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falcarragh's review against another edition
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.5
What put me off about this book weren't the writing stye or the general worldbuilding. But rather all those harmful stereotyes conveyed not through some but all characters.
The pathetic attempt to build an interesting main character failed. I mean Liv has the most interesting background story but it's irrerelevant for the stories. The focus of the story kinda remains with the good-looking boygroup. She's doing Kung-fu but even that is on ever mentioned in one or two sentences. Also "since when are u so girly?" She's contantly judged for her actions as a girl but has to go through the average cinderella transformation. It bored me so much.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexism, Misogyny, and Alcohol
Moderate: Bullying, Animal death, Medical content, Car accident, Body shaming, and Gaslighting
readingduckling's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.25
I bought this book for two reasons. First of all, because it is a tinitiny hardcover edition about half as tall and long as the original version. And second of all, i read this book when it was first released and loved it back than (i think I was about 16), know back than i would have given it 5 Stars.
But after reading it now, I sadly must say, it's not that great. And even partially problematic.
But let's start with some lighter more nit-picky critic points I have of this book. The first thing is something the author could not have for seen, but now it's very distracting, one of the side characters (who is just mentions some times because he died before the story started) is called "Tom Holland". Every time he is mentioned I just think "Oh, Spiderman!" because he is always, always mentioned with his full given name. It was very difficult to read. I know that the real life Tom Holland was not really the world wide known actor he is today but is now really annoying to read.
But there was a name the author could have known was not a 100% appropriate if you want this story to be readable in general. Because the man that is the new Boyfriend of our main characters mother has the last name Spencer, he is a wealthy Londoner his late wife had a place in the britisch succession. And I was wondering the entire book if the connection to Princess Diana was on purpose or if it was just a stupid accident due to bad research. This was something that is just a small thing but it annoyed me and i definitely deducted points for that. But it wasn't the worst thing this book did.
The last nit-picky thing i have it is the writing style, the writing was generic and not quite exiting I was missing being taken captive by the way the book is written and being emerged in the story. I first wanted to excuse it because it's a middle great/young adult book but I read so many books of that genre, and there were able to pull me right in to the story. So it can't be that.
But one thing in the writing impressed me, she really knows how to write a man that feels like he was written by a man not a woman. All the seemingly romantic scenes were the love interest said something it always made me gag or audible say "Ewww" and a well written man and relationship never have that effect on me. And i found that so sad, because I am a absolute sucker for romantic scenes/books.
Then there were the horrible tropes, first of all the early 2000 "I'm ugly because I wear glasses and my hear in my Ponytail and im skinny... But when I open my hair and don't use my glasses I look gorgeous". Furthermore there were plenty of fat phobic parts with parts like; you already have eaten so much, are you sure you want to eat more? And it was presented as completely normal, and it should not be in a book mainly read by teenagers.
In addition to that the book was filled with "I'm not like other girls...", in the most cliche thing because it was something what was a pretty normal thing because the ting that makes her sooo special is, that she likes "Dark haired intelligent boys" the kind of boy every teen girl protagonist wants.
One of the most problematic things in the story was in combination with the "Tattle-Tale Blog" a Website used as a plot device to further the story and ad mystery. In the sentence were the Blog was described it was said, that the anonymous writer of this Blog liked sharing spicy secrets, like outing gay students before they were ready. And that in an english private school with is full with kids with tory parents. So kids that will probably get disowned as soon as the parents find out. (I know britisch conservative people are often not as extreme as american conservative people, but when push comes to shove all conservatives will disown their nonconforming kids). So in the end it's not a spicy secret to share, it can be a death sentence especially in a conservative setting.
I also have some other smaller points but they are not that important, like the forced cliffhanger at the end. And it had the opposite effect on me because that was the nail in the coffin for me, now i absolutely don't want to buy the other books.
If you are asking now why the 2.25 Stars if I have so many critics of the book there are two points I really like and they absolutely bump up my rating. First of all I just like the physical book because it is so small and cute and i just love it.
The other thing is that i really love the premise of the book, its so interesting, i would love to read more stories with this theme. But please a better written one.
But after reading it now, I sadly must say, it's not that great. And even partially problematic.
But let's start with some lighter more nit-picky critic points I have of this book. The first thing is something the author could not have for seen, but now it's very distracting, one of the side characters (who is just mentions some times because he died before the story started) is called "Tom Holland". Every time he is mentioned I just think "Oh, Spiderman!" because he is always, always mentioned with his full given name. It was very difficult to read. I know that the real life Tom Holland was not really the world wide known actor he is today but is now really annoying to read.
But there was a name the author could have known was not a 100% appropriate if you want this story to be readable in general. Because the man that is the new Boyfriend of our main characters mother has the last name Spencer, he is a wealthy Londoner his late wife had a place in the britisch succession. And I was wondering the entire book if the connection to Princess Diana was on purpose or if it was just a stupid accident due to bad research. This was something that is just a small thing but it annoyed me and i definitely deducted points for that. But it wasn't the worst thing this book did.
The last nit-picky thing i have it is the writing style, the writing was generic and not quite exiting I was missing being taken captive by the way the book is written and being emerged in the story. I first wanted to excuse it because it's a middle great/young adult book but I read so many books of that genre, and there were able to pull me right in to the story. So it can't be that.
But one thing in the writing impressed me, she really knows how to write a man that feels like he was written by a man not a woman. All the seemingly romantic scenes were the love interest said something it always made me gag or audible say "Ewww" and a well written man and relationship never have that effect on me. And i found that so sad, because I am a absolute sucker for romantic scenes/books.
Then there were the horrible tropes, first of all the early 2000 "I'm ugly because I wear glasses and my hear in my Ponytail and im skinny... But when I open my hair and don't use my glasses I look gorgeous". Furthermore there were plenty of fat phobic parts with parts like; you already have eaten so much, are you sure you want to eat more? And it was presented as completely normal, and it should not be in a book mainly read by teenagers.
In addition to that the book was filled with "I'm not like other girls...", in the most cliche thing because it was something what was a pretty normal thing because the ting that makes her sooo special is, that she likes "Dark haired intelligent boys" the kind of boy every teen girl protagonist wants.
One of the most problematic things in the story was in combination with the "Tattle-Tale Blog" a Website used as a plot device to further the story and ad mystery. In the sentence were the Blog was described it was said, that the anonymous writer of this Blog liked sharing spicy secrets, like outing gay students before they were ready. And that in an english private school with is full with kids with tory parents. So kids that will probably get disowned as soon as the parents find out. (I know britisch conservative people are often not as extreme as american conservative people, but when push comes to shove all conservatives will disown their nonconforming kids). So in the end it's not a spicy secret to share, it can be a death sentence especially in a conservative setting.
I also have some other smaller points but they are not that important, like the forced cliffhanger at the end. And it had the opposite effect on me because that was the nail in the coffin for me, now i absolutely don't want to buy the other books.
If you are asking now why the 2.25 Stars if I have so many critics of the book there are two points I really like and they absolutely bump up my rating. First of all I just like the physical book because it is so small and cute and i just love it.
The other thing is that i really love the premise of the book, its so interesting, i would love to read more stories with this theme. But please a better written one.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Blood, Toxic friendship, and Religious bigotry
Moderate: Death, Grief, Bullying, and Gaslighting
Minor: Death of parent, Torture, Fatphobia, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Outing
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