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laurenc26's review against another edition
lighthearted
medium-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
3.75
captwinghead's review against another edition
1.0
It is hard for someone to write a protagonist I truly dislike... but here we are.
It took 330 pages for the protagonist of this story to think about someone else's feelings. She spends the majority of this book barely considering how others could be hurt by her actions and she's one of the most self centered characters I've ever read about. Yes, I know people say that about authors all the time but that's partially why reading books about authors can be very hit or miss. I really didn't like Tessa as a character.
Her neighbor Sam drives them to school each day, she meets a fashion student Lenore and a graphic arts student Theodore. Her old best friend Caroline calls her regularly. None of them, aside from Sam, seemed to find an issue with Tessa pursuing Nico, a guy who's already in a relationship. This is just part of why this "love story" was so annoying.
Tessa is struggling with writers block so Caroline comes up with an idea for her to get a real love life for inspiration. Tessa pursues Nico, even after learning he's dating Poppy. She even goes along with their stupid plan to break into a gated community that caters to people with dwarfism - with very little disagreement so is it really better that she raises a big question about them referring to the people with dwarfism ignorantly? She still went.
Aside from the uninteresting sterotypical plot where the girl pursues the wrong guy because she values all the wrong things and the right guy was beside her all along (I cannot count how many times this has been done), my biggest issue is that there was nothing likable about Tessa. Nothing at all.
She's a writer - cool, except she never writes anything. We get such tiny glimpses of what she writes and the 2 stories (one with Collette and one with Tallulah) appeared very similar. She was so determined to get into this school that's apparently so difficult that Sam, a guy with a rich parent, failed twice to get into, and she doesn't even work hard when she gets there. She skips class, she doesn't turn in proper assignments and then just lies when her mom asks her about it. So, she's a writer - but she never writes.
I'm not judging her response to her brother, because that's not fair. However, her treatment of her mother, Sam and Caroline all pointed to the fact that she just used the people in her life as support systems - without ever supporting them. Her mother is juggling a lot with trying to take care of her kids and have a personal life and she still finds time to worry about Tessa's grades, and getting shut out and lied to for it. Sam is supportive both emotionally and with taking her to and from school and constantly sharing food with her, and she spends half the book criticizing his clothing and being generally rude whenever anyone suggested they might be good to date each other. Caroline is pretty much just Siri - if Siri gave advice because that's all Tessa ever contacted her for. Whenever Caroline had stuff to talk about from her own life, Tessa couldn't really be bothered to listen.
All this culminates in 330 pages before Tessa starts to think maybe she could be a nicer person to the people around her. So, Sam deserved a lot better and I spent a lot of this book actively rooting against Tessa... *sighs*.
In other news, this book's discussions of racism were... a little confusing and Disney Channel esque for me. There are moments sprinkled throughout where Tessa talks about how white people perceive her and that moment where Sam gets upset for her over things like white people labelling desserts "crack" or that lady at the spice store racially profiling her. I don't necessarily get what the point of those moments were and I'm always confused when they're in books about upper middle class people of color because they appear to show the MC lecturing side characters on how to be allies but they just end up feeling clumsy to me.
Also, this book DN Eliot Page and hardly even touched on J.K. Rowling's controversies. Something else that makes Tessa not so great - she mentions it (briefly) and Nico just shrugs and says she's "still famous", clearly not seeing it as an issue. And Tessa still thinks he's attractive. Mind you, there are several HP references in this book.
Anyway, this wasn't for me. I hope other people enjoyed it.
It took 330 pages for the protagonist of this story to think about someone else's feelings. She spends the majority of this book barely considering how others could be hurt by her actions and she's one of the most self centered characters I've ever read about. Yes, I know people say that about authors all the time but that's partially why reading books about authors can be very hit or miss. I really didn't like Tessa as a character.
Spoiler
This book is about Tessa Johnson, a girl who's family just moved to Long Beach and she starts school at an arts academy called Chrysalis. She's half black, half white with a white mother and a black father who's always working. Her brother is HoH with cerebral palsy and sometimes that results in situations where he throws tantrums and Tessa is generally just embarrassed about what their neighbors will think.Her neighbor Sam drives them to school each day, she meets a fashion student Lenore and a graphic arts student Theodore. Her old best friend Caroline calls her regularly. None of them, aside from Sam, seemed to find an issue with Tessa pursuing Nico, a guy who's already in a relationship. This is just part of why this "love story" was so annoying.
Tessa is struggling with writers block so Caroline comes up with an idea for her to get a real love life for inspiration. Tessa pursues Nico, even after learning he's dating Poppy. She even goes along with their stupid plan to break into a gated community that caters to people with dwarfism - with very little disagreement so is it really better that she raises a big question about them referring to the people with dwarfism ignorantly? She still went.
