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kenziehendrick8 's review for:
Never Kiss Your Roommate
by Philline Harms
before reading this book, please read reviews written by poc readers (check 1 & 2 star reviews)
whenever i read the back of this book, i was immediately intrigued by it. a wlw boarding school romance with a gossip girl influence sounded perfect to me. however, as i began reading the book, i realized the harmful stereotypes for poc readers. the main characters love interest, noelle, is one of the only poc characters in the book, other than the headmistress and one of jaspers love interests early on in the book, who’s described with “dark skin and dark curls.” while the other 3 main characters in the book, who are white, are portrayed as friendly and warm, noelle is portrayed as aggressive, mean, smoking cigarettes, and is overly sexualized. she plays into a lot of the stereotypes for poc in the united states- not having a dad around, being aggressive and mean, sexualized, playing basketball, etc. the only time she isn’t showing these traits is when she’s around evelyn, our main character, making it seem as if she needs a warm and naive white girl to “fix” her in some way. this book, while it has a lot of promise, can be incredibly harmful to anyone of color reading the book
whenever i read the back of this book, i was immediately intrigued by it. a wlw boarding school romance with a gossip girl influence sounded perfect to me. however, as i began reading the book, i realized the harmful stereotypes for poc readers. the main characters love interest, noelle, is one of the only poc characters in the book, other than the headmistress and one of jaspers love interests early on in the book, who’s described with “dark skin and dark curls.” while the other 3 main characters in the book, who are white, are portrayed as friendly and warm, noelle is portrayed as aggressive, mean, smoking cigarettes, and is overly sexualized. she plays into a lot of the stereotypes for poc in the united states- not having a dad around, being aggressive and mean, sexualized, playing basketball, etc. the only time she isn’t showing these traits is when she’s around evelyn, our main character, making it seem as if she needs a warm and naive white girl to “fix” her in some way. this book, while it has a lot of promise, can be incredibly harmful to anyone of color reading the book