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3.39 AVERAGE
3.39 AVERAGE
I love it. I can't help but compare it to Geography Club minus the sexy scenes.
emotional
funny
tense
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
Gave this book 2 stars because neither of the characters were likable. Beck sucked and Jax was not much better. He was a better person, but he still wasn’t that great of a character. Beck was so immature. He called Jax’s mother “Big Titties”. I mean, what the fuck?! How old are you? I mean, really. And if I can recall, he called her a whore too. So misogynistic. Beck was horrible. And Jax took forever to tell Beck how he felt about him. He was in the closet and it took him long to come out of the closet to Beck. It got tiring seeing him gush about how hot Beck was when he was refusing to tell him how he felt. It was like, oh my gosh, just tell him you love him already. 😂 The book DID have its funny moments. I chuckled here and there. Other than that, the characters were unlikable. It was unbearable to read sometimes. There were a lot of cringey moments. So, would I recommend this book? NO!!! 😅😅
Tuesday, October 10, 2023 at 8:52 PM
Tuesday, October 10, 2023 at 8:52 PM
Content Warnings
Moderate: Biphobia, Homophobia
ugh, casual misogyny abounds, not to mention the tried and true garbage of horrible homophobe is actually gay. Hard pass.
While the book was well written and had some laugh-out-loud funny moments, I couldn't get past the fact that almost every character in this book was an over the top stereotype.
-The lesbian who some how has a baseball bat at the ready because duh, she's a lesbian - of course she played softball.
-The asians who were the "smartest people in school" and were only ever seen as shy and taking notes on their iPads.
-The fat girl who was loud and abrasive, saying offensive shit and only ever wondering when the next time she got to eat was.
Also, Beckett may have been one of the most insufferable and stereotypical MCs I have read in a while. The way he treats his best friend is horrendous, especially the inner thoughts he constantly has about the way she looks. The way he treats his dad's girlfriend is unacceptable, even by the usual "I hate me parents new sig other" standards. At one point he even lets this woman believe his dad abuses him just so she will leave his father. Actually, the way he treats every character in this book is truly disappointing.
I so wanted to love this book, but the cons here definitely outweigh the pros.
TL;DR
The characters are nothing but stereotypical shells, the MC is insufferable and the LOL funny bits are so few and far between, its hard to make up for everything else. Skip this.
-The lesbian who some how has a baseball bat at the ready because duh, she's a lesbian - of course she played softball.
-The asians who were the "smartest people in school" and were only ever seen as shy and taking notes on their iPads.
-The fat girl who was loud and abrasive, saying offensive shit and only ever wondering when the next time she got to eat was.
Also, Beckett may have been one of the most insufferable and stereotypical MCs I have read in a while. The way he treats his best friend is horrendous, especially the inner thoughts he constantly has about the way she looks. The way he treats his dad's girlfriend is unacceptable, even by the usual "I hate me parents new sig other" standards. At one point he even lets this woman believe his dad abuses him just so she will leave his father. Actually, the way he treats every character in this book is truly disappointing.
I so wanted to love this book, but the cons here definitely outweigh the pros.
TL;DR
The characters are nothing but stereotypical shells, the MC is insufferable and the LOL funny bits are so few and far between, its hard to make up for everything else. Skip this.
I was going to give this book four stars, but I finally had to ask myself if I was being so kind because the book is queer? And of course, the answer is that I’m always nice to books that are queer. That’s why it’s three instead of two.
I get that this book has a reputation for being edgy. There are scenes that are highly sexually charged, and that’s great. But that can’t come at the expense of kids reading a book thinking that this kind of behavior is normal or healthy. One scene that bothered me the most was when Dustin Black, DJ extraordinaire, gropes his way up and down Jaxon’s body teenage body. In the scene, Jaxon is underage, but even if he wasn’t, the text passes off the idea that it’s okay to appeal to sleazy predators with your body (or the body of your friends) in order to get what you want. Yes, the narrative recognizes that Dustin is not an upstanding character, but he never has to answer for his behavior, and is in fact rewarded, being allowed to play a set for a bunch of queer teenagers. Stunning.
