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dogoodwithbooks's review against another edition
funny
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
3.5/5 (rounded down to 3)
CW: acephobia, attempted sexual violence, sexual harassment, abusive parent (mentioned), unplanned pregnancy (recounted), armed robbery (recounted), murder (recounted), death of both parents (recounted), ableism, emotional abuse/gaslighting, blood, alcoholism, emesis
College is going surprisingly well for Spencer so far. She has two great friends, Reese and Hunter, and she ends up with a go-to study partner, Nick, and coffee shop to hang out in. Yet, in the midst of her freshman year at Ravens College, she goes through a journey of self-discovery and possibly falling for Nick.
I had high hopes for This Doesn't Mean Anything, but I don't think my expectations for the book were fully met.
Yes, the book is long. At over 450 pages, readers find themselves going through Spencer's first year of college right to the very end. While I'm find with the length and duration of the plot (I mean Alice Osman's Loveless has a similar concept to it), the pacing felt off. While the pacing for the first half of the book felt slow and you could clearly see which part of the semester the characters were in (although I thought there were some parts that were dragged out for the sake of it, the second half of the book kind of just rushed in there. I just wished the pacing was a little bit more consistent for both halves of the book.
Additionally, I noticed Whalen does a lot of "tell, not show" in the book. For example, Spencer finding out that she's asexual is rarely touched upon in the book. All that was said is that Spencer went online and figured out she was asexual. I feel like Whalen could have had something really meaningful if we actually got to see Spencer's thought process during her search and realizing that she is asexual. I could name other examples of the "tell, not show", but this was the only one I remember vividly when reading This Doesn't Mean Anything.
That's not to say there isn't anything good about this book and that you shouldn't read it. Personally, I like the whole navigating through college setting and I think that Whalen did a great job with creating a core friend group: Spencer, Reese, Hunter, Nick, & Joselyn (even if the excessive pet names were weird). I also thought Spencer and Nick had a good relationship and you could see that Nick really cared about Spencer (in his own way).
Overall, Whalen provides an alright debut with This Doesn't Mean Anything. I think that Whalen has some potential in this title (as well as her subsequent series) and I know that with the right editor she can get there in future books.
CW: acephobia, attempted sexual violence, sexual harassment, abusive parent (mentioned), unplanned pregnancy (recounted), armed robbery (recounted), murder (recounted), death of both parents (recounted), ableism, emotional abuse/gaslighting, blood, alcoholism, emesis
College is going surprisingly well for Spencer so far. She has two great friends, Reese and Hunter, and she ends up with a go-to study partner, Nick, and coffee shop to hang out in. Yet, in the midst of her freshman year at Ravens College, she goes through a journey of self-discovery and possibly falling for Nick.
I had high hopes for This Doesn't Mean Anything, but I don't think my expectations for the book were fully met.
Yes, the book is long. At over 450 pages, readers find themselves going through Spencer's first year of college right to the very end. While I'm find with the length and duration of the plot (I mean Alice Osman's Loveless has a similar concept to it), the pacing felt off. While the pacing for the first half of the book felt slow and you could clearly see which part of the semester the characters were in (although I thought there were some parts that were dragged out for the sake of it, the second half of the book kind of just rushed in there. I just wished the pacing was a little bit more consistent for both halves of the book.
Additionally, I noticed Whalen does a lot of "tell, not show" in the book. For example, Spencer finding out that she's asexual is rarely touched upon in the book. All that was said is that Spencer went online and figured out she was asexual. I feel like Whalen could have had something really meaningful if we actually got to see Spencer's thought process during her search and realizing that she is asexual. I could name other examples of the "tell, not show", but this was the only one I remember vividly when reading This Doesn't Mean Anything.
That's not to say there isn't anything good about this book and that you shouldn't read it. Personally, I like the whole navigating through college setting and I think that Whalen did a great job with creating a core friend group: Spencer, Reese, Hunter, Nick, & Joselyn (even if the excessive pet names were weird). I also thought Spencer and Nick had a good relationship and you could see that Nick really cared about Spencer (in his own way).
Overall, Whalen provides an alright debut with This Doesn't Mean Anything. I think that Whalen has some potential in this title (as well as her subsequent series) and I know that with the right editor she can get there in future books.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Acephobia/Arophobia, Ableism, Emotional abuse, Sexual violence, and Vomit
Moderate: Death of parent, Murder, Alcoholism, Blood, and Gaslighting
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