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4.23 AVERAGE
4.23 AVERAGE
Honestly, everything Claudia wanted is everything I want out of my life. This book was quite the experience for me, and I think I'll have to re-read some parts of it that I skimmed just to make sure I got the whole understanding.
Claudia is, obviously, my favorite character, and I actually do think I could stand to learn from her in that maybe I should live a little more and accept change. She makes new friends, goes out of her comfort zone, and eventually that leads to her happiness. Now, who can say if that happiness is permanent, or at least long-lasting, but momentary happiness is better than misery, so I think the point still stands.
Once again, I love the tech rep, because it is my firm belief that no theatre book should exist without main characters in tech. Claudia works on costumes, and the designer is a total bad-ass, which, honestly, goes for every designer I've ever met (and hopefully me, if my life goes right). The play is A Midsummer Night's Dream, which I love because of all the twists and turns, and I really liked seeing the descriptions of the show. That being said, I do think the "theatre:other things" ratio was done right, being that this isn't strictly a "theatre life" book.
Liked the romance, but I do think that Gideon could have done with a bit more character development. I'm not sure what direction I would have liked to see him go in, and I got that he cares about the people around him and is otherwise enthusiastic and has defined phases, but it all felt really surface level to me. Paige and Iris were so adorable, and I would have loved if they'd gotten more page time. *winks at own pun* Even though they're not real, something about them just clicked for me, and by the end, I was totally craving a bond with someone on their level.
The friendship between Iris and Claudia was one of my favorite parts of the book, because I am a sucker for the whole "enemies-to-friends-or-lovers" thing. I don't like girls having unnecessary rivalries because I think that doesn't show the right message of solidarity, support, and friendship, so I was glad their dynamic didn't go that route.
Overall, 5/5 for general excellence. Totally read this for rockin' romance and a side of theatre.
Claudia is, obviously, my favorite character, and I actually do think I could stand to learn from her in that maybe I should live a little more and accept change. She makes new friends, goes out of her comfort zone, and eventually that leads to her happiness. Now, who can say if that happiness is permanent, or at least long-lasting, but momentary happiness is better than misery, so I think the point still stands.
Once again, I love the tech rep, because it is my firm belief that no theatre book should exist without main characters in tech. Claudia works on costumes, and the designer is a total bad-ass, which, honestly, goes for every designer I've ever met (and hopefully me, if my life goes right). The play is A Midsummer Night's Dream, which I love because of all the twists and turns, and I really liked seeing the descriptions of the show. That being said, I do think the "theatre:other things" ratio was done right, being that this isn't strictly a "theatre life" book.
Liked the romance, but I do think that Gideon could have done with a bit more character development. I'm not sure what direction I would have liked to see him go in, and I got that he cares about the people around him and is otherwise enthusiastic and has defined phases, but it all felt really surface level to me. Paige and Iris were so adorable, and I would have loved if they'd gotten more page time. *winks at own pun* Even though they're not real, something about them just clicked for me, and by the end, I was totally craving a bond with someone on their level.
The friendship between Iris and Claudia was one of my favorite parts of the book, because I am a sucker for the whole "enemies-to-friends-or-lovers" thing. I don't like girls having unnecessary rivalries because I think that doesn't show the right message of solidarity, support, and friendship, so I was glad their dynamic didn't go that route.
Overall, 5/5 for general excellence. Totally read this for rockin' romance and a side of theatre.
*DNF at page 100*
Normally I don’t give star ratings to books I DNF but I have such strong feelings against this book that I felt like I needed to convey that in my star rating.
Other than some phallic humour (which I will admit, made me laugh) this book feels like it was written for a 12 year old.
The main characters name isn’t even mentioned until chapter 3. That is something that should have been included in the first chapter to help set up the story. That was my first red flag about this book. I went two full chapters without knowing the name of the main character. That was actually the only issue I had with the first chapter, other than that I mildly was intrigued by what the first chapter was setting up. And then it all went downhill.
So many pages were dedicated to either the video game that Claudia likes or the boy band that Iris likes. And after the first paragraph of each of these being describe my mind went “wait, the character is still stalking about this?? *flips page to check* how long do they talk about this for? Is this even relevant? I really do not care about every single detail about a video game or boy band that a character likes.” I ended up skipping over paragraphs and then pages of this book whenever either of these topics were brought up because I did not care about them at all! Maybe they ended duo actually having something to do with the plot, I don’t know, I didn’t finish it. But if they are essential to the plot, then I should not be that bored while reading about them. This is only a 300 page book, how many of these pages are wasted describing these things excessively?
