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teslis's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
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
5.0
I LOVE THIS BOOK!!! Go read it right now!! <3
Now I've read all the four big books by Alice Oseman and this one is absolutly my favorite one out of them.
In this book we get to follow Angel who is a big fan of the most popular boyband at the time: "The Arc". She is truly one of my favorite character in this book, along with the whole band. Angel feels like a real person with what she say and do. I can totally see us as friends.
The part I really enjoyed with this book, was that we also get to follow Jimmy who is one of the members in "The Arc". He struggles with allot of anxiety both personally, but also from being in the band. To follow his bandmates thinking and doing was a big highlight of this book.
I really felt like Angel allot of time while listening to the audiobook. I think we have allot of similarities, example of that being to have dedicated allot (if not all) of my teenage years to fan-girling over different bands (and fictional characters). Listening to allot of things that she and her friends talked about was something that brought back memories.
I loved to see the differences of the same thing from the two perspectives. That is truly what I liked the most about this book. Some dual p.o.v. can be messy, and hard to understand, but Oseman know how and when to switch and what to keep and what to not. So to live thru Angel as a fan, but also to see Jimmy's point of view as someone in the spotlight was what I loved. To be reminded of the good parts that allot of famous people experience, but most importantly all the bad things that a fan don't see.
I would like all people to read this book, I loved it (!!), but especially all the fans of bands and other real and famous people to see what can be going on behind the cameras. It's not all sunshine and rainbows and it's important to understand that.
Now I've read all the four big books by Alice Oseman and this one is absolutly my favorite one out of them.
In this book we get to follow Angel who is a big fan of the most popular boyband at the time: "The Arc". She is truly one of my favorite character in this book, along with the whole band. Angel feels like a real person with what she say and do. I can totally see us as friends.
The part I really enjoyed with this book, was that we also get to follow Jimmy who is one of the members in "The Arc". He struggles with allot of anxiety both personally, but also from being in the band. To follow his bandmates thinking and doing was a big highlight of this book.
I really felt like Angel allot of time while listening to the audiobook. I think we have allot of similarities, example of that being to have dedicated allot (if not all) of my teenage years to fan-girling over different bands (and fictional characters). Listening to allot of things that she and her friends talked about was something that brought back memories.
I loved to see the differences of the same thing from the two perspectives. That is truly what I liked the most about this book. Some dual p.o.v. can be messy, and hard to understand, but Oseman know how and when to switch and what to keep and what to not. So to live thru Angel as a fan, but also to see Jimmy's point of view as someone in the spotlight was what I loved. To be reminded of the good parts that allot of famous people experience, but most importantly all the bad things that a fan don't see.
I would like all people to read this book, I loved it (!!), but especially all the fans of bands and other real and famous people to see what can be going on behind the cameras. It's not all sunshine and rainbows and it's important to understand that.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Alcohol, Medical content, and Mental illness
Moderate: Alcoholism, Vomit, Stalking, and Adult/minor relationship
icarusandthesun's review against another edition
funny
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
oh lord oh mighty, i was absolutely not born for this.
i guess i kind of understand why everyone seems to like alice oseman so much. her books have this easy writing style, these pop-culture references and conventionally relatable characters, especially when you're the target audience, which, for this book, means boy band obsessed fangirls (and with fangirls i mean it as a vibe, not necessarily that all of them are girls).
but something about her characters just always strikes me as deeply disconcerting.
wasn't any different with this one - i disliked all of them (except maybe lister).
angel was very self-absorbed in my opinion and just a bad friend to juliet in general. i didn't agree with her most of the time, and her whole talk about how "the fandom is actually such a comforting, supporting, respectful place and most people don't want to be with the band members", i didn't really buy it. also, i just hate her for shipping rowan and jimmy. shipping "real life" people is such a disgusting thing to do, and such a breach of personal privacy.
i didn't like her attitude either; the way she seemed to feel superior to everyone just pissed me off a bit. and the self-pitying phrases like "it's all my fault", "i'm the problem" - peak melodramatic teenage behavior.
juliet was honestly just bland, like her character could've not existed and nothing would've changed. and i don't quite understand what her problem was. she seemed to like mac and just because he "lied" about liking something (something he does like btw, just not as much as they do), she acts like that's the end of the world. that she stopped liking him for being a douchebag, yk that's something i can get behind. but the whole lying thing was written to be so prominent so that it seems like that's what put her over the edge to finally abandon mac. idk, it was weird.
