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lizzie_777's review
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
shannonreadssometimes's review
emotional
funny
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
in the opening chapter they gave us several wattpad classics, including tossing her raven coloured hair over her shoulder, and despite the mc being outed in a horrible public terrifying way, her 'bff' really was not that supportive. and while I'd consider myself quite well versed in homophobic schools, our MCs schools reaction to her outing would have me calling the police so fast.
honestly the plot idea was a but odd but had potential, then they had the MC cheat many many times on her multiple girlfriends, and I HATE cheating as a trope, then they set it up that her best friend was in love with her, then they Kissed, then went ew, and in the last chapter they gave her the cheerleader they kinda bullied throughout high school....
there was one good speech about coming out that did almost make me cry so like THERES POTENTIALLLL! IDK WHERE IT WENT?
honestly the plot idea was a but odd but had potential, then they had the MC cheat many many times on her multiple girlfriends, and I HATE cheating as a trope, then they set it up that her best friend was in love with her, then they Kissed, then went ew, and in the last chapter they gave her the cheerleader they kinda bullied throughout high school....
there was one good speech about coming out that did almost make me cry so like THERES POTENTIALLLL! IDK WHERE IT WENT?
cheyennedenali's review against another edition
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
mediocremasen's review
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.5
You know those books that you inhale when you're a queer kid? They're not the best but they're all you have that have people who look like you so you covet them? This is one of those.
I was going to rate it lower but the ending was very cute. The main character and her best friend also have some fun lines and interactions towards the end.
Most of the book I did not like. The characters were annoying, the story was predictable, and it was just pretty boring. The ending was very cute and fun, I wish the rest of the book had been like that. Maybe if it had been longer it would have, but it just wasn't.
It's worth reading if only for the last two to three chapters.
Also, discount Brittany S Pierce is very obvious.
I was going to rate it lower but the ending was very cute. The main character and her best friend also have some fun lines and interactions towards the end.
Most of the book I did not like. The characters were annoying, the story was predictable, and it was just pretty boring. The ending was very cute and fun, I wish the rest of the book had been like that. Maybe if it had been longer it would have, but it just wasn't.
It's worth reading if only for the last two to three chapters.
Also, discount Brittany S Pierce is very obvious.
misha_ali's review against another edition
1.0
All I can say is "oof".
Going in, I thought this was going to a fun little romcom about high school and coming to terms with your sexuality, but it ended up being a homophobic, abuse-riddled and mostly toxic mess.
The only thing I enjoyed about this book was the early dynamic between Mack and Lila where Mack is an extremely dramatic teenager and Lila is the voice of reason batting down all the drama without really batting an eyelash. If the whole book had been just that dynamic, I would have probably been entertained.
The whole premise of kiss as many cheerleaders as possible to prove a point stretches even the romcom limits for a premise. The heaped-on abuse for the main character, although she's being pretty shitty to all these girls herself, including her best friend, really put me off.
The book was decently written and if the premise and plot wasn't so problematic, I suspect I would have enjoyed the writing more. Hard pass on this one, I'm afraid.
Going in, I thought this was going to a fun little romcom about high school and coming to terms with your sexuality, but it ended up being a homophobic, abuse-riddled and mostly toxic mess.
The only thing I enjoyed about this book was the early dynamic between Mack and Lila where Mack is an extremely dramatic teenager and Lila is the voice of reason batting down all the drama without really batting an eyelash. If the whole book had been just that dynamic, I would have probably been entertained.
The whole premise of kiss as many cheerleaders as possible to prove a point stretches even the romcom limits for a premise. The heaped-on abuse for the main character, although she's being pretty shitty to all these girls herself, including her best friend, really put me off.
The book was decently written and if the premise and plot wasn't so problematic, I suspect I would have enjoyed the writing more. Hard pass on this one, I'm afraid.
jugglingpup's review
2.0
To see more reviews check out MI Book Reviews.
I got an ARC of this book.
I got this book, because iam had it. I am that easily swayed to read a book. I knew nothing else about it except that the title was a pun. I am a simple queer. Give me a dad joke and a queer love story (preferably with cowboys or with a cute dog sidekick) and I am in.
The book wasn’t great. It wasn’t terrible, but the bad outweighed the good. The writing itself wasn’t all that bad. It was typical YA stuff. Nothing earth shattering, but better than a lot of things I have read. The issue with mostly the plots and characters.
Mack: of course the main character would be a more masculine lesbian. That is so much easier to digest for people. What I would not give for a femme/femme pairing. Give me two girls who do each other’s nails and then go “fuck, I think I love her”. Though I do love butch characters, it just was annoying in the sense that there were so many tropes and stereotypes that you have the butch character messing up relationships exactly like how the boys do in YA books. You could replace Mack with a guy and the book would barely have to change. Her character is pretty flat. She is obsessed with a cheerleader, but then through the book learns that she really doesn’t like her? I just didn’t buy the romance.
