really matters long term. When she learns the small town amusement park she work at is closing after this summer Lou immediately throws herself into trying to save the park even if she doesn't understand what her motivation for that really is. Elouise is going through a lot of relatable struggles that I don't think I could have appreciated as much if I had read it as a 16-18 year old. The relationship between Lou and her Mother is not a positive one, stemming from her mother abandoning the family when she was young. The postcards her mother sends add unnecessary pain and readers might relate to the narcissism and selfishness of her mother. I'm glad that we don't get to meet her as an active character in the story, but she is definitely a strong part of Lou's character development. The Author did a good job of making the narrator reliable and it felt like a story told by a young teen. Fake dating is not a trope for everybody but it works in this story and it's interesting the see the F/F aspect and yes there is a stereotype of being bi (dating same sex) to make a opposite sex person jealous. Elouise is in the wrong and the author didn't make it feel like dangerous promotion of the stereotype, just an acknowledgement that this happens. The best part of this book for me was seeing Elouise had so much platonic love for Seeley and the way she was always talking her up even when they were fighting. It is so much easier at that age to hype up your friend then yourself and the way Elouise's confidence(or lack) plays into her not thinking she's worthy of See.

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thebookpaiges's review

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funny hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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gcreed13's review

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emotional funny lighthearted slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

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alliemikennareads's review against another edition

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funny lighthearted reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

I wasn’t loving the main character Lou at first - I was prepared to find her deeply annoying the entire book. But she grew on me very quickly and has good growth by the end. She’s extremely chaotic which was relatable for me. And of course I love the bi+ rep - it’s really well done here.

What else I loved:
We love a summer amusement park setting and short chapters that make this feel like a very fast read.

This was chock full of teen angst in the best possible way - not to the point of annoying but it had me smirking as I read - which is hard to pull off.

This is predictable in the intentional, you realize far before the narrator does kind of way - and I kinda loved it here? The bi panic and general approach to sexuality is fabulously written in my opinion.

HER DAD. If you’ve read this you get why.

TW: Absent parent (heavy theme) vomit (very frequently mentioned but not super gory graphic)

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imjustbeinghumble's review

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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