Aside from the uninteresting sterotypical plot where the girl pursues the wrong guy because she values all the wrong things and the right guy was beside her all along (I cannot count how many times this has been done), my biggest issue is that there was nothing likable about Tessa. Nothing at all.
She's a writer - cool, except she never writes anything. We get such tiny glimpses of what she writes and the 2 stories (one with Collette and one with Tallulah) appeared very similar. She was so determined to get into this school that's apparently so difficult that Sam, a guy with a rich parent, failed twice to get into, and she doesn't even work hard when she gets there. She skips class, she doesn't turn in proper assignments and then just lies when her mom asks her about it. So, she's a writer - but she never writes.
I'm not judging her response to her brother, because that's not fair. However, her treatment of her mother, Sam and Caroline all pointed to the fact that she just used the people in her life as support systems - without ever supporting them. Her mother is juggling a lot with trying to take care of her kids and have a personal life and she still finds time to worry about Tessa's grades, and getting shut out and lied to for it. Sam is supportive both emotionally and with taking her to and from school and constantly sharing food with her, and she spends half the book criticizing his clothing and being generally rude whenever anyone suggested they might be good to date each other. Caroline is pretty much just Siri - if Siri gave advice because that's all Tessa ever contacted her for. Whenever Caroline had stuff to talk about from her own life, Tessa couldn't really be bothered to listen.
All this culminates in 330 pages before Tessa starts to think maybe she could be a nicer person to the people around her. So, Sam deserved a lot better and I spent a lot of this book actively rooting against Tessa... *sighs*.
In other news, this book's discussions of racism were... a little confusing and Disney Channel esque for me. There are moments sprinkled throughout where Tessa talks about how white people perceive her and that moment where Sam gets upset for her over things like white people labelling desserts "crack" or that lady at the spice store racially profiling her. I don't necessarily get what the point of those moments were and I'm always confused when they're in books about upper middle class people of color because they appear to show the MC lecturing side characters on how to be allies but they just end up feeling clumsy to me.
Also, this book DN Eliot Page and hardly even touched on J.K. Rowling's controversies. Something else that makes Tessa not so great - she mentions it (briefly) and Nico just shrugs and says she's "still famous", clearly not seeing it as an issue. And Tessa still thinks he's attractive. Mind you, there are several HP references in this book.
Anyway, this wasn't for me. I hope other people enjoyed it.
tnbeena's review
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
medium-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
3.75
bookwormpao's review
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
anjelica's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
medium-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
3.5
rachelkmartin's review
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
medium-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
4.0
gggina13's review against another edition
2.0
Dude, I genuinely do not even know if the Harry Potter books have more Harry Potter references than this gd book. It came out in 2021!!!!!! And I understand publishing timelines. The first JKR debacle apparently happened in June 2020. So this book would have been written, and probably already had ARCs out. But damn dude, was it not worth delaying publication by a few months to get this shit out of this story?
And I am a trans ally which places me FIRMLY in an anti-JKR stance. But for what it's worth, I have been generally annoyed with Harry Potter references in books, especially YA books, for quite some time now. I'm of the opinion that there are so many other franchises that this generation of teens are exposed to?? Like can we replace HP stuff with Percy Jackson????? Diary of a damn Wimpy Kid??? A zoo wee mama peppered in here and there in a book would be ICONIC but nooooooooo we have a 16 year old in 2021 wearing Ravenclaw robes for a Halloween costume...........
UGH not to focus this review on HP stuff because spoiler, it's not the only thing I really didn't like about this book, but there's a part where the MC is talking to her crush and they are bonding over, you fucking guessed it, HP. He says he wants to be like JK Rowling when he gets older. She says, "not JUST like her, right???" And he says "why, because of what she said?" and she says yes, then reflects internally how she and her best friend spent some time being really upset and conflicted over the situation. Part of what pisses me off about this is that THIS is how it's all acknowledged? A throwaway line that's essentially "damn she really said that lol" and doesn't even NAME WHAT SHE SAID ON PAGE. This book is for TEENAGERS, who probably aren't on Twitter because they're not old like us millennials, so there is a huge chance that there are teens who could read this that have no clue what the hell Elise Bryant is referring to when she talks about "what JK Rowling said".... If you're going to be bold enough to wave your Harry Potter flag ALLLLL over your book, own tf up and say ON PAGE that the woman is transphobic and does not respect trans women as women. Acknowledge who exactly is hurt by it. It's such a cop out to half ass mention it to maybe try and absolve the guilt of sucking HP off for the rest of the book. ESPECIALLY considering the fact that her crush's response to the mention of the controversy is "well, she's still famous"..... fuck off dude
And really, I'm not quite sure on Elise Bryant's viewpoint of trans people, because it's fully not clear through that little exchange, and the book ALSO deadnames Elliot Page. (I have seen a first edition hardcover, and it was on page there, and I checked out the audiobook from Hoopla and heard it there. I would be interested to know if any edition has been amended, and if so, I'll take this part out of this review.) So I don't know that this is an author I would consider any kind of ally for trans people just based on this information. I haven't looked into any recent posts about the subject from her, so she could have been outspoken on her opinions since this book was written, but just be careful on who you support.