Iris is supposed to be like a bully. She doesn’t even act like a bully though. She’s just grumpy the entire time because she got dumped. And the who does Claudia bother being nice to her? Iris is negative and annoying and grumpy and a bore. She literally sulks in the corner of every chapter! Why is she even worth a second glance from Claudia? Claudia should have just walked away from Iris or told her off or something!! Not try to be nice to someone who is being grumpy and threatened her once. Both iris and Claudia were so annoying with how they acted. For supposedly senior year high school characters, they sure acted like 10 year olds.
I don’t even know what to say about Gideon, he’s just disaster. Gideon is the guy who excessively flirts with every single girl. Legit taking pictures with all of them where he’s kissing them on the cheek. And yet this is the supposed love interest? Ugh. If this guy came anywhere near me I’d call him out for the type of guy he is, an attention seeking pretty boy who makes all girls think they are “special” when in fact he is playing all of them for fools. He’s the guy that somehow every girl has a crush on, and every guy wants to be friends with. Ugh. So sickeningly cliche.
To add to the cliche-ness of this book, we gotta add in some of the worst case of insta love I have ever come across. “Omg she’s the girl who’s not like other girls, I’ve never noticed her before even though we’ve actually know each other for years, she’s so beautiful and mysterious I must have her!” Followed by: “what? Like him? No of course I don’t! I’m not like the other girls! His charms won’t work on me. He flirts with everyone and all those girls are fools for falling for him. Why is he taking pictures with other girls? Why is he kissing other girls? He is supposed to want me, we had one phone conversation so it’s obvious it’s me he wants! But no I totally don’t have feelings for him back...”
I couldn’t believe this book was serious. I must have picked up the wrong book, got the title mixed up or something because no way this book I read is the one that everyone is rating so highly. But wait...yes it is. I read 100 pages... exactly 1/3 of this book and I had such extreme feelings against this book! I can’t remember the last time I have truly disliked a book this much.
Normally I don’t give star ratings to books I DNF but I have such strong feelings against this book that I felt like I needed to convey that in my star rating.
Other than some phallic humour (which I will admit, made me laugh) this book feels like it was written for a 12 year old.
The main characters name isn’t even mentioned until chapter 3. That is something that should have been included in the first chapter to help set up the story. That was my first red flag about this book. I went two full chapters without knowing the name of the main character. That was actually the only issue I had with the first chapter, other than that I mildly was intrigued by what the first chapter was setting up. And then it all went downhill.
So many pages were dedicated to either the video game that Claudia likes or the boy band that Iris likes. And after the first paragraph of each of these being describe my mind went “wait, the character is still stalking about this?? *flips page to check* how long do they talk about this for? Is this even relevant? I really do not care about every single detail about a video game or boy band that a character likes.” I ended up skipping over paragraphs and then pages of this book whenever either of these topics were brought up because I did not care about them at all! Maybe they ended duo actually having something to do with the plot, I don’t know, I didn’t finish it. But if they are essential to the plot, then I should not be that bored while reading about them. This is only a 300 page book, how many of these pages are wasted describing these things excessively?
Iris is supposed to be like a bully. She doesn’t even act like a bully though. She’s just grumpy the entire time because she got dumped. And the who does Claudia bother being nice to her? Iris is negative and annoying and grumpy and a bore. She literally sulks in the corner of every chapter! Why is she even worth a second glance from Claudia? Claudia should have just walked away from Iris or told her off or something!! Not try to be nice to someone who is being grumpy and threatened her once. Both iris and Claudia were so annoying with how they acted. For supposedly senior year high school characters, they sure acted like 10 year olds.
I don’t even know what to say about Gideon, he’s just disaster. Gideon is the guy who excessively flirts with every single girl. Legit taking pictures with all of them where he’s kissing them on the cheek. And yet this is the supposed love interest? Ugh. If this guy came anywhere near me I’d call him out for the type of guy he is, an attention seeking pretty boy who makes all girls think they are “special” when in fact he is playing all of them for fools. He’s the guy that somehow every girl has a crush on, and every guy wants to be friends with. Ugh. So sickeningly cliche.
To add to the cliche-ness of this book, we gotta add in some of the worst case of insta love I have ever come across. “Omg she’s the girl who’s not like other girls, I’ve never noticed her before even though we’ve actually know each other for years, she’s so beautiful and mysterious I must have her!” Followed by: “what? Like him? No of course I don’t! I’m not like the other girls! His charms won’t work on me. He flirts with everyone and all those girls are fools for falling for him. Why is he taking pictures with other girls? Why is he kissing other girls? He is supposed to want me, we had one phone conversation so it’s obvious it’s me he wants! But no I totally don’t have feelings for him back...”