mac was mac. definitely a douchebag, but he wasn't as bad as everyone acted like he was in my opinion. oseman just completely villainized him for no real reason.
now, jimmy. god, how i hated jimmy. he's such a child, literally. his whole crying and running off and not communicating and weird, illogical behavior... i cannot. i don't even want to dwell on him because man, what an absolute fleabag.
rowan was as bland as juliet, and bliss was written to be cool but i just disliked her and her whole personality anyway lol.
and i know most of these characters were written to be flawed so that the inevitable character development hits the reader like a damned truck, but it's not helping when all of the character development happens in the last 50 pages and the remaining 330 pages, the characters are absolute ass and wholly unlikable.
we don't even have to talk about the plot and how unrealistic it was. like all of it. and it made me not enjoy the book at all, because everything was so convenient and highly unlikely and frustrating.
and can we please, please talk about the god-motive in this book? because it seems like no one talks about it. the amount of religion and religious messages and stuff were so out of place.
it's cool that these characters believe in some sort of religion, i really don't care. but the joan of arc quotes about death and sin felt so out of place, because it's a fanfic-y young adult book!!!
and the woman in the tube suddenly preaching about god and god's plan...
that sort of felt a little bit like propaganda, ngl.
i also didn't buy the whole mental illness spiel that some of these characters've got going on. whenever something inconvenient happens, they all go "i hate my life", "i don't want to live", "i'm worthless". which i get because that's what teenagers do, being stupid and irrational about their own emotions. but still, it was annoying. like mental illnesses are a joke, can be dismissed as soon as someone is doing fine again.
idk. it's safe to say that the book wasn't for me. i'm starting to think it's just an author-reader mismatch and that's completely fine. i think alice oseman is a good person, and i'm glad there are people who enjoy her books.
just ... not me.
i guess i kind of understand why everyone seems to like alice oseman so much. her books have this easy writing style, these pop-culture references and conventionally relatable characters, especially when you're the target audience, which, for this book, means boy band obsessed fangirls (and with fangirls i mean it as a vibe, not necessarily that all of them are girls).
but something about her characters just always strikes me as deeply disconcerting.
wasn't any different with this one - i disliked all of them (except maybe lister).
angel was very self-absorbed in my opinion and just a bad friend to juliet in general. i didn't agree with her most of the time, and her whole talk about how "the fandom is actually such a comforting, supporting, respectful place and most people don't want to be with the band members", i didn't really buy it. also, i just hate her for shipping rowan and jimmy. shipping "real life" people is such a disgusting thing to do, and such a breach of personal privacy.
i didn't like her attitude either; the way she seemed to feel superior to everyone just pissed me off a bit. and the self-pitying phrases like "it's all my fault", "i'm the problem" - peak melodramatic teenage behavior.
juliet was honestly just bland, like her character could've not existed and nothing would've changed. and i don't quite understand what her problem was. she seemed to like mac and just because he "lied" about liking something (something he does like btw, just not as much as they do), she acts like that's the end of the world. that she stopped liking him for being a douchebag, yk that's something i can get behind. but the whole lying thing was written to be so prominent so that it seems like that's what put her over the edge to finally abandon mac. idk, it was weird.
mac was mac. definitely a douchebag, but he wasn't as bad as everyone acted like he was in my opinion. oseman just completely villainized him for no real reason.
now, jimmy. god, how i hated jimmy. he's such a child, literally. his whole crying and running off and not communicating and weird, illogical behavior... i cannot. i don't even want to dwell on him because man, what an absolute fleabag.
rowan was as bland as juliet, and bliss was written to be cool but i just disliked her and her whole personality anyway lol.
and i know most of these characters were written to be flawed so that the inevitable character development hits the reader like a damned truck, but it's not helping when all of the character development happens in the last 50 pages and the remaining 330 pages, the characters are absolute ass and wholly unlikable.
we don't even have to talk about the plot and how unrealistic it was. like all of it. and it made me not enjoy the book at all, because everything was so convenient and highly unlikely and frustrating.
