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jamies_shelves's review against another edition
3.0
Just like the first book of this series, this book was FILLED with amazing representation! This book followed Bells as the main character, who is a black transgender boy. The other big characters are a half Vietnamese half Chinese bisexual girl, the lesbian she is dating, a half Vietnamese half Chinese gay boy, and a girl who is Hispanic and is the daughter of two smart and well respected women. We also had multiple characters come out as being ace/aro. I don't want to spoil anything and say who, but it happened and they actually used the term asexual and aromantic.
We didn't see parents as much in this story as we did in the first one, but when we did they were completely supportive of their child's sexuality!
My problem with this book was the first fourth of it. It was just a retelling of the first book through Bells' POV and honestly I found it really boring. It also felt extremely rushed as it actually started before the first book did and covered that and all of the events of the first book in only the first 40% of the book. Another reason I wasn't a fan of this was because I was super excited to see what happened after the events of the first book, but instead I had to read it all over again.
Once it got past that I was able to get into the book, and the last 40% was really good and interesting, but I often felt myself wishing that I was still reading through Jess' POV, or that at least it would switch off by chapter. I was way more into what was going on with her and Abby now that Abby lost her powers than what was going on with Bells and Emma.
And while I really liked the second half of the book, I found the last couple of pages to be kind of contrived. It had a feeling of, okay we did the thing so now let's just wrap it up nicely and jump into a place that we can end the book.
I will definitely be reading the next book as I'm invested and want to know how it ends. Some questions I really want answered are about Abby and Claudia. I'm kind of bummed that it's from Emma's perspective though as she's definitely not my favorite character, and like I said, I'm way more invested in Jess and Abby.
We didn't see parents as much in this story as we did in the first one, but when we did they were completely supportive of their child's sexuality!
My problem with this book was the first fourth of it. It was just a retelling of the first book through Bells' POV and honestly I found it really boring. It also felt extremely rushed as it actually started before the first book did and covered that and all of the events of the first book in only the first 40% of the book. Another reason I wasn't a fan of this was because I was super excited to see what happened after the events of the first book, but instead I had to read it all over again.
Once it got past that I was able to get into the book, and the last 40% was really good and interesting, but I often felt myself wishing that I was still reading through Jess' POV, or that at least it would switch off by chapter. I was way more into what was going on with her and Abby now that Abby lost her powers than what was going on with Bells and Emma.
And while I really liked the second half of the book, I found the last couple of pages to be kind of contrived. It had a feeling of, okay we did the thing so now let's just wrap it up nicely and jump into a place that we can end the book.
I will definitely be reading the next book as I'm invested and want to know how it ends. Some questions I really want answered are about Abby and Claudia. I'm kind of bummed that it's from Emma's perspective though as she's definitely not my favorite character, and like I said, I'm way more invested in Jess and Abby.
tellingetienne's review against another edition
4.0
3.5 Stars. Was a lot of overlapped time with Not Your Sidekick, and that made it a little hard to get into, but I loved Bells and I love the whole setup of this world. I can't wait to see how it goes in the next book.
luthor's review
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.0
gustus's review against another edition
4.0
Love this but not as much as the first one, properly due to the recap of the first book in the first few chapters. There is one moment where I don't understand why it goes in that direction, except to move the story forward. I found that a bit odd, and it never got explored in subsequent chapters (alas it was hectic afterwards). But overall, very great book with a great and diverse characters.
genderqueer_hiker's review against another edition
4.0
A fun ride with a great cast of characters. I was excited to read this book since our main voice was the Black trans boy side character from the first book. Grey-romantic/aro and grey-asexual/ace representation too!
daenknight's review
adventurous
lighthearted
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
literaryappeal's review
adventurous
lighthearted
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
iam's review against another edition
4.0
3.5 stars
Oh man I'm kinda torn about this.
But not in the same way as I was about Not Your Sidekick. Mood-wise, I liked Not Your Villain better than its prequel.
I loved Bells. He was great and I related to him a lot and reading from his POV was wonderful.
The plot was good, too, but my issues lie with how its tied together.
The decision to start the book before book1 starts and tell the events from there from Bells' view made sense, but it also lead to several weeks worth of events just being directly told to the reader, which was... not smooth? Technically, someone who hasn't read book1 could this read this and understand, but it leaves out so many nuances and details that I am not sure if it would really work.
What bothered me the most was how Not Your Villain goes from one big event to the next, leaving out completely what happens in between. I understand that getting from point A to point B doesn't always makde sense to describe in detail, but here so many details and questions are just ignored that it startled me. The protagonists are all wanted by a government that does not value privacy and has been established to basically track every transaction that is connected to the Net in any ways (which in this future world means basically anything) and yet...
I might not be describing this well; My point is, reading this made me go "wait.... but how can they even do that given what was revealed/happened earlier????" constantly about a wide variety of things, since it seemed to contradict (or simply ignore or forget about) things learned in book1 or earlier in the book itself.
I still enjoyed reading Not Your Villain a lot. It's entertaining and exciting, I love this group of teenagers and I'm looking forward to the next book, told from Emma's POV.
Oh man I'm kinda torn about this.
But not in the same way as I was about Not Your Sidekick. Mood-wise, I liked Not Your Villain better than its prequel.
I loved Bells. He was great and I related to him a lot and reading from his POV was wonderful.
The plot was good, too, but my issues lie with how its tied together.
The decision to start the book before book1 starts and tell the events from there from Bells' view made sense, but it also lead to several weeks worth of events just being directly told to the reader, which was... not smooth? Technically, someone who hasn't read book1 could this read this and understand, but it leaves out so many nuances and details that I am not sure if it would really work.
What bothered me the most was how Not Your Villain goes from one big event to the next, leaving out completely what happens in between. I understand that getting from point A to point B doesn't always makde sense to describe in detail, but here so many details and questions are just ignored that it startled me. The protagonists are all wanted by a government that does not value privacy and has been established to basically track every transaction that is connected to the Net in any ways (which in this future world means basically anything) and yet...
I might not be describing this well; My point is, reading this made me go "wait.... but how can they even do that given what was revealed/happened earlier????" constantly about a wide variety of things, since it seemed to contradict (or simply ignore or forget about) things learned in book1 or earlier in the book itself.
I still enjoyed reading Not Your Villain a lot. It's entertaining and exciting, I love this group of teenagers and I'm looking forward to the next book, told from Emma's POV.
amandaexe's review against another edition
4.0
When I started reading it, I thought I was going to like the first book more, but in the end I like them both the same, I can't choose a favorite between them. My favorite thing about this is the world, it's so well rounded, and so realistic even with all the sci-fi and superhero elements. I was impressed with it in the first one, and this one just kept adding to it. I really like the characters in this. Their dynamic as a group is so interesting that I like all of them, which is hard to do when you have so many characters. The plot was really interesting and well-paced, and honestly this would make an amazing adaptation, if it ever came to that. I could imagine everything that was happening so vividly, I had a blast reading it. The only downside of this was the first part, which was, in my opinion, redundant and could have been comprised into a single chapter. (It's basically the last part of the first book, but from another character's perspective)
beepbeepbitches's review against another edition
recording quality too distracting to finish