Reviews with content warning for Xenophobia - Kiss & Tell

Reviews tagging 'Xenophobia'

Kiss & Tell by Adib Khorram

8 reviews

donttellmomwhatimreading's review against another edition

3.5

Hunter’s life is a mess. He’s on his first North American tour with his bandmates/friends, recently out of a relationship with his best friend’s twin brother, and said ex just leaked text about their sex life. So having the whole world know details about his sex life isn’t great, but the label trying to market him as “a bottom” means a look that doesn’t feel like himself and constant questions about being queer. Kaivan Is the drummer for their opener and being with him feels great, he’s determined not to make the same mistakes from his prior relationship, unfortunately he’s 17 and has an immense amount of pressure on him that he refuses to share.

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tkhenry99's review

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3.0

the book explores some important themes and the format is cool, but i think it tries to tackle too much and there’s poor balance between the scenes of hunter, hunter and kaivan, and hunter and everyone else. the other characters don’t feel important to the story, it’s almost like they’re just there for convenience. so much happens before the book takes place and i felt like i didn’t have a good understanding of why things happened bc it was just summarized for the reader later (literally summarized in the form of interviews). i was disappointed that kaivan’s brothers actually never appear on page (that one 2-line interaction doesn’t count). i also felt like being in the band wasn’t even integral to the story, they could’ve been any other kind of celebrity, bc most of them being a band also happens off-page. also, why did hunter just literally never talk to his friends about anything ever?

tbh it feels like the author set out to write a boyband!AU without making it fanfic and somehow fanfic concepts don’t seem to translate well to regular fiction.

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achay91's review

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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

4.0

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internationalreads's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

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dododenise's review

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emotional hopeful 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

This book was really fun! It tackles all the bits one would expect from a book about gay singer in a boyband: expectations of fame, pressure, homophobia, loneliness, stereotypes and being formed into something you’re not.
Next to it blossomed a beautiful romance. Those were the bits I enjoyed most with great dialogues that were so much fun and could get into some other themes. Really enjoyed the conversation about racism and privilege throughout.

I would have wished the other characters to be more fleshed out. I feel like I barely know anyone but Hunter and Kaivan. There were just glimpses of the others. Ashton and Ethan a bit more, but I really wanted to get to know the band a bit better.

Overall a really enjoyable read!

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