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parasolcrafter's review against another edition
emotional
lighthearted
sad
tense
fast-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? Yes
1.5
this book is very...odd. its unclear who the audience is, as the writing is fairly juvenile and easy to follow, but the two sexual scenes in the book dont fit with a younger audience, but the writing isnt developed enough for an older audience. the adults feel stereotypical in their roles, too; the only father thats really there is a hardass whose been bad to his children, and the mothers are only there to be loving and supportive without motives of their own :/ his birth mother does have a sort of motive, but its shoved in at the end and her storyline ends abruptly so it doesnt even really matter. and his father development is HORRIBLE. like all it takes is one conversation for his dad to be nice to him...? im sorry, but thats not how things EVER happen with bad parents.
the main characters were fine, but they all just seemed shallow which is a shame because i saw potential for them all. this book needed to be longer and , frankly, better written. the pacing of this story is way off and it makes the relationship between gio and david very rushed into; the amount of pop-culture references was annoying as hell; the near therapy-level of speak from everyone is flat-out unrealistic and sterilized; and the shoe-horned in dialogue of things that just feel like bullet-points of inclusion is just sloppy, honestly. like...i dont get what this book was really trying to do? like, everything was just surface level and hardly explored or expanded upon, which is unfortunate because it had so many good things going for it! it really didnt work on anything it tried to touch on.
the main characters were fine, but they all just seemed shallow which is a shame because i saw potential for them all. this book needed to be longer and , frankly, better written. the pacing of this story is way off and it makes the relationship between gio and david very rushed into; the amount of pop-culture references was annoying as hell; the near therapy-level of speak from everyone is flat-out unrealistic and sterilized; and the shoe-horned in dialogue of things that just feel like bullet-points of inclusion is just sloppy, honestly. like...i dont get what this book was really trying to do? like, everything was just surface level and hardly explored or expanded upon, which is unfortunate because it had so many good things going for it! it really didnt work on anything it tried to touch on.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Death, Grief, Alcohol, Terminal illness, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, Chronic illness, Religious bigotry, Abandonment, Alcoholism, Cursing, and Drug use
Moderate: Gun violence, Mental illness, Sexual content, Child abuse, Homophobia, Biphobia, Infidelity, and Classism
emilyeehaw's review against another edition
okay hmmmmm. this book was a perfectly decent YA novel following gio as he navigates his first real relationship with a guy and his complicated relationship with his absent mother. great, good, fabulous, love that for him. HOWEVER, the writing of this book was so?…..not good.
sometimes authors miss the mark and make their teen characters seem too old or mature in a pretentious way. this author wrote the teen perspective pretty well but wrote adults’ dialogue as if he had never met an adult person in his life. not to mention, sometimes the teens would also fall into this problem.
at one point gio says “i am a child of abandonment.” deeply sorry but reading that felt so unnatural and too formal for the situation. gio was feeling things so intensely and ranting to david and THAT is how he expresses it ????
there were sections where the author could have easily said something like “i agreed” or “i nodded” but instead would write “i responded ‘yes’ to him” or something to that effect. LIKE ??? why does that read so bizarrely. am i CRAZY?? and this kind of stuff happened throughout the ENTIRE book.
i also felt a little EH about the romance between gio and david, it was a little too “you are my WORLD” a little too quickly. young love i guess. david felt like any other guy…would have liked him to be a bit better developed.
it also felt like some things were wrapped up a little too fast. gio’s dad starts off as a harsh father with an alcohol use disorder and then by the end of it, it seems like that magically all went away? malik who was involved in the local street gang is suddenly no longer involved by the end of the book, with seemingly no consequences. just small details like that were taken care of in what felt like such a rushed way.
let me not be a complete downer here...i loved gio's relationship with his younger brother theo, as well as his dynamic with his stepmom. i liked that she was portrayed as a loving mother figure to him and there was no external conflict between him and her. i also liked that this book depicted the experience of a black, bisexual teenager. and addressed some of the unique challenges because of these identity intersections.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abandonment
Moderate: Homophobia
Minor: Suicide and Terminal illness
xoodlebooks's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
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
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief and Racism
Moderate: Abandonment, Violence, Biphobia, Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Mental illness, and Police brutality
Minor: Death of parent, Terminal illness, Gun violence, Sexual content, Pregnancy, and Death
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