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3.23 AVERAGE
3.23 AVERAGE
This book was so freaking fantastic! I started reading this during a reading slump so it took me a while to get through it (no fault of the book just my own issues) But I absolutely loved it! The writing was very simple and easily digestible! I loved the characters and I was able to relate to pretty much all of them in one way or another! The overall character arch and growth was done very well and I appreciate the fact that most of the issues the character was facing was put in the book for a reason and a learning lesson and not just to add useless drama! The friendship relationship in this book was done so beautifully and was one of the best things about this story! The last 35% of the book was so gripping and addictive that I just couldn't put it down until I KNEW how everything turned out! The hard hitting topic and approached and dealt with so well and this book really made me feel seen in so many way! The topics of Religion, Sexual Assault, Bullying are all really hard topics to write about and to do it well! I have experienced a lot of the thing this character has gone through, and I thought that it was represented very very well!
The only "bad" thing that I can even pinpoint it that toward the end it felt like there were just so many thing going wrong in the characters life that I didn't get to see them all flushed out and felt by the character! I just wanted a bit more time spent on each issues for the characters to learn all they could from the mistakes they made. But that is such am minor thing and didn't affect my overall enjoyment of this book!
I am so proud of Katie and all of the hard work that she has put into this book and I so extremely happy to have loved it as much as I did!
The only "bad" thing that I can even pinpoint it that toward the end it felt like there were just so many thing going wrong in the characters life that I didn't get to see them all flushed out and felt by the character! I just wanted a bit more time spent on each issues for the characters to learn all they could from the mistakes they made. But that is such am minor thing and didn't affect my overall enjoyment of this book!
I am so proud of Katie and all of the hard work that she has put into this book and I so extremely happy to have loved it as much as I did!
30% dnf
Я смотрю видео автора на youtube, поэтому решила попробовать, но уже почти треть книги прочитана, а мне все равно на то, что происходит.
Я смотрю видео автора на youtube, поэтому решила попробовать, но уже почти треть книги прочитана, а мне все равно на то, что происходит.
Katie's debut novel is a fun adventure. I was not sure what to expect, not really knowing the synopsis. I thought as I started it, it was going to be like Heathers. It definitely had a hint, but was not the full extent of the story.
Katie takes a stance on religion through her characters, that I believe was done really well. She does not necessarily shame the believers or non-believers, but charges them to be open-minded and excepting.
As a Christian, I definitely can relate to the times where doubt and the "Christian" ideal are overwhelming.
Katie's characters were well rounded and I enjoyed their growth during the story.
My main "flaw" in the book was it had SO much going on, there seemed to be four different plots all going on and some of them were just unnecessary.
Other than that, it was an enjoyable read. Nice work Katie!
Katie takes a stance on religion through her characters, that I believe was done really well. She does not necessarily shame the believers or non-believers, but charges them to be open-minded and excepting.
As a Christian, I definitely can relate to the times where doubt and the "Christian" ideal are overwhelming.
Katie's characters were well rounded and I enjoyed their growth during the story.
My main "flaw" in the book was it had SO much going on, there seemed to be four different plots all going on and some of them were just unnecessary.
Other than that, it was an enjoyable read. Nice work Katie!
**BASED OFF AN ARC FROM NET-GALLEY**
I LOVED THIS BOOK SO MUCH. I connected with the story and characters! Even though I am not Christian, I do understand being a loner and invisible.
*** Updated with final copy ***
This was actually amazing! The storyline was wild and never seen before in my life. It wasn't cliqued as other books I read. Thank you, Kate! I can't wait to read the next one!
I LOVED THIS BOOK SO MUCH. I connected with the story and characters! Even though I am not Christian, I do understand being a loner and invisible.
*** Updated with final copy ***
This was actually amazing! The storyline was wild and never seen before in my life. It wasn't cliqued as other books I read. Thank you, Kate! I can't wait to read the next one!
I read this ARC via NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions in this review are my own!