Lila: She was totally in love with Mack. There is no denying it, except in this world love is based on physical attraction. So their love is totally discredited since there was no “spark”. I’m sorry. I ship Lila and Mack hardcore. They are there for each other, they trust each other, they care for each other. 10/10 best relationship in the book. (Hell, Lila actually texts with Mack’s mom. It is a match made in heaven.)
Chad: Can you just guess his role and personality? Enough said.
Plots: Mack is outed in front of the whole school. Outing her is never really punished in any way. It is the whole catalyst for the wonderfully YA idea of hooking up with every cheerleader to prove I don’t know what. There is constant homophobia. It generally stays in the area of physically harmless pranks. It read as very middle school. I had similar pranks played on me in middle school. So it was really boring for me, but could be really triggering for someone else. The homophobia is never addressed. It just is. Hell, Mack is told that she is getting it placed in her record that she is gay since it is a Catholic high school (that fact is not revealed until after the scene where Mack is harassed by her principal I believe which made the scene just confusing). So there is institutional homophobia that is not addressed until the very end, but in a teen romcom ending (to be fair, the ending had my favorite part. The teacher’s response to the scene at prom is just great).
If Mack was not interchangeable with every single whiny cis boy from YA that makes his own messes, then this book might have been more fun. The only reason this book was gay was there were girls kissing and even one of the pairs of girls kissing was doing to to counter act “the gay”. So homophobic gay kissing? I just don’t understand.
I wanted to like this book.
I got an ARC of this book.
I got this book, because iam had it. I am that easily swayed to read a book. I knew nothing else about it except that the title was a pun. I am a simple queer. Give me a dad joke and a queer love story (preferably with cowboys or with a cute dog sidekick) and I am in.
The book wasn’t great. It wasn’t terrible, but the bad outweighed the good. The writing itself wasn’t all that bad. It was typical YA stuff. Nothing earth shattering, but better than a lot of things I have read. The issue with mostly the plots and characters.
Mack: of course the main character would be a more masculine lesbian. That is so much easier to digest for people. What I would not give for a femme/femme pairing. Give me two girls who do each other’s nails and then go “fuck, I think I love her”. Though I do love butch characters, it just was annoying in the sense that there were so many tropes and stereotypes that you have the butch character messing up relationships exactly like how the boys do in YA books. You could replace Mack with a guy and the book would barely have to change. Her character is pretty flat. She is obsessed with a cheerleader, but then through the book learns that she really doesn’t like her? I just didn’t buy the romance.
Lila: She was totally in love with Mack. There is no denying it, except in this world love is based on physical attraction. So their love is totally discredited since there was no “spark”. I’m sorry. I ship Lila and Mack hardcore. They are there for each other, they trust each other, they care for each other. 10/10 best relationship in the book. (Hell, Lila actually texts with Mack’s mom. It is a match made in heaven.)
Chad: Can you just guess his role and personality? Enough said.
Plots: Mack is outed in front of the whole school. Outing her is never really punished in any way. It is the whole catalyst for the wonderfully YA idea of hooking up with every cheerleader to prove I don’t know what. There is constant homophobia. It generally stays in the area of physically harmless pranks. It read as very middle school. I had similar pranks played on me in middle school. So it was really boring for me, but could be really triggering for someone else. The homophobia is never addressed. It just is. Hell, Mack is told that she is getting it placed in her record that she is gay since it is a Catholic high school (that fact is not revealed until after the scene where Mack is harassed by her principal I believe which made the scene just confusing). So there is institutional homophobia that is not addressed until the very end, but in a teen romcom ending (to be fair, the ending had my favorite part. The teacher’s response to the scene at prom is just great).
If Mack was not interchangeable with every single whiny cis boy from YA that makes his own messes, then this book might have been more fun. The only reason this book was gay was there were girls kissing and even one of the pairs of girls kissing was doing to to counter act “the gay”. So homophobic gay kissing? I just don’t understand.
I wanted to like this book.
iam's review
2.0
This had the potential to be so cute, but unfortunately fell flat for me.
Read the full review & more on the blog.
Content warnings include: bullying, homophobia, repeated outing of queer characters against their will, cheating, toxic definition of queerness, religion, homophobic authority figure threatening queer teen, TONS of public humiliation and second hand embarassment.
It wasn’t all bad. There were some cute moments, and particularly towards the end there were some unexpected turns where instead of turning south like I thought they would, it went up in the best way instead.
But ultimately it only reminded of me why I usually hate American High School romcoms: they are formulaic, perpetuate harmful stereotypes and revolve solely on second hand embarassment and putting the protagonist down.
