Reviews

Upside Down by N.R. Walker

mobooks's review against another edition

emotional hopeful 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? No

5.0

space_pancake's review

emotional funny informative lighthearted relaxing 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? No

5.0

thereadingwren's review

4.0

4.5/5

THIS IS SO ADORABLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As an asexual this book means a lot to me. It can kind of come off as a self-help book at times when it goes into detail about many aspects of asexuality but I'm actually grateful for it. It gives a great explanation about asexuality and not just the stereotypes but really digs deep into the intricacies of asexuality. Like about being comfortable with holding hands or kissing, or what it means to be aroused, and even being sex-positive. I'd almost be surprised if the author wasn't on the ace spectrum.

Not gonna lie Jordan was kind of annoying and he's the main reason this book isn't a 5 star. He was just so over-the-top to the point it was kind of unrealistic. The more I read the more I liked him but he had so many moments where I thought 'real people don't talk like this'. He was a total cinnamon roll though and I love how he was so friendly with everyone.

Hennessey was the reason this book feels like a self-help book. It makes sense that he runs an asexual support group, but he also goes into mini monologues describing asexuality. He was also a little unrealistic in that he was definitely written as the 'perfect' boyfriend.

I wish there were more scenes of Jordan and Hennessey having deep conversations because they are both going through a lot at the time and it would have been nice to see them support each other.

I love the Soup Crew, the adorable bus people that are super invested in Jordan and Hennessey's relationship and then make their own little friendship group. It's so adorable!!!!

The polyamorous rep was also really great and I haven't really read any poly stuff before but now I'm really interested.

The only slight downside of the book is that during their questions game a HP question is asked. I hate how HP has infiltrated every aspect of media.

This book is just so special. I know it will become one of those books that I read whenever I'm not feeling great and need something to life my spirits and soothe my soul.

This also makes me desperately want to find my perfect, asexual, romantic as hell, book nerd, romantic partner.

elerireads's review against another edition

emotional informative lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.75

Ok this was definitely not a good book. One of those where I have a list a mile long of issues I had with it, but actually did enjoy reading despite all that, so decided to be generous with my rating. 

Maybe I should start by saying this is mainly a cutesy, fluffy romance. I didn't feel like it was actually aspiring to any great literary heights - it was just telling a fairly simple story in quite straightforward language. So whilst I didn't think it was super well-written, there wasn't anything in the writing style that irritated me. The content however...

Ok so the "asexual support meetings" were by far the worst bits of the whole book. As far as I could tell, they were included for two reasons: (1) as a plot device to get the two protagonists to meet each other properly, and (2) so that the author could insert a bunch of long, preachy, holier-than-thou, "educational" speeches about asexuality and how hard done by asexuals are. I could be wrong, but I couldn't find any indication online that Walker identifies on the ace spectrum at all and I got strong vibes that these scenes were just ways to show off all the research she'd done. The meetings were sort of presented like group therapy sessions for some kind of deep trauma, or like AA meetings or something? Treated with this deep, somber reverence where the person leading the meeting stand up and gives a long impassioned speech (tirade) and other attendees start crying. It was so melodramatic it was kind of hilarious. But it did feel like an irritating misrepresentation. My experience of ace meetups has been that yes ok there's space for emotional DMCs but mostly it's all about connection and building a sense of community through having some fun - drinks, museum trips, karaoke, pub quizzes, etc. and many long earnest conversations about transport trivia 😅.

I also felt like it was a bit on the nose that one of the characters first heard about asexuality from his DOCTOR. Obviously it's entirely plausible, but given the ongoing battle against pathologisation of asexuality, and the fact that in general asexuals have to educate medical professionals rather than the other way round, it just felt a little insensitive and tactless.

For someone who claimed to be really good at googling, it was baffling to me that Jordan didn't try googling asexuality. I'm assuming the only reason he didn't was so the author could engineer the Big Misunderstanding. I also felt that the resolution of that situation was dreadful - it was presented as this sweeping romantic gesture but was actually multiple layers of betrayal of confidence about extremely personal things, first from Merry to Hennessy and then Hennessey talking about it in front of the whole bloody support group. I would have been mortified and furious.