Before I even say anything about this book, I must first make it abundantly clear how much I respect and admire its author. Katie's YouTube channel is one of my favorites, and when she announced that she had written a novel I immediately went to NetGalley and requested an ARC. You can only imagine how excited I was to get approved for one, and how disappointed I was in the fact that I really did not enjoy this book as I thought and hoped I would. While I dislike this book, I wish nothing but the best for its author. Although it is really hard for me to do so, I am going to be honest in this review and hope that my separation of the author and her work is apparent. This review might be a little mean, but it's honest, and at the end of the day that's all that really matters. Please don’t let my review stop you from reading this book and forming your own opinions!
18-year-old Meredith Beaumont has had a quiet and unremarkable four years in high school. In order to salvage her senior year and make some good memories (or something like that), she is forced by her best friend Johanna into signing an "Anti-Virginity Pact", promising that she will be deflowered before graduation. This isn't typical Preacher's Daughter behavior, but Meredith thinks the Bible is a load of crap anyways. Basically, the pact gets leaked and things don't go so great for good ol' Mare- both at school and at home.
there may be some slight spoilers ahead
Here's the thing- the synopsis of this book really misled me. I was thinking this would be dark and gritty, but it honestly was neither of those things. This book had a definite lack of any sort of angst. There was no real discussion about anything as it really felt like a one-sided narrative on how religion is just the worst. There is a definite lack of any sort of depth because no new ideas were really explored. There was no discovery made on behalf of any of the characters that really made any sort of impact.
The characters in this novel were not my favorite. We have Meredith- our MC who is too pretentious for my liking. Meredith also has a sister whose character is quite inconsistent and immature as well. Meredith's parents are Jesus Freaks who flip out over a penis in a Health book. Meredith's kinda boyfriend is very forgettable. She also has a "best friend" named Johanna who is the absolute worst. She is a very selfish and annoying person, in my opinion. I don’t want to possibly spoil anything, so I won’t give examples.
The plot of this book was also just not to my liking. It is about halfway through the book when the pact becomes public information, and there's a lot of dragging along until that point. The pact is distributed by a mean girl making copies of it and then taping them around school. The rampant bullying that ensues is quite unrealistic. We have posterboards with "slut" painted across them being put on Meredith's car, we have written notes calling her a "disgusting whore", and even a full-scale kidnapping where Meredith is dumped in the middle of nowhere.
As a high school student, this is just... not how this works. I'm not about to say that bullying doesn't happen, but this is just too much. Nobody cares that much about other people in high school. Authors and TV Show writers certainly have not figured it out yet, but kids really aren't as ruthless as they used to be. Yeah, they can be bitches, but this level of public humiliation is honestly kind of unfathomable.
Another huge part of the story was Meredith's religious beliefs- or lack thereof. It is 100% understandable to question the beliefs of your parents. It is 100% understandable to disagree with the beliefs of your parents. It is 100% okay to be an atheist! You do you!
But in the context of this book, the message that is meant to be conveyed is just ignorant. It's unfair to represent a real religion with only the worst side of it. These parents that have been created for this story are like Westboro Baptist Church level evil. If you want your book to have a meaningful discussion on religion and what it does then you need to have both sides of the spectrum. The people in this book serve only one purpose, and that is to prove Meredith's point about how religion is bad. She says,
Yes, religion can give people excuses to be assholes, but this is true of so many things. If this book is meant to offer a meaningful discussion, then there needs to be some sort of growth and understanding between both sides of this spectrum. It's fine for Meredith to not believe in God because that's her choice, but it's also problematic and ignorant for her to not even attempt to acknowledge that not all religious people are psychos like her parents. She also says,
Well, yes, people are going to believe that because that's what they believe! If Meredith was asked what the "right" thing to believe was, she would say it was that there is no God. If she asked her parents, they would say that there is. What is the difference between those two? The "right" answer is different for each person. Obviously your religious parents aren't going to agree with you on the existence of God. This is where her pretentiousness comes into play with her thinking that she is so morally and intellectually above it all
Because Meredith never grew or learned to understand anything about being Christian, how could this ever successfully comment on religion at all? It's just a one-sided rant about why Christianity sucks. If I wanted that, then I would have looked on Reddit.