I couldn’t believe this book was serious. I must have picked up the wrong book, got the title mixed up or something because no way this book I read is the one that everyone is rating so highly. But wait...yes it is. I read 100 pages... exactly 1/3 of this book and I had such extreme feelings against this book! I can’t remember the last time I have truly disliked a book this much.
3.5 stars. This is a fun, YA novel about high-school romance set amidst the school play, A Midsummer Night's Dream. Nothing too exciting or amazing, but fun and cute.
Always such a good book!! Its one of the only ones i can actually re-read start to finish
3.5 ⭐️
Thank you to Emma’s personal library for this one!
This was a cute high school story that you could easily convince me was a true story. The characters and felt so authentic, which made the world easy to get into and enjoy. I loved the little details and side plots like Gideon and Iris learning how to play Battle Quest for Claudia, Claudia listening to and becoming obsessed with the boyband TION because it’s the only thing Iris seems to be passionate about. The friendships were just ✨ I’ve never gone from hating a mean girl (Iris) so much to having her absolutely melt my heart. And Gideon is such a cinnamon roll.
What I couldn’t get past was how self deprecating Claudia was until the very end. And for how kind and observant Gideon seems, he acted very aloof about it all. It shouldn’t have taken them till the final pages. The boy was a little too late with his declarations for me
Thank you to Emma’s personal library for this one!
This was a cute high school story that you could easily convince me was a true story. The characters and felt so authentic, which made the world easy to get into and enjoy. I loved the little details and side plots like Gideon and Iris learning how to play Battle Quest for Claudia, Claudia listening to and becoming obsessed with the boyband TION because it’s the only thing Iris seems to be passionate about. The friendships were just ✨ I’ve never gone from hating a mean girl (Iris) so much to having her absolutely melt my heart. And Gideon is such a cinnamon roll.
What I couldn’t get past was how self deprecating Claudia was until the very end. And for how kind and observant Gideon seems, he acted very aloof about it all. It shouldn’t have taken them till the final pages. The boy was a little too late with his declarations for me
funny
medium-paced
I really enjoyed it and how funny the main character was.
I liked how her relationship with iris developed
I liked how her relationship with iris developed
Absolutely loved Gideon. The story didn't go quite where I expected it to, and I'm happy that it went in this direction.
Honestly, I'm just too lonely and sad to read this book. And I still did. ( I might or might not have cried a bit for no reason.)
Btw, where can I get a Gideon? Asking for a friend.
Btw, where can I get a Gideon? Asking for a friend.
2.5 stars
I THOUGHT THIS WAS GAY????? WHAT??? WHY IS THE BACK OF BOOK ABOUT IRIS & CLAUDIA?? WHAT IN THE QUEER-BAITING!?
i wrote a ten sentence review 85% in thinking claudia & iris were about to realize they were in love with each other. in retrospect, ig i understand that iris is caught up on paige but WHAT? am i the only one confused???
some of my original points still stand:
- shakespeare shit & high school productions are the perfect marriage of things i actively dislike in books
- the fandom representation was fun & fairly accurate
- the number of random subplot lines felt a little discombobulated. to some degree these made it feel more realistic but so many plot lines were started & then just never returned to
- claudia is quite a bland protagonist
i just can’t get over that this isn’t enemies to friends to lovers & claudia ends up the guy she doesn’t seem to have any degree of romantic feelings towards until at least the 70% mark. at the bare minimum this has to be a love triangle with gideon & iris right??? did i invent the sexual tension & sweet soft moments with iris??
i have never been so confused about the plot line of a romance. what just happened?
p.s the two stars is absolutely a diss to the heterosexual sexual ending
I THOUGHT THIS WAS GAY????? WHAT??? WHY IS THE BACK OF BOOK ABOUT IRIS & CLAUDIA?? WHAT IN THE QUEER-BAITING!?
i wrote a ten sentence review 85% in thinking claudia & iris were about to realize they were in love with each other. in retrospect, ig i understand that iris is caught up on paige but WHAT? am i the only one confused???
some of my original points still stand:
- shakespeare shit & high school productions are the perfect marriage of things i actively dislike in books
- the fandom representation was fun & fairly accurate
- the number of random subplot lines felt a little discombobulated. to some degree these made it feel more realistic but so many plot lines were started & then just never returned to
- claudia is quite a bland protagonist
i just can’t get over that this isn’t enemies to friends to lovers & claudia ends up the guy she doesn’t seem to have any degree of romantic feelings towards until at least the 70% mark. at the bare minimum this has to be a love triangle with gideon & iris right??? did i invent the sexual tension & sweet soft moments with iris??
i have never been so confused about the plot line of a romance. what just happened?
p.s the two stars is absolutely a diss to the heterosexual sexual ending
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
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