BUT! Onto the story!
Tessa moves away from her bestie and hometown and is about to go to a like, art-related high school. She is a writer, got her start with fan-fic, and writes romance. She meets her neighbor, a sweet boy named Sam, who is never fully described as fat, but has "a round stomach pushing against his shirt" or whatever the case was. She sure does spend a lot of time calling his outfits ugly, saying he's not her type.... hmmmm...... and her crush has "sharp hipbones"..... one has to wonder.....
REGARDLESS, she starts riding to school with Sam since they're neighbors, meets some friends at school, has a crush on Nico, a popular rich boy, goes to novel-writing class, has the epiphany that she has to share her novel writing and get it critiqued lmao, like idk how she thought she'd write a novel and become an author and never get her work read, but hey, whatever, anyway, she panics and shuts down and gets writers' blocked. Her best friend from back home, Caroline, basically is like, ooh let's make you have a love story that inspires you to write again!! and they come up with a scheme to get Nico and Tessa together.
May I mention, there is specifically a scene where Caroline says "oh, a skinny white boy, your type," and Tessa is like, "hey, my last boyfriend was Black!!" and it feels SO written in as a throwaway line for anyone who would critique Tessa being interested in white boys? Which like, I wouldn't have lol, but after that I'm kind of like.... you're oddly calling attention to it so now I'm paying attention
Well, here's the thing. Nico has a girlfriend named Poppy. But that will not deter Tessa! She still spends a lot of time trying to get with him since the two of them are allegedly off and on but they're clearly on in the book..... it's very unsettling and everyone around her except for Sam, the voice of reason, is like, oooooh go after what you want, girl!!!
Sam is the only reason to read this book. He is a sweet angel. Another partial reason is Miles, Tessa's brother who has a few different disabilities and has to be taken care of like a younger brother to Tessa, even though he's 3 years older. He's a fun character, but I'm not really obsessed with the way the family acts about him? Like the parents expect Tessa to really spend a lot of time taking care of him, which she doesn't seem super happy about being obligated, but then they offer to hire someone, and Tessa refuses, because she wants the family to take care of him... ??? Idk, I get how it can be a confusing choice, but she just contradicts herself in everything she does.
Anyways, she ends up by the end of the story 1] messing up her friendship with Caroline, because Caroline tells her to her face that she only ever calls Caroline when it's about Tessa, Tessa, Tessa, and wtf does Tessa do after that? Low key ghost her until it's another episode of the Tessa show 2] getting awfully mad at Nico for stringing her along and taking her as a second choice but she LITERALLY does the same exact thing to Sam 3] fully lying to her mom about something she couldn't even go behind the scenes and force to be true for NO REASON other than trying to avoid getting in trouble for something that's her fault, then you're basically waiting around for the shoe to drop knowing that it has to break somewhere?
And the book literally just ends before Tessa and Sam can reconcile after their big fight and break off (not a break up because they weren't dating) lmaooo like basically the author was like idk what I'd have Sam say if Tessa apologized so let me just not even imagine!!!
Truly a disappointment of a book in almost every way which is insane to me considering how much I liked Reggie & Delilah!! This kind of thing is why I'm often nervous to go backwards through an author's backlist!!!!
And I am a trans ally which places me FIRMLY in an anti-JKR stance. But for what it's worth, I have been generally annoyed with Harry Potter references in books, especially YA books, for quite some time now. I'm of the opinion that there are so many other franchises that this generation of teens are exposed to?? Like can we replace HP stuff with Percy Jackson????? Diary of a damn Wimpy Kid??? A zoo wee mama peppered in here and there in a book would be ICONIC but nooooooooo we have a 16 year old in 2021 wearing Ravenclaw robes for a Halloween costume...........