Once again, my dislike of this book does not extend to the author. While this review certainly isn't the nicest one I have ever written, it is honest, and I care about that more than anything. I truly do wish Katie the best in her future and whatever she decides to write next. Hopefully in the future I can enjoy her works more, but I obviously can't say that I enjoyed this one.
---------------------------------------
Just got approved on NetGalley!! I’m so excited! :D
Before I even say anything about this book, I must first make it abundantly clear how much I respect and admire its author. Katie's YouTube channel is one of my favorites, and when she announced that she had written a novel I immediately went to NetGalley and requested an ARC. You can only imagine how excited I was to get approved for one, and how disappointed I was in the fact that I really did not enjoy this book as I thought and hoped I would. While I dislike this book, I wish nothing but the best for its author. Although it is really hard for me to do so, I am going to be honest in this review and hope that my separation of the author and her work is apparent. This review might be a little mean, but it's honest, and at the end of the day that's all that really matters. Please don’t let my review stop you from reading this book and forming your own opinions!
18-year-old Meredith Beaumont has had a quiet and unremarkable four years in high school. In order to salvage her senior year and make some good memories (or something like that), she is forced by her best friend Johanna into signing an "Anti-Virginity Pact", promising that she will be deflowered before graduation. This isn't typical Preacher's Daughter behavior, but Meredith thinks the Bible is a load of crap anyways. Basically, the pact gets leaked and things don't go so great for good ol' Mare- both at school and at home.
there may be some slight spoilers ahead
Here's the thing- the synopsis of this book really misled me. I was thinking this would be dark and gritty, but it honestly was neither of those things. This book had a definite lack of any sort of angst. There was no real discussion about anything as it really felt like a one-sided narrative on how religion is just the worst. There is a definite lack of any sort of depth because no new ideas were really explored. There was no discovery made on behalf of any of the characters that really made any sort of impact.
The characters in this novel were not my favorite. We have Meredith- our MC who is too pretentious for my liking. Meredith also has a sister whose character is quite inconsistent and immature as well. Meredith's parents are Jesus Freaks who flip out over a penis in a Health book. Meredith's kinda boyfriend is very forgettable. She also has a "best friend" named Johanna who is the absolute worst. She is a very selfish and annoying person, in my opinion. I don’t want to possibly spoil anything, so I won’t give examples.
The plot of this book was also just not to my liking. It is about halfway through the book when the pact becomes public information, and there's a lot of dragging along until that point. The pact is distributed by a mean girl making copies of it and then taping them around school. The rampant bullying that ensues is quite unrealistic. We have posterboards with "slut" painted across them being put on Meredith's car, we have written notes calling her a "disgusting whore", and even a full-scale kidnapping where Meredith is dumped in the middle of nowhere.
As a high school student, this is just... not how this works. I'm not about to say that bullying doesn't happen, but this is just too much. Nobody cares that much about other people in high school. Authors and TV Show writers certainly have not figured it out yet, but kids really aren't as ruthless as they used to be. Yeah, they can be bitches, but this level of public humiliation is honestly kind of unfathomable.
Another huge part of the story was Meredith's religious beliefs- or lack thereof. It is 100% understandable to question the beliefs of your parents. It is 100% understandable to disagree with the beliefs of your parents. It is 100% okay to be an atheist! You do you!
But in the context of this book, the message that is meant to be conveyed is just ignorant. It's unfair to represent a real religion with only the worst side of it. These parents that have been created for this story are like Westboro Baptist Church level evil. If you want your book to have a meaningful discussion on religion and what it does then you need to have both sides of the spectrum. The people in this book serve only one purpose, and that is to prove Meredith's point about how religion is bad. She says,
"'I've started to see religion in the context of the outside world, I just have more and more contempt for it. I hate how narrow-minded it can make people. How it breeds judgement and hatred and superiority complexes.'"
Yes, religion can give people excuses to be assholes, but this is true of so many things. If this book is meant to offer a meaningful discussion, then there needs to be some sort of growth and understanding between both sides of this spectrum. It's fine for Meredith to not believe in God because that's her choice, but it's also problematic and ignorant for her to not even attempt to acknowledge that not all religious people are psychos like her parents. She also says,
"'All my life, everyone had acted like what they believe is the only right thing to believe.'"