In fact I thought Jordan was generally just a really juvenile character. I'll admit I was actually quite amused by his obsession with the word 'motherfucker' but I'm not sure myself why it didn't irritate the hell out of me. And the whole 'is cereal soup?' bit was so stupid and tedious. 

What I did enjoy was the initial relationship development through 5 min conversations on the bus, eavesdropped on by a crowd of nosey but well-meaning busybodies. I would really have liked for all those characters to be fleshed out properly though, rather than just being a funny concept. I also quite enjoyed the twist at the end.

Random side point: when the flatmate is described as a painter I totally interpreted that as meaning an artist and it took me till the last 10% of the book to figure out it meant painter as in a decorator.

amsosa's review against another edition

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.75

karen_reads's review

emotional funny hopeful lighthearted relaxing fast-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

rengulick's review

informative lighthearted slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

2.75

bopip's review

4.0

It was sweet and cute, and for that it reminded me of Heartstopper.
I've found Jordan a bit annoying at the beginning , but a bit later I accepted him (?).
And at some point I was like "oh no, please, don't end this with 'they had sex and they lived happy and they were cured of asexuality'" but it didn't so I'm happy.

Bonus point for poly relationship on secondary characters huhu

kamitsukasero's review against another edition

funny hopeful 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

4.5

 “I didn’t realise how hard I’ve ben trying to fit in with the real world, trying to be normal when my normal was here all along.” 

Finding a book with valid asexual representation is one of the hardest things and I am extremely grateful this book handled it well and is also the only ficitional book I found so far that is about actual adults dealing with their identities on the asexual spectrum. The audiobook was incredibly well performed – fun and engaging - and the entire book felt like 'watching' a television drama. I think it is so important to have these types of cheesy but heart-warming queer stories that don’t end in tragedy and just portray the very down-to-earth, ever so trivial struggles of queer people falling in love (or doing other mundance things, living their lives) - especially with ace characters involved – we so desperately need more of these ace stories! 

At the start I thought this particular style of writing was not going to be for me (and I can only speak for the audio book here) but I quickly came to enjoy it and got surprisingly attached to the characters. I think the audio book may in fact have uplifted the entire experience for me as it’s a very dialogue heavy, ‘colloquial’ experience and the 1st person POV might have put me off in print, possibly. It did feel a little like fanfiction (and I say that as very positive thing, I wish more stories read like fanfiction sometimes) e.g. how the story did not waste too much time on establishing settings and characters (but introduced them well and organically) and had a sense of freedom to the way it is presented to the reader. At times it was be very direct, maybe too direct, but it felt very genuine and real, and the ace community really doesn’t get that a lot so I will take any overly direct exposition over nothing any day. It feels almost too perfect and too happy but it made me smile for being that way – it was so good to escape to a story as happy as this one. 

While it did feel like a feel-good TV drama, it also felt relatable in many parts to the point where I got very emotional over seemingly trivial things because they just hit home a lot. Upside Down is essentially here for you to have a fun time and a laugh here and there, and I really appreciate that as welcome distraction from how glum real life feels more often than not in comparison. Many moments in the book felt like a reassuring pat on the shoulder to give hope and encouragement to ace readers for their own lives and futures. 

marioncromb's review against another edition

emotional hopeful lighthearted reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Not much plot and not much narrative conflict. Nice to read a book with asexual characters, although there was kinda a weird message that ace people can never be in successful relationships with allo people. It was less 'its so much more comfortable/less work to be with another ace person' and more 'being with an allo person is impossible'. It would have been nice to have at least one character who showed this was a possibility!
Pure romance isnt really my thing but its refreshing to see romance that is like these two really fancy each other where boning isnt the natural or preferable outcome of that. I enjoyed the soup crew scenes as well