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3.73 AVERAGE
3.73 AVERAGE
funny
lighthearted
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
Clever snarky debut. 3.5 stars.
Lots of swearing. Stopped counting the word porn or a reference to porn after the fifth time. Underage drinking. Underage citation for disorderly conduct/drinking.
Spoiler
Lots of swearing. Stopped counting the word porn or a reference to porn after the fifth time. Underage drinking. Underage citation for disorderly conduct/drinking.
I loved Norris's voice in this. I was always going to love this book because...hockey.
This book made me feel all the feels AND it was extremely well written... Great character development, and just cringey enough to be extremely believable/realistic. Loved it!
YES: a great coming-of-age from the perspective of a black Canadian teen in TX. Issues-driven without feeling like an issues book. Authentic teen voice, really enjoyable writing. Loved the ATX setting.
Perfect read to start the new year! Norris was such an utter smartass but I loved him regardless. Every witty quip, every side character, and every hysterical Norris-ism... perfect. This book was an amazing debut; I can’t wait to see what the author produces in the future.
Full review to come!
Full review to come!
funny
lighthearted
medium-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
Cute and cynical main character. I felt that the characters were true to themselves. I liked the ending - life isn’t always wrapped up in a bow! The one issue I had was HOW it was written. It really should have been in 1st person and felt like it was, but then it was narrated. Just oddly done.
Initially, I was going to give it 4 stars but you know what to hell with that 5 stars it is. I'll admit I went into this happy that it was short-ish so I could get through it quickly and be done but I'm so glad I gave it a chance because by the end I wished it was 100 pages longer so I could relish in the characters more. I'll agree with everyone here that Norris is definitely not my favourite character but it's not because he was written badly, au contraire actually, he's a bad person but he was written phenomenally~. He's kind of, and mind my language here, a dick but it was so satisfying to reach the end and see all his improvement. Instead of my usual rambling, I'll give a few reasons why I liked this book in a list!
Firstly, it was effortlessly diverse. The author wasn't trying to check off some diversity checklist and instead created a story where I could actually relate to some of the characters, immigrant parents and all. There were mentions of mental health and depression, a black character and mentions of police brutality, a gay character and mentions of homophobia, these things weren't the main focus of the book obviously but they were mentioned in a way that didn't feel forced and that didn't diminish their meaning, again as I said, effortless, it was really admirable actually.
Second, and I feel really silly saying this every time, but the plot and characters were really fun to follow and I genuinely had an enjoyable time reading. I blame this book for me not leaving my bed for the past three days, maybe I'm just easy to impress or maybe this book was just that good but I recommend it, as long as you can keep up with Norris and his attitude of course. (I blame him being so entitled on him being an only child.)
Thirdly, I love the little bits at the beginning of each chapter. I love that the chapters had names I think that's definitely something we should have more of. I'm also a total sucker for cliche airport scenes and I love when books are realistic so the fact that this book's ending was able to combine both of these things? Simply phenomenal.
I could write a lot more reasons for liking this book and specifically nitpick the finer details and talk about my favourite characters at length but alas I'm running out of energy( and creative adjectives). I'll just conclude this by saying two last things. I'm glad I have more Ben Philippe books on my 'tbr' list along the line since I have a feeling I'll like his other book as well. And this book has easily become the best YA book I've read this year. The bar might be low here but I still felt it necessary to point out, anyway peace.
Firstly, it was effortlessly diverse. The author wasn't trying to check off some diversity checklist and instead created a story where I could actually relate to some of the characters, immigrant parents and all. There were mentions of mental health and depression, a black character and mentions of police brutality, a gay character and mentions of homophobia, these things weren't the main focus of the book obviously but they were mentioned in a way that didn't feel forced and that didn't diminish their meaning, again as I said, effortless, it was really admirable actually.
Second, and I feel really silly saying this every time, but the plot and characters were really fun to follow and I genuinely had an enjoyable time reading. I blame this book for me not leaving my bed for the past three days, maybe I'm just easy to impress or maybe this book was just that good but I recommend it, as long as you can keep up with Norris and his attitude of course. (I blame him being so entitled on him being an only child.)
Thirdly, I love the little bits at the beginning of each chapter. I love that the chapters had names I think that's definitely something we should have more of. I'm also a total sucker for cliche airport scenes and I love when books are realistic so the fact that this book's ending was able to combine both of these things? Simply phenomenal.
I could write a lot more reasons for liking this book and specifically nitpick the finer details and talk about my favourite characters at length but alas I'm running out of energy( and creative adjectives). I'll just conclude this by saying two last things. I'm glad I have more Ben Philippe books on my 'tbr' list along the line since I have a feeling I'll like his other book as well. And this book has easily become the best YA book I've read this year. The bar might be low here but I still felt it necessary to point out, anyway peace.