and can we please, please talk about the god-motive in this book? because it seems like no one talks about it. the amount of religion and religious messages and stuff were so out of place.
it's cool that these characters believe in some sort of religion, i really don't care. but the joan of arc quotes about death and sin felt so out of place, because it's a fanfic-y young adult book!!!
and the woman in the tube suddenly preaching about god and god's plan...
that sort of felt a little bit like propaganda, ngl.
i also didn't buy the whole mental illness spiel that some of these characters've got going on. whenever something inconvenient happens, they all go "i hate my life", "i don't want to live", "i'm worthless". which i get because that's what teenagers do, being stupid and irrational about their own emotions. but still, it was annoying. like mental illnesses are a joke, can be dismissed as soon as someone is doing fine again.
idk. it's safe to say that the book wasn't for me. i'm starting to think it's just an author-reader mismatch and that's completely fine. i think alice oseman is a good person, and i'm glad there are people who enjoy her books.
just ... not me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Addiction, and Alcoholism
Moderate: Mental illness
Minor: Medical content, Outing, Violence, Biphobia, Abandonment, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, and Sexual harassment
val_theburrowofstories's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
fast-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? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Alcohol, Mental illness, Medical trauma, Addiction, Blood, and Panic attacks/disorders
Moderate: Medical content
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Outing, Transphobia, and Suicidal thoughts
kirstenf's review against another edition
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
sad
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
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders and Alcoholism
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Violence, and Grief
Minor: Transphobia, Stalking, Medical content, Death, Vomit, Adult/minor relationship, Classism, and Suicidal thoughts
harperruthdk's review against another edition
emotional
funny
sad
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? It's complicated
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Medical content, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, and Self harm
Moderate: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Panic attacks/disorders, Abandonment, Violence, Transphobia, Cursing, Homophobia, Toxic relationship, and Physical abuse
Minor: Cursing, Death, Hate crime, and Violence
a_sleepy_berry's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
tense
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
5.0
I didn't think I would like this book because it was not on a topic I was used to reading about, but the story of Angel and Juliet, of Jimmy, Rowan, and Lister, really surprised me in a good way. Every character had their flaws but it didn't make them any less likeable, and I know this is far-fetched, but I would love a sequel of this one day.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness, Outing, Sexual content, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Panic attacks/disorders, Stalking, Medical content, Medical trauma, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt
samcsmith's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-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
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Death, Violence, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Cursing, Medical content, and Panic attacks/disorders
Minor: Outing, Suicidal thoughts, Adult/minor relationship, and Addiction
_nem_'s review against another edition
emotional
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Rep: POV trans man, POV POC islamic girl who wears a hijab, gay characters, bi characters
I related to both of the main characters in the book. Angel through her parents constantly worrying and her trying to find her own way in the world. And Jimmy with his anxious thoughts and panic attacks. It felt like they understood me in a way that people never really have before and I understood them.
The premise of the book is very interesting with one POV from a member of a band and the other from a fan of the band. I don't know much about the behind the scenes of bands but it seemed to cover that well. This book was a lot about relationships and how keeping things from each other affects the relationship with that person.
I wouldn't say it was an easy read with Jimmy's panic attacks sometimes causing me to feel panicky too but I did enjoy this book.
I related to both of the main characters in the book. Angel through her parents constantly worrying and her trying to find her own way in the world. And Jimmy with his anxious thoughts and panic attacks. It felt like they understood me in a way that people never really have before and I understood them.
The premise of the book is very interesting with one POV from a member of a band and the other from a fan of the band. I don't know much about the behind the scenes of bands but it seemed to cover that well. This book was a lot about relationships and how keeping things from each other affects the relationship with that person.
I wouldn't say it was an easy read with Jimmy's panic attacks sometimes causing me to feel panicky too but I did enjoy this book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, and Stalking
Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Blood, Medical content, and Alcohol
Minor: Drug use and Self harm
mandaraffe's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
tense
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
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Alcoholism, Medical content, Suicidal thoughts, Alcohol, and Addiction
Minor: Toxic relationship and Abandonment
asmodeous's review against another edition
emotional
funny
inspiring
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness and Panic attacks/disorders
Moderate: Alcoholism, Transphobia, and Addiction
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Sexual harassment, Medical content, and Outing