Reviews with content warning for Toxic friendship - Maybe He Just Likes You

Reviews tagging 'Toxic friendship'

Maybe He Just Likes You by Barbara Dee

7 reviews

unusuallyy's review against another edition

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sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

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greatexpectations77's review against another edition

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challenging emotional informative reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.75

The amount of rage that this book made me feel is such a feat. The INJUSTICE. The REALISM. The AMOUNT THAT I WAS THINKING MURDEROUS THOUGHTS ABOUT THESE MIDDLE SCHOOL BOYS. It was so incredibly, horribly spot-on about how lonely sexual harassment can feel. Mila was failed in a hundred different ways by the adults in her life that she needed to be keeping an eye out for her. The only thing that I didn't love was that I felt like the ending was a little faster than the build-up, and I, to be honest, wanted everyone to have to more harshly understand their roles in Mila's hurt. But I guess it's also important to understand the culture that shaped these boys' actions and that they didn't invent harassment. But god was I ready to just explode of anger. Also a huge example of parentification of Mila on her mom's part.

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kell_xavi's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful medium-paced

5.0

This is quite honestly one of the scariest books I’ve read, and one of the bravest. Mila is thirteen, caring about trumpet, her small family, and her close friends, when the boys at school start touching her and talking about her body. Mila’s discomfort is palpable, her stress growing as she begins avoiding places, topics of conversation, clothes she loves in order to make it stop. The confusion, fear, anger, helplessness she feels comes through strong, and I was on her side the whole way through. There’s a sadness to the silence of those around her, the misguided advice, how small it makes her. I wanted someone to stick up for her, but I understood too, that support came in different ways, and there was a realism to every scene. Barbara Dee creates a tense, difficult scenario, but she is gentle through it, gentle with Mila, with her readers, and with the ending. It made sense, I thought. A kind of restorative justice, a kind of reshaping, a kind of repair. I was so proud of Mila, and so glad this book was there to read.

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gurnoor's review against another edition

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emotional inspiring medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

0.25

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thejackalopeswarren's review against another edition

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challenging emotional informative sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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rowanvin's review against another edition

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emotional inspiring reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

Content Warnings

sierranorgan's review against another edition

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challenging emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

VRC read! I think this is a SUPER important book for middle grade students to read. I think this age group has a hard find understanding boundaries sometimes, and this is a good way for them to understand how that can go wrong.
The only thing that I didn’t totally enjoy with this one was some of the language. It sounded like someone from back in the 50’s or 60’s with phrases like “being fresh” used to mean being rude, which sounded completely outdated. I think if some of that could’ve been updated it would have felt more authentic.

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