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A review by falon
Lemon Lavender Is Not Fine by Elle Pallmore
3.5
*Given in exchange for honest Review by Netgalley & Publisher
Lemon Lavender is Not Fine is a coming-of-age novel about a girl whose name is, to her annoyance, Lemon Lavender. This story, even from the beginning of the page I felt invested in Lemon Lavender. The author does a really good job of character development, and you could definitely see a change from the begging Lavender to the ending Lavender. The story will break your heart at points, as the main character has to deal with bullying (both in school, and online). I found myself at times being very frustrated with Lemon and the decisions she made. But I can't say some of her decisions weren't predictable (at least, in terms of Lemon's state of mind at that point) or even warranted.
I would say where it could use some work is her relationship with Graham. I didn't really get to know him that much, and I thought their relationship was cute at the beginning. However, it's hard to root for Lemon/Graham end game, when you don't know what one half is thinking. Some of his decisions made me frustrated, maybe even outright mad at him. But, I don't know, he was there at the end so that counts I guess?
There were also parts of the story that seemed unrealistic, especially in terms of the school and how they handled the situation. Their reasoning didn't seem to make sense in terms of what was happening and what would be apparent to the school at that time. They seemed biased towards some people but there really is no explanation for why that bias exists. Plus, their whole "freedom of speech, we can't do anything blah blah blah" was just really unrealistic to me. What they posted was NOT freedom of speech, it was blatant bullying, especially when you have the second person denying all of their accusations. That's slander.
Overall, I would give this book a 3.5/5.
Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with this book in exchange for an honest review
Lemon Lavender is Not Fine is a coming-of-age novel about a girl whose name is, to her annoyance, Lemon Lavender. This story, even from the beginning of the page I felt invested in Lemon Lavender. The author does a really good job of character development, and you could definitely see a change from the begging Lavender to the ending Lavender. The story will break your heart at points, as the main character has to deal with bullying (both in school, and online). I found myself at times being very frustrated with Lemon and the decisions she made. But I can't say some of her decisions weren't predictable (at least, in terms of Lemon's state of mind at that point) or even warranted.
I would say where it could use some work is her relationship with Graham. I didn't really get to know him that much, and I thought their relationship was cute at the beginning. However, it's hard to root for Lemon/Graham end game, when you don't know what one half is thinking. Some of his decisions made me frustrated, maybe even outright mad at him. But, I don't know, he was there at the end so that counts I guess?
There were also parts of the story that seemed unrealistic, especially in terms of the school and how they handled the situation. Their reasoning didn't seem to make sense in terms of what was happening and what would be apparent to the school at that time. They seemed biased towards some people but there really is no explanation for why that bias exists. Plus, their whole "freedom of speech, we can't do anything blah blah blah" was just really unrealistic to me. What they posted was NOT freedom of speech, it was blatant bullying, especially when you have the second person denying all of their accusations. That's slander.
Overall, I would give this book a 3.5/5.
Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with this book in exchange for an honest review