Well, yes, people are going to believe that because that's what they believe! If Meredith was asked what the "right" thing to believe was, she would say it was that there is no God. If she asked her parents, they would say that there is. What is the difference between those two? The "right" answer is different for each person. Obviously your religious parents aren't going to agree with you on the existence of God. This is where her pretentiousness comes into play with her thinking that she is so morally and intellectually above it all
Because Meredith never grew or learned to understand anything about being Christian, how could this ever successfully comment on religion at all? It's just a one-sided rant about why Christianity sucks. If I wanted that, then I would have looked on Reddit.
Once again, my dislike of this book does not extend to the author. While this review certainly isn't the nicest one I have ever written, it is honest, and I care about that more than anything. I truly do wish Katie the best in her future and whatever she decides to write next. Hopefully in the future I can enjoy her works more, but I obviously can't say that I enjoyed this one.
---------------------------------------
Just got approved on NetGalley!! I’m so excited! :D
Meredith Beaumont is your typical shy preacher's daughter, except for one thing, she doesn't believe in God. As Meridith struggles with this hidden secret her life is upended when a copy of the pact she made with her best friend is stolen and spread around the school. This wouldn't be the worst thing if the pact didn't have to do with losing her virginity by the end of her senior year. Now Meridith's life will never be the same and not only does she have to worry about being thrust out of her life she has to worry about all those she loves as well.
The Anti-Virginity Pact is a hilariously fun book with some darker themes. I enjoyed Mare's character a lot. This book shows the ups and downs of high school and high school relationships. Although I know that many people don't like the typical 'mean girl' stereotype I do feel like it can be done realistically like it was in this book. While this book dealt with very important topics I do feel like there were too many things that were trying to be explored in too little of time.
Katie did really well at handling all the harder topics with care, however, I felt like she didn't have time to fully explore these things like she wanted to. I really enjoyed her writing and characters. All of her characters had their own faults and struggles that they had to work with. I feel that many characters had time to work through their problems, but Mare's sister, Harper, didn't get the amount of attention and care that she deserved.
Overall I feel that for a debut novel it was really well done.
The Anti-Virginity Pact is a hilariously fun book with some darker themes. I enjoyed Mare's character a lot. This book shows the ups and downs of high school and high school relationships. Although I know that many people don't like the typical 'mean girl' stereotype I do feel like it can be done realistically like it was in this book. While this book dealt with very important topics I do feel like there were too many things that were trying to be explored in too little of time.
Katie did really well at handling all the harder topics with care, however, I felt like she didn't have time to fully explore these things like she wanted to. I really enjoyed her writing and characters. All of her characters had their own faults and struggles that they had to work with. I feel that many characters had time to work through their problems, but Mare's sister, Harper, didn't get the amount of attention and care that she deserved.
Overall I feel that for a debut novel it was really well done.
The book is very good, but there are many things that I really didn't like in it.
The Pros:
1.As an unnative speaker of the English language, who reads to strengthen my English, I appreciate the fact that the book is written beautifully. Except of few tiny spelling mistakes/ wrong word or preposition choice (I believe these mistakes are mostly typing mistakes) the book is written in almost perfect grammar which is somehow quite rare to see even in many best selling books. So, kudos to Katie and her editor for that.
2. I love the fact that Mare is separated from Sam and has decided to discover herself before getting involved in a relationship because she really is too young to commit, IMO.
The Cons:
1. I really don't like reading YA books, simply because this genre contains many troops, which were present in this book, that I really hate, those are as follows:
a. There is no real presence of adults and when they are present, they usually do stupid things or are a sort of nuisance. (Adults don't understand teens and thus their decisions are invalid troop) she was bullied, kidnapped, nearly raped, chased by criminals(dog fights events are against the law) and her family are oblivious of all of this.
b. Too much bullying, I didn't study in an American or Western school so I don't know if that level of bullying is possible, So I can't be the judge here. But bullying is a common troop in YA.
c. The MC making terrible and stupid mistakes. I don't even want to start talking about this point.
d. The MC's best friend is unlikable, toxic and forces her to do stupid things. So, basically, the MC has a weak characters and others, usually the best friend, are controlling her life troop.
