A review by evilplants
The No-Girlfriend Rule by Christen Randall

lighthearted

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

The No-Girlfriend rule is the story of Hollis, a high school senior who joins a tabletop roleplaying game to get closer to her boyfriend, and ends up making new friends (and some discoveries about herself) along the way. 

I really went back and forth on my rating of this book. There were lots of things I really loved, but also a few things I didn’t like. To start, this book felt more like a coming of age story than a romance, which I won’t hold against it too much because it’s a marketing issue that a lot of YA books similar to this tend to have. I do wish there was a little bit more development in Hollis’s relationship with Aini, but all the moments between them we did get were wonderful. 

I really loved all the girls in Hollis’s gaming group. They were very diverse and all fleshed out enough to make them feel like real people, and I loved watching Hollis bond with them. 

I also really loved how this book portrayed both Hollis’s anxiety and her fatness. Specifically i think it does a really good job of portraying an anxious, fat girl who hangs out in a group of shitty boys. The feeling of wanting to speak up against bad behaviour but knowing if you do people will probably find a way to humiliate you for it was very relatable. And it was very powerful to watch Hollis slowly learn to stand up for herself. 

I didn’t love the narration style. I do understand the choice to tell the story in third person as it makes it easier to transition between narrating gameplay and narrating Hollis’s life, however at times I found things hard to follow and I think parts of this book would’ve really benefited from being told in first person. There were also a few moments that were brushed over that I wish had been expanded on, especially near the end of the book. 

Overall this was a really fun read and I’d definitely recommend it to any D&D nerds looking for a lighthearted, queer read, especially if you’ve ever felt like you don’t fit in at “traditional” ttrpg tables.