Reviews tagging 'Body shaming'

Out of the Blue by Jason June

11 reviews

always_sundae's review

Go to review page

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

3.0

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

evelynyle_88's review

Go to review page

adventurous funny lighthearted medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Holy crap!

I never knew I needed a book of merfolk that came out so perfect like this. Out Of The Blue was just a perfect light fantasy with a gentle touch of magic for me. This is perfect for me who love The Little Mermaid in general.

This book has a sweet and cute story (but with some heartfelt moment) that made me; who read it... cry. I just love Sean and Ross (a.k.a Crest). I love them so much equally. They're made for each other. A fantasy dream book of merfolk and brief their history for me.

Oh! And I love Kavya too.. also Elder Kelp! We can't forget about them and their wisefulness. Thank you for bringing this book to life, Jason. I appreciate you. Can't wait to read Jay's Gay Agenda as my other read for your book! 
Expand filter menu Content Warnings

rickireadss's review against another edition

Go to review page

3.0

i REALLY wanted to like this but it ended up just being very mid. the idea was cool, the execution was subpar. i liked our mcs but also wanted to just shake them because wtf were some of those decisions. i think the ending was severly lacking - i just didn't like it. the narrator for cress/ross had a very annoying voice, which made me not want to continue listening (sorry not sorry). i think the LGBTQIA+ rep was good though! just the plot and actual story was ehhh, so-so.

⚠️: infidelity, toxic relationship, car accident, body shaming, mental illness (depression, sc), fatphobia
Expand filter menu Content Warnings

stormeno's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous 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? Yes

3.0

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

bashsbooks's review against another edition

Go to review page

hopeful lighthearted medium-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

2.75

Out of the Blue is cute, and I love that one of the main characters is nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns. But I don't think it successfully pulled off the subversive ending that it was going for, sadly, and I think the reason why pervades the whole book: it gets distracted by being preachy.
Expand filter menu Content Warnings

emily_mh's review against another edition

Go to review page

lighthearted medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

I feel cheated by this book. Everything about it was set up like a romcom: the cover, the tropes, the implied retelling of The Little Mermaid, the fact that Sean, one of the MCs, is obsessed with romcoms and points out all the romcom beats in the story… All this for it to end without the most important romcom beat, the Happily Ever After. The characters didn’t even get a Happy For Now. It was like a slap in the face, and aside from being a tonal shift the ending didn’t make sense for other reasons, too.


For example, the narrative is truly focussed on Crest and Sean’s relationship. Any character development is to the level you would expect in a romcom, NOT in a coming-of-age story where the relationship is there for formative purposes, which is what the ending turns the story into. So the ending feels jarring as it depends on having major character development in both MCs, which wasn’t the case. Ironically, the ending is the reason why Crest CAN’T have any major character development, because it depends on their views on humans and the Blue remaining the exact same. I was hoping at least for them to learn that there is a lot of nuance regarding humans and the environment given power systems like capitalism and white supremacy. I was also hoping they might seek to change the parameters of the Journey, because its conditions are unfair and don’t allow meaningful connections between human and mer to form. But Crest just returns to the sea, holding much the same beliefs, only thinking that they might try to spread love for humans among mer, which seems a bit of a weak resolution.


As you can tell it seems I didn’t like Crest in the end, but in fact I didn’t like them most of the book. They didn’t really try to give humans and life on land a chance because of their uninformed view of humanity. I also hated how hot and cold they were with Sean, getting so angry with him out of nowhere and not allowing Sean to explain. And then they really cheapened their connection with Sean when after one little misunderstanding (again, not allowing Sean to explain), they cheated on him.


The only reason this isn’t getting a one star is that there were some redeeming qualities. I was enjoying it in the beginning, I liked Sean as a character, and the worldbuilding surrounding the mer was interesting (despite the literal infodump in the middle).
Expand filter menu Content Warnings

reallife_kazbrekker's review

Go to review page

adventurous emotional hopeful lighthearted relaxing sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.0

I don't know how I feel about this book tbh... Like I genuinely don't know what to rate it.

It made me cry multiple times, which is great obviously, and I really liked the ending! But I also didn't like all of the miscommunication issues that were going on and the way some of the characters acted in certain situations... Like I get that they are pretty much all teenagers, so we should expect some drama but still.

Anyway like I said I don't know what exactly to rate this, but I think a solid 3.75 stars should be good. Really liked the representation and the way all the emotional stuff was handled! Can't wait to see what I think of the authors other book!

Thank you Netgalley and publisher for the ARC of this book.
(Also this review is a bit of a mess because I'm in a lot of pain right now, so yeah sorry about that.) 
Expand filter menu Content Warnings

asparagusisreading's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous emotional inspiring lighthearted medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Rep: nonbinary character, gay character, bisexual indian character, bisexual latinx character
Expand filter menu Content Warnings

fanboyriot's review

Go to review page

emotional funny 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

3.5

A non-binary MC that just so happens to be mer??  Sign me up.  I really liked so much about this book even if I have somewhat mixed feelings about how it ended.  I easily fell in love with the characters, the humor, and all the merfolk stuff.  It was really cute.
Expand filter menu Content Warnings

sssssoup's review

Go to review page

adventurous hopeful lighthearted fast-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

2.5

I’ve been looking forward to reading this book for over six months, but unfortunately, I found it to be a huge letdown. The premise was really interesting and it had so much potential, but for me, it ended up being incredibly mid.

Things I liked:
-The casual representation was really nice to see
-I thought the world building with the merfolk and their culture was interesting and pretty well done. I especially liked the stuff about gender
-I liked Crest’s exploration of gender presentation 
-It was a pretty fun and quick read
-The portrayal of teenagers felt pretty realistic. Teenagers make a lot of stupid choices, as did the characters in this book (I myself am a teenager)

Things I didn’t like:
-Personally, I found all the mer-slang to be cringy and overused
-The extent of Crest’s confusion about human culture didn’t make sense to me. They supposedly took human culture classes for years, yet they didn’t know how to cross the street or open a door? Also, in one of the first chapters, it says that Crest has mer magic to help them understand human things if they get confused, but it’s only used one time and never mentioned again? 
-I was uncomfortable with how much the teenaged characters talked about sex-related topics (I myself am a teenager and I thought it was weird). It’s not bad to have teenage characters who aren’t ashamed of being horny or anything, but I felt like Sean and Crest were often reduced to their sexual attraction and I found it took away from the other more important parts of their characters. I also didn’t like how their relationship was built so heavily on physicality and lust, yet they kept talking about how they were in love
-The pacing was also off in my opinion, especially toward the end. It felt like the author kept adding in more and more things just to add to the drama of the situations. I saw another reviewer who said that they should’ve focused in on a few things instead of having so many, and I’m inclined to agree

Overall, it was a fun, quick read that you don’t have to think too much about, but I was disappointed because I didn’t love it like I thought I would. I don’t hate it, but I definitely won’t be recommending it to anyone either.
Expand filter menu Content Warnings