A review by _persephone_
My Mechanical Romance by Alexene Farol Follmuth

emotional funny inspiring medium-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

3.5

Okay so I'm not going to pretend like this is some sensational profound book, with it's romance or it's feminism, but for a simple YA romance, this was definitely a favorite of mine. 17 year old Bel moves to a new school senior year after her parents get a divorce. She has to navigate an entire new world, in terms of academia and home life. She was never really interested in much in school, didn't know anything about her future, but that changes when she gets into her new school's robotics club. While this book has a huge focus on romance- It is a romance book after all- in my opinion, it has an even bigger focus on feminism. On the struggles of being a woman in STEM, or just being a woman in life in general. This book was obviously a teen book, and if you don't like when teen books use a more- for lack of a better word- adolescent way of speech, in both internal and external dialogue, then you may not like this book. But still, this book is for everyone. While certain parts may be more relatable to women in STEM or women in certain places in their lives, this book shows an accurate portrayal of any woman in any workfield or place in their life (or as accurate as a fictional YA novel could be). I love how it showed many different women with many different personalities and goals all struggling with how being a woman in a man's world affects their lives. And though this book seemed to have the stereotypical 'mean girl' character, Neelam, here it shows her in a different light, it humanizes the the teenage girl that everyone seems to hate so much,
Bel and Neelam, even end up really good friends by the end, who support each other
. Now as much of a feminism I am, at heart I'm a romantic, so onto Bel and Teo. I ended up liking them a little less then I probably should have for one simple reason, this book was marketed as an academic rivals to lovers. Now, was this just that? In a way, yes. But when you think academic rivals, what may come to your mind, and what came to mine is two people, which most likely have known each other for a while (or at least before the start of the book), who have competed, and actively compete with grades and other school activities, they also probably heavily dislike each other (or at least pretend to). While in some ways, that description fits parts of the book, it doesn't with most things. Seeing as it's a new school, Bel and Teo had never met before the start of the book. They don't really compete with anything, their are parts where they do but they are so minor that they are practically non-existent, they are even on the same robotics club, the theme of which is basically just 'Teamwork'. And the only part that really fits is that there is a part where they dislike each other, in a way, anyways. At the beginning Teo thinks Bel is "weird", which in my opinion doesn't count as dislike, especially when he was also admiring her the entire time. Then there was when Bel "challenged his masculinity" which is as a close as we get, as Teo then becomes uncomfortable around Bel and sometimes did 'dislike' her. In the beginning you could also say that Bel disliked Teo, although I would say it's more indifference then dislike. Although all of that gets turned around pretty quickly and they are then pretty friendly with the other. While going into it wanting and thinking it's an academic rivals to lovers made me not like them and this book more than I should have, I still did love Bel and Teo. Teo did start out not truly understanding what it was like for Bel and his other female classmates, and even being somewhat misogynistic himself sometimes (on accident of course), but he definitely made up for it by actually listening to what Bel said and changing his point of view on it all, and siding with her over their vaguely sexist male teacher, as well as many other small action that heavily redeemed him over the course of the book. They were very sweet together and though
there was a third act breakup in this book, like most other romances, which I didn't really enjoy
I thought it was at least somewhat well done, and I liked how it wasn't just done to create conflict, it actually furthered and developed Bel's character, and
it made her someone, even without him around
. All in all this book as pretty amazing for what it was, a contemporary YA romance, with themes of feminism and women in STEM.

Representation: 
-Half Filipino (WMC)
-Mexican (MMC) (It is implied that he his mixed, but it doesn't actually say)
-Jewish (MMC)
-Indian (Two side characters) 
-Women in STEM
(There is also references to some girls liking girls or some guys liking guys, but there weren't any actual characters, at least openly, who were queer, which was disappointing)
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