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re_do_876's review
funny
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
I got this book as a "blind date with a book", so I went in with no prior knowledge or expectations about this book beyond the blurb on the cover. I really wanted to love this book, it has a lot of elements that I tend to enjoy in books, but this one didn't land right for me. Maybe I am not the target audience for this book, but that leaves me with my main confusion: who is the intended audience? My main thoughts can be summed up as follows:
1) Pacing/Time. This book is told through a series of text messages and emails. Firstly, I read this book in hardcover format. There were hyperlinks that I could do nothing with, and I am curious to know if these actually work in the digital version of this book. Secondly, the format in emails and texts created some pacing issues (for me) in this book. The story is about two 18-year-old girls at separate colleges and their relationship in staying friends and relating their new experiences. However, for being such close friends, the quick pacing only focuses on their major life updates and the most dramatic moments of what is going on in their lives. There is little-to-no "down time" and low-stakes conversation, which I would expect in a best-friendship of four years from two 18-year old girls. This creates a feeling that the book is tell-not-showing us that Ava and Gen are best friends, and the reader has to believe it because it is the basis of the book.
The transition between text conversations to email updates feels strange. I am not convinced that two 18-year-olds in college in 2017 would be texting each other "something big is happening!" but then not continue the conversation over text and instead wait to give a big email update. It allows more information to be given to the reader, but it feels like an odd break of conversational momentum for college students.
Smaller formatting aspects of the emails and texts that did not bug me too much until the time and pacing felt relevant to comprehend- The girls' text messages switched between being time-notated in EST or PST. There were a couple of times I got confused by the times written, until I checked the time-zone they were referenced to, then had to readjust my mental calculations. The emails were not dated, so it was difficult to tell how much time passed in-between the emails and responses.The main problem here was when Ava sent a series of emails with no Gen responses, there was no way to judge how much time lapsed between Ava's emails to Gen. In a section meant to highlight that they were not on normal speaking-terms, it was rather vague with the time-gap .
The book is meant to be communication of 18-year-olds who do not know much and are learning and making mistakes. However, in a book, I would have preferred some topics have a bit more time dedicated to critically discuss them, especially if this book is intended for younger teenagers. This is particularly relevant to my next two points:
2.) Age. There are some questionable age-gaps in sexual relations. One 18-year-old main character hooks up with her around-32-year-old TA and with a 26 year-old friend of her TA. This was a sticking-point for me, because it felt like more time should have been dedicated to discuss this more or for the book to look at this more critically. It felt off for this to be more-or-less glossed over and normalized with the attitude of "it's just hooking up". I understand that our MC is technically an adult, but it was on very thin ice. In a book about the experiences and mistakes of college freshmen, this needed to have been discussed more and processed more for it to have worked (in my opinion).
In the other direction, there was a comment from the other 18 y/o MC that her (now) 15-year-old neighbor had become "mega-cute". Three years is a big age gap as teenagers and that comment felt very yikes because the MC was talking as in romantic-cute and not affectionate-cute. It was a one-time comment, but that and the hooking-up-with-much-older-adults issue combined made the attitudes about ages and age gaps feel lacking in the discussion-about-it department.
3) LGBTQIA+ Discussion. I appreciated the fact that this book captured the sense that learning about your identity and learning about others' identities can be very complicated and confusing. However, I think this book bit off more than it could chew in a way, it tried to discuss so many things including being labeling and the gray area of bi/pan/queer, transgendered characters and transphobia, polygamy/monogamy, and a couple of ace-spec comments. I love how the book introduced a lot of important things to think and talk about. I don't love how a lot more remained that I feel should have been said/discussed, and I wish some of the conversations were treated a bit more critically. For example,
One character made a few uninformed comments about the trans side character and had some questions she asked that were a bit insensitive. She was called out by the other MC. However, as someone who was also a teenager in 2017, you cannot convince me that the first MC wouldn't have at least made a google search or two that could have easily resolved some questions.
After being upset that the boy she was talking to hadn't texted her back, one MC said "I wish I was gay. No, I don't. I wish I was asexual". The comment sat at that with no further discussion. I am very tired of asexuality being seen as and treated as an alternative for other sexualities and not its own orientation. I see very little asexual representation in books, and so for it to be mentioned here in a sorta-joke felt bad.
