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4.22 AVERAGE
4.22 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
so FUN and sad and both comforting and suffocating for the f*g transmasc that i am.
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
funny
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
funny
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
emotional
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
challenging
funny
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book just reads as true. It’s a story, and it’s not a real one, but it connects to so many real ones, and does it in a way that has your eyes clinging to every page. Just as Fay and Nell become F&N, you become so pulled into their story that it’s almost F&N&Reader. Loved and broke my heart and loved again.
contender for favourite of the year and it’s only april
if you’re looking for something about intense and obsessive friendship & queerness as a theme/topic, voila. Idlewild
if you’re looking for something about intense and obsessive friendship & queerness as a theme/topic, voila. Idlewild
Apparently this is the month where I get destroyed by queer coming of age stories. (See also: Sunburn.)
I’m almost the same age as Nell and Fay and despite not having gone to a Quaker or private school, Idlewild felt so familiar. It was raw and heartbreaking and relatable and achingly beautiful but also laugh out loud hilarious and I so desperately wish that books like this had been around during my teens.
Definitely one of my favourite reads of the year, already!
dark
emotional
funny
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
400 pages without a page or plot beat wasted. I have never seen a transmasculine experience out to page that quite expresses what it's like to be an adolescent teen girl who does not realize she's transmasculine. the pain and confusion and the dissociation from your own life is something I found so well put. Nell feels like such a well articulated opposite side of the queerness coin, equally messy and adolescent and authentic in ways that also spoke to me. a period piece and 100% on my list of classics of girl best friend literature.
Much like my other most recent read I'm going back and forth between 4.75 and 5 stars because my biggest gripe with the book is that I wanted just a bit more something from the ending particularly from Fay. A happier sort of self acceptance but also idk maybe this was her getting there in some small way? Regardless that's not necessarily the intent and I think it executed on those themes beautifully.
Much like my other most recent read I'm going back and forth between 4.75 and 5 stars because my biggest gripe with the book is that I wanted just a bit more something from the ending particularly from Fay. A happier sort of self acceptance but also idk maybe this was her getting there in some small way? Regardless that's not necessarily the intent and I think it executed on those themes beautifully.
challenging
emotional
funny
fast-paced