Furthermore, the entire plot of the book was rife with stereotypes, all the way up to the Westboro-esque picketers with closeted lives. I thought I could live with it, but I’ve seen small town gay stories done before, and few ended as hurriedly and cliched as this one did.
I will say that I appreciated Jaxon’s character, not only for the bi representation, but also for the way that internalized homophobia was depicted. Howard showed how even a kid with two moms could end up suppressing a part of himself because of external societal pressures.
I didn’t really care for Beckett, though. He treats people badly, and doesn’t ever get called out for it. I don’t want to rip into him, but I wouldn’t want to be friends with someone who refused to appreciate how I looked. He constantly thinks to himself about how unappealing his best friend Shelby looks...it put me off.
All in all, too many problematic occurrences and too little emotional payoff. There is too much new YA out there...
Final note: I’m not saying they don’t exist, but as a drag queen, I would NOT get in drag everyday just to bleach assholes.
I get that this book has a reputation for being edgy. There are scenes that are highly sexually charged, and that’s great. But that can’t come at the expense of kids reading a book thinking that this kind of behavior is normal or healthy. One scene that bothered me the most was when Dustin Black, DJ extraordinaire, gropes his way up and down Jaxon’s body teenage body. In the scene, Jaxon is underage, but even if he wasn’t, the text passes off the idea that it’s okay to appeal to sleazy predators with your body (or the body of your friends) in order to get what you want. Yes, the narrative recognizes that Dustin is not an upstanding character, but he never has to answer for his behavior, and is in fact rewarded, being allowed to play a set for a bunch of queer teenagers. Stunning.
Furthermore, the entire plot of the book was rife with stereotypes, all the way up to the Westboro-esque picketers with closeted lives. I thought I could live with it, but I’ve seen small town gay stories done before, and few ended as hurriedly and cliched as this one did.
I will say that I appreciated Jaxon’s character, not only for the bi representation, but also for the way that internalized homophobia was depicted. Howard showed how even a kid with two moms could end up suppressing a part of himself because of external societal pressures.
I didn’t really care for Beckett, though. He treats people badly, and doesn’t ever get called out for it. I don’t want to rip into him, but I wouldn’t want to be friends with someone who refused to appreciate how I looked. He constantly thinks to himself about how unappealing his best friend Shelby looks...it put me off.
All in all, too many problematic occurrences and too little emotional payoff. There is too much new YA out there...
Final note: I’m not saying they don’t exist, but as a drag queen, I would NOT get in drag everyday just to bleach assholes.
There's some heavy stuff here but overall it's a relatively nice story.
I'm not an American and I don't know anything about American Football, and I've heard it in many places that it's always the Quarterback.
Someone please tell me how true that is.
I'm not an American and I don't know anything about American Football, and I've heard it in many places that it's always the Quarterback.
Someone please tell me how true that is.
A funny, sweet and sexy YA romantic dramady - more risqué than other YA novels, especially LGBTQ-themed ones. Excited to see what Howard does next
This book was incredibly enjoyable and actually really terrible. Becket is an absolute horrible garbage person, but I had a good time reading it. I don't usually enjoy things that are so bad they're good, but this might be exactly that.
I tried to see how far I could get into this book before reaching a full opinion on how I felt about it, but I only made it about forty pages through before realizing I never picked it back up. I was initially excited to read it because the cover art and name caught my attention, some of the positive reviews, and my quest to read more pieces focusing on the LGBT community. I don't want to say it is bad, it just wasn't for me. The dialogue of the characters is supposed to be reflective of the age and personalities of the main characters but it came across as very harsh and borderline offensive, for example, Beck's nickname for his dad's new girlfriend. The writing style didn't resonate with me. I felt as though I couldn't relate to the characters on any level. They were trying too hard to fit into a specific troupe which came across as very superficial. I gave this book a shot but ultimately decided it was better left unfinished.