(I think a lot more can and should be said about the good aspects of and lacking of LGBTQIA+ discussion in this book, but the point of this review is not to pick apart every aspect of this in the entire book, so please know these are just a couple of points that stuck with me amongst my many many thoughts on this topic.)
4) Teenagers. Some of my points of the teenager MCs have been mentioned previously, such as the lack of google searching and limited POV because of limited life experience. There were a couple of other thoughts I had as to things that felt not true-to-teens. a) There was a lack of phone calls and/or text & email communication clarification. For two best friends, there was a noticeable lack of communication on some important things with no clear reason for why they didn’t discuss it further. b) There was incorrect usage of the term "popped off". This is super minor, but as a person who was only a little younger than these characters in 2017, it was a clear instance of "ah, older adults who do not quite understand the teenager slang are trying to make the teenagers sound like teenagers in modern day". (To be fair, this was minor and funny more than anything else.)
5) The Positives. I feel that this book is so personal to the authors and their experience informed how they wrote this. (Disclaimer: I have not looked into the authors and their experiences or other works at of this point.) Our main characters feel flawed and like college kids who are learning and making mistakes and growing. They banter and call each other out and support each other, which feels real. Some of the same personality traits that brought them together and made them good for each other were also sources of tension and disagreement, which gave the characters dimension.
1) Pacing/Time. This book is told through a series of text messages and emails. Firstly, I read this book in hardcover format. There were hyperlinks that I could do nothing with, and I am curious to know if these actually work in the digital version of this book. Secondly, the format in emails and texts created some pacing issues (for me) in this book. The story is about two 18-year-old girls at separate colleges and their relationship in staying friends and relating their new experiences. However, for being such close friends, the quick pacing only focuses on their major life updates and the most dramatic moments of what is going on in their lives. There is little-to-no "down time" and low-stakes conversation, which I would expect in a best-friendship of four years from two 18-year old girls. This creates a feeling that the book is tell-not-showing us that Ava and Gen are best friends, and the reader has to believe it because it is the basis of the book.
The transition between text conversations to email updates feels strange. I am not convinced that two 18-year-olds in college in 2017 would be texting each other "something big is happening!" but then not continue the conversation over text and instead wait to give a big email update. It allows more information to be given to the reader, but it feels like an odd break of conversational momentum for college students.
Smaller formatting aspects of the emails and texts that did not bug me too much until the time and pacing felt relevant to comprehend- The girls' text messages switched between being time-notated in EST or PST. There were a couple of times I got confused by the times written, until I checked the time-zone they were referenced to, then had to readjust my mental calculations. The emails were not dated, so it was difficult to tell how much time passed in-between the emails and responses.
The book is meant to be communication of 18-year-olds who do not know much and are learning and making mistakes. However, in a book, I would have preferred some topics have a bit more time dedicated to critically discuss them, especially if this book is intended for younger teenagers. This is particularly relevant to my next two points:
2.) Age. There are some questionable age-gaps in sexual relations. One 18-year-old main character hooks up with her around-32-year-old TA and with a 26 year-old friend of her TA. This was a sticking-point for me, because it felt like more time should have been dedicated to discuss this more or for the book to look at this more critically. It felt off for this to be more-or-less glossed over and normalized with the attitude of "it's just hooking up". I understand that our MC is technically an adult, but it was on very thin ice. In a book about the experiences and mistakes of college freshmen, this needed to have been discussed more and processed more for it to have worked (in my opinion).
In the other direction, there was a comment from the other 18 y/o MC that her (now) 15-year-old neighbor had become "mega-cute". Three years is a big age gap as teenagers and that comment felt very yikes because the MC was talking as in romantic-cute and not affectionate-cute. It was a one-time comment, but that and the hooking-up-with-much-older-adults issue combined made the attitudes about ages and age gaps feel lacking in the discussion-about-it department.