I received an ARC and reviewed honestly and voluntarily.
Read the full review & more on the blog.
Content warnings include: bullying, homophobia, repeated outing of queer characters against their will, cheating, toxic definition of queerness, religion, homophobic authority figure threatening queer teen, TONS of public humiliation and second hand embarassment.
It wasn’t all bad. There were some cute moments, and particularly towards the end there were some unexpected turns where instead of turning south like I thought they would, it went up in the best way instead.
But ultimately it only reminded of me why I usually hate American High School romcoms: they are formulaic, perpetuate harmful stereotypes and revolve solely on second hand embarassment and putting the protagonist down.
I received an ARC and reviewed honestly and voluntarily.
andipants's review against another edition
1.0
Well, this was a massive disappointment. This book clearly sets out to be a rom-com, except the comedy consists almost entirely of lesbian stereotypes and skin-crawling cringe humor. The characters all seem to be time travelers from 1998; people are reading print magazines and passing notes on paper; the main character seems to sincerely not even know the word "Twitter"; and the author apparently forgot that texting exists until halfway through the book.
I can't for the life of me figure out this setting; as someone who was queer at a conservative Catholic high school (in the early 2000s, no less!), none of this felt even close to familiar. This place is apparently hardcore enough to call Mack in to the principal's office for a stern warning and call an assembly to warn the whole school about the evils of homosexuality, but then as Mack proceeds to, well, mack on half the cheerleader squad...literally nothing else happens? Excuse me?
Who are these characters? I've never seen such a cast of cardboard cutouts; it's literally just a bunch of stereotypes from like every 90s teen movie. Beth is literally just Brittany from Glee, right down to treating her cat like a human for "comedy" purposes. Lila has no personality or motivation beyond plot convenience; she encourages Mack at the beginning, gets jealous in the middle because the plot needs some extra tension, and then conveniently decides at the end that she's not jealous after all because it's time for the happy ending.
And Mack. My god. Don't get me started. I hated her so much. I know teenagers can sometimes be short-sighted and self-centered, but this girl apparently has not one ounce of empathy, self-awareness, or common fucking sense. Every decision she makes is a trainwreck, and how anyone is even still speaking to her by the end of the book is beyond me. I couldn't sympathize with her because I was too busy bouncing between putting my eyes back in their sockets at how she could be so dense and wanting to wring her damn neck.
And finally, the plot is both ridiculous and gross. Sure Mack, you can just "steal" all the football players' girlfriends; surely the girls themselves don't have anything as inconvenient as actual feelings on the matter. And where the hell did that ending come from? Ridiculous. No thank you, please.
I can't for the life of me figure out this setting; as someone who was queer at a conservative Catholic high school (in the early 2000s, no less!), none of this felt even close to familiar. This place is apparently hardcore enough to call Mack in to the principal's office for a stern warning and call an assembly to warn the whole school about the evils of homosexuality, but then as Mack proceeds to, well, mack on half the cheerleader squad...literally nothing else happens? Excuse me?
Who are these characters? I've never seen such a cast of cardboard cutouts; it's literally just a bunch of stereotypes from like every 90s teen movie. Beth is literally just Brittany from Glee, right down to treating her cat like a human for "comedy" purposes. Lila has no personality or motivation beyond plot convenience; she encourages Mack at the beginning, gets jealous in the middle
Spoiler
(for what turns out to be no reason)And Mack. My god. Don't get me started. I hated her so much. I know teenagers can sometimes be short-sighted and self-centered, but this girl apparently has not one ounce of empathy, self-awareness, or common fucking sense. Every decision she makes is a trainwreck, and how anyone is even still speaking to her by the end of the book is beyond me. I couldn't sympathize with her because I was too busy bouncing between putting my eyes back in their sockets at how she could be so dense and wanting to wring her damn neck.
And finally, the plot is both ridiculous and gross. Sure Mack, you can just "steal" all the football players' girlfriends; surely the girls themselves don't have anything as inconvenient as actual feelings on the matter. And where the hell did that ending come from?
Spoiler
You can't just have a random "I am Spartacus" moment at the prom without setting up why the entire grade suddenly gives a fuck about this girl they were perfectly happy to ignore and/or bully for the preceeding four years. Lila and Beth, yes, that makes sense; Veronica, eh, maybe, okay; but who else? Those are literally the only names mentioned. She hasn't made friends with anyone else; her other two "conquests" as far as we know are still actively mad at her. So who are all these randos suddenly standing up for her for no reason at all?dani007k's review
funny
inspiring
lighthearted
relaxing
fast-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
3.75
tlrjhnlwsn's review
funny
lighthearted
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0