2. The second con is the theme of religion. I'm a religious woman, but not Christian. The fact that the character is atheist really didn't bother me much though, in fact I didn't dislike the religion theme as many other reviewers do. In my opinion, Mare is just an 18 years-old with no experience in life due to the fact that she has been sheltered for all her 18 years by her religious parents and her only source of knowledge and information about religion and atheism is a bloody website with other teenagers commenting on their hellish life with religious parents, so not that great source of information at all.
So, We are exploring the world from the point of view of the 18 year old MC, not the writer's point of view necessarily. So judging the writer because of this is just naive.
However, what bothered me was the mentioning of the Christian camps. I think there is so much exaggeration about what happens in those camps. Again I'm not Christian so I can't judge whether this point was accurate or not.
To sum up, I enjoyed reading the book eventhough I disliked many things in it. I really didn't want to be unjust to the author by giving her less than 4 stars since YA isn't for me and this is her debut, and I'm sure she will keep on improving that is why I look forward to her future works.
The Pros:
1.As an unnative speaker of the English language, who reads to strengthen my English, I appreciate the fact that the book is written beautifully. Except of few tiny spelling mistakes/ wrong word or preposition choice (I believe these mistakes are mostly typing mistakes) the book is written in almost perfect grammar which is somehow quite rare to see even in many best selling books. So, kudos to Katie and her editor for that.
2. I love the fact that Mare is separated from Sam and has decided to discover herself before getting involved in a relationship because she really is too young to commit, IMO.
The Cons:
1. I really don't like reading YA books, simply because this genre contains many troops, which were present in this book, that I really hate, those are as follows:
a. There is no real presence of adults and when they are present, they usually do stupid things or are a sort of nuisance. (Adults don't understand teens and thus their decisions are invalid troop) she was bullied, kidnapped, nearly raped, chased by criminals(dog fights events are against the law) and her family are oblivious of all of this.
b. Too much bullying, I didn't study in an American or Western school so I don't know if that level of bullying is possible, So I can't be the judge here. But bullying is a common troop in YA.
c. The MC making terrible and stupid mistakes. I don't even want to start talking about this point.
d. The MC's best friend is unlikable, toxic and forces her to do stupid things. So, basically, the MC has a weak characters and others, usually the best friend, are controlling her life troop.
2. The second con is the theme of religion. I'm a religious woman, but not Christian. The fact that the character is atheist really didn't bother me much though, in fact I didn't dislike the religion theme as many other reviewers do. In my opinion, Mare is just an 18 years-old with no experience in life due to the fact that she has been sheltered for all her 18 years by her religious parents and her only source of knowledge and information about religion and atheism is a bloody website with other teenagers commenting on their hellish life with religious parents, so not that great source of information at all.
So, We are exploring the world from the point of view of the 18 year old MC, not the writer's point of view necessarily. So judging the writer because of this is just naive.
However, what bothered me was the mentioning of the Christian camps. I think there is so much exaggeration about what happens in those camps. Again I'm not Christian so I can't judge whether this point was accurate or not.
To sum up, I enjoyed reading the book eventhough I disliked many things in it. I really didn't want to be unjust to the author by giving her less than 4 stars since YA isn't for me and this is her debut, and I'm sure she will keep on improving that is why I look forward to her future works.
I don't even know.
I love Katie's writing style....
But there was so much about this that didn't flow well with me. I didn't really enjoy any of the characters, they read younger than what they were.
Also the use of a certain derivative slur for lesbians not one but like 5 times, and the dog fighting plot, AND the student religiously trying to have sex with her teacher...It just didn't flow for me.
I will definitely check out Katie's poetry work, and won't hesitate to check out any other novel she works on, buy this one just wasn't for me.
I love Katie's writing style....
But there was so much about this that didn't flow well with me. I didn't really enjoy any of the characters, they read younger than what they were.
Also the use of a certain derivative slur for lesbians not one but like 5 times, and the dog fighting plot, AND the student religiously trying to have sex with her teacher...It just didn't flow for me.
I will definitely check out Katie's poetry work, and won't hesitate to check out any other novel she works on, buy this one just wasn't for me.