3) LGBTQIA+ Discussion. I appreciated the fact that this book captured the sense that learning about your identity and learning about others' identities can be very complicated and confusing. However, I think this book bit off more than it could chew in a way, it tried to discuss so many things including being labeling and the gray area of bi/pan/queer, transgendered characters and transphobia, polygamy/monogamy, and a couple of ace-spec comments. I love how the book introduced a lot of important things to think and talk about. I don't love how a lot more remained that I feel should have been said/discussed, and I wish some of the conversations were treated a bit more critically. For example,
One character made a few uninformed comments about the trans side character and had some questions she asked that were a bit insensitive. She was called out by the other MC. However, as someone who was also a teenager in 2017, you cannot convince me that the first MC wouldn't have at least made a google search or two that could have easily resolved some questions.
After being upset that the boy she was talking to hadn't texted her back, one MC said "I wish I was gay. No, I don't. I wish I was asexual". The comment sat at that with no further discussion. I am very tired of asexuality being seen as and treated as an alternative for other sexualities and not its own orientation. I see very little asexual representation in books, and so for it to be mentioned here in a sorta-joke felt bad.
(I think a lot more can and should be said about the good aspects of and lacking of LGBTQIA+ discussion in this book, but the point of this review is not to pick apart every aspect of this in the entire book, so please know these are just a couple of points that stuck with me amongst my many many thoughts on this topic.)
4) Teenagers. Some of my points of the teenager MCs have been mentioned previously, such as the lack of google searching and limited POV because of limited life experience. There were a couple of other thoughts I had as to things that felt not true-to-teens. a) There was a lack of phone calls and/or text & email communication clarification. For two best friends, there was a noticeable lack of communication on some important things with no clear reason for why they didn’t discuss it further. b) There was incorrect usage of the term "popped off". This is super minor, but as a person who was only a little younger than these characters in 2017, it was a clear instance of "ah, older adults who do not quite understand the teenager slang are trying to make the teenagers sound like teenagers in modern day". (To be fair, this was minor and funny more than anything else.)
5) The Positives. I feel that this book is so personal to the authors and their experience informed how they wrote this. (Disclaimer: I have not looked into the authors and their experiences or other works at of this point.) Our main characters feel flawed and like college kids who are learning and making mistakes and growing. They banter and call each other out and support each other, which feels real. Some of the same personality traits that brought them together and made them good for each other were also sources of tension and disagreement, which gave the characters dimension.
A lot of the discussion about mental health/illness and LGBTQIA+ identities did feel like they were handled with care, or at least experience. The characters’ own mental health affects themselves and others, and this book showed some of the complexities of that. Additionally, there were mention of and utilization of therapy and medication as treatment options, which was nice representation to have. I think the discussion about labeling as bi vs queer was handled well and I appreciated the acknowledgement that labeling oneself (or choosing not to) is a process and personal and looks different for everybody.
TL;DR: I nitpicked a lot over things that didn’t work for me personally. I went into this book really hoping that I would love it, but it was not what I expected it to be. I would have loved to see more nuance and focus in some of the mentioned, difficult topics—but this book seems (to me) to be more of a conversation starter than a conversation in and of itself (please forgive the irony of that statement).
I think a person who would enjoy this book is a person who is looking for a story of two friends learning and making mistakes, a look into long-distance friendships, and either looking to read a story for enjoyment and casual consideration or looking to read this story as a conversation starter for deeper and more nuanced conversations.
(I apologize if this review is long-winded and errs on the side of rambling. I’ve never tried to in-depth review a book like this before, and I am learning!)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug use and Mental illness
Moderate: Self harm, Alcoholism, Panic attacks/disorders, Transphobia, Sexual content, and Suicidal thoughts
Minor: Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide, Acephobia/Arophobia, and Toxic friendship
student/teacher sexual encounters- they are both technically adults, but there is a sizable age gap/ power imbalancesiobhanward's review against another edition
funny
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
So I didn't know Gaby and Alison in their buzzfeed days, I only know them (vaguely) now in their post-buzzfeed era, but it still seemed fun to pick this up. Even with the little I know, this book seems less "loosely based" on real life and more straight-up autobiographical. Anyway, it was decent, the format was good but maybe just not my thing, since I found myself getting tired of it fairly quickly. The story was cute. University seems much more intense in the US than in Canada though, I will say that
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness
Minor: Drug use
zorhose's review
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
1.0
Content Warnings
Minor: Transphobia, Biphobia, and Drug use
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