UGH not to focus this review on HP stuff because spoiler, it's not the only thing I really didn't like about this book, but there's a part where the MC is talking to her crush and they are bonding over, you fucking guessed it, HP. He says he wants to be like JK Rowling when he gets older. She says, "not JUST like her, right???" And he says "why, because of what she said?" and she says yes, then reflects internally how she and her best friend spent some time being really upset and conflicted over the situation. Part of what pisses me off about this is that THIS is how it's all acknowledged? A throwaway line that's essentially "damn she really said that lol" and doesn't even NAME WHAT SHE SAID ON PAGE. This book is for TEENAGERS, who probably aren't on Twitter because they're not old like us millennials, so there is a huge chance that there are teens who could read this that have no clue what the hell Elise Bryant is referring to when she talks about "what JK Rowling said".... If you're going to be bold enough to wave your Harry Potter flag ALLLLL over your book, own tf up and say ON PAGE that the woman is transphobic and does not respect trans women as women. Acknowledge who exactly is hurt by it. It's such a cop out to half ass mention it to maybe try and absolve the guilt of sucking HP off for the rest of the book. ESPECIALLY considering the fact that her crush's response to the mention of the controversy is "well, she's still famous"..... fuck off dude
And really, I'm not quite sure on Elise Bryant's viewpoint of trans people, because it's fully not clear through that little exchange, and the book ALSO deadnames Elliot Page. (I have seen a first edition hardcover, and it was on page there, and I checked out the audiobook from Hoopla and heard it there. I would be interested to know if any edition has been amended, and if so, I'll take this part out of this review.) So I don't know that this is an author I would consider any kind of ally for trans people just based on this information. I haven't looked into any recent posts about the subject from her, so she could have been outspoken on her opinions since this book was written, but just be careful on who you support.
BUT! Onto the story!
Tessa moves away from her bestie and hometown and is about to go to a like, art-related high school. She is a writer, got her start with fan-fic, and writes romance. She meets her neighbor, a sweet boy named Sam, who is never fully described as fat, but has "a round stomach pushing against his shirt" or whatever the case was. She sure does spend a lot of time calling his outfits ugly, saying he's not her type.... hmmmm...... and her crush has "sharp hipbones"..... one has to wonder.....
REGARDLESS, she starts riding to school with Sam since they're neighbors, meets some friends at school, has a crush on Nico, a popular rich boy, goes to novel-writing class, has the epiphany that she has to share her novel writing and get it critiqued lmao, like idk how she thought she'd write a novel and become an author and never get her work read, but hey, whatever, anyway, she panics and shuts down and gets writers' blocked. Her best friend from back home, Caroline, basically is like, ooh let's make you have a love story that inspires you to write again!! and they come up with a scheme to get Nico and Tessa together.
May I mention, there is specifically a scene where Caroline says "oh, a skinny white boy, your type," and Tessa is like, "hey, my last boyfriend was Black!!" and it feels SO written in as a throwaway line for anyone who would critique Tessa being interested in white boys? Which like, I wouldn't have lol, but after that I'm kind of like.... you're oddly calling attention to it so now I'm paying attention
Well, here's the thing. Nico has a girlfriend named Poppy. But that will not deter Tessa! She still spends a lot of time trying to get with him since the two of them are allegedly off and on but they're clearly on in the book..... it's very unsettling and everyone around her except for Sam, the voice of reason, is like, oooooh go after what you want, girl!!!
Sam is the only reason to read this book. He is a sweet angel. Another partial reason is Miles, Tessa's brother who has a few different disabilities and has to be taken care of like a younger brother to Tessa, even though he's 3 years older. He's a fun character, but I'm not really obsessed with the way the family acts about him? Like the parents expect Tessa to really spend a lot of time taking care of him, which she doesn't seem super happy about being obligated, but then they offer to hire someone, and Tessa refuses, because she wants the family to take care of him... ??? Idk, I get how it can be a confusing choice, but she just contradicts herself in everything she does.
Anyways, she ends up by the end of the story 1] messing up her friendship with Caroline, because Caroline tells her to her face that she only ever calls Caroline when it's about Tessa, Tessa, Tessa, and wtf does Tessa do after that? Low key ghost her until it's another episode of the Tessa show 2] getting awfully mad at Nico for stringing her along and taking her as a second choice but she LITERALLY does the same exact thing to Sam 3] fully lying to her mom about something she couldn't even go behind the scenes and force to be true for NO REASON other than trying to avoid getting in trouble for something that's her fault, then you're basically waiting around for the shoe to drop knowing that it has to break somewhere?
And the book literally just ends before Tessa and Sam can reconcile after their big fight and break off (not a break up because they weren't dating) lmaooo like basically the author was like idk what I'd have Sam say if Tessa apologized so let me just not even imagine!!!
Truly a disappointment of a book in almost every way which is insane to me considering how much I liked Reggie & Delilah!! This kind of thing is why I'm often nervous to go backwards through an author's backlist!!!!