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A review by readtoramble
In the Role of Brie Hutchens... by Nicole Melleby
4.0
I read this book for a blog tour, so thank you to the publisher and the author for letting me take part in this tour, and thank you to Netgalley for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
This book is a great LGBT middle grade in which we follow Brie Hutchens, a 13-year-old young girl who goes to a private Catholic school in America with her friends. Throughout this book, Brie starts to question her faith, she doesn't understand why her mother loves Mary so much and thinks that if she doesn't love Mary like her mum does, her mum won't love her. She also has to come to terms with questions about her identity and sexuality, and also struggling with school work and trying to get into her dream art school. I don't usually read books with religious topics, I'm not religious myself and struggle to understand how some peoples' attitudes or behaviours are kind of justified by the fact that they are religious, however, this book was not like that at all, it really surprised me and I really appreciated this different stance.
I loved the characters! Brie is just such a great character, she is really struggling and trying to come to terms with herself, and one day, her mum catches her doing something and to detract from it, Brie blurts out that she is going to be "crowning Mary", a really big event for the school. When she realises that she might not be able to get away with the lie, she has to try to get her grades up and write a winning essay to be chosen as the special person who gets to crown Mary and read their essay at the May Crowning.
Another really important part of this book is the passion that Brie has for soap operas and wanting to go to art school to act. I loved this part of the plot, I studied drama/theatre from the age of 11 to 18 and loved it so much, this book had a lot of nostalgia for me, especially when Brie was on stage acting and when she did her audition. I think that this subplot is such an important one because it's thanks to her watching soap operas that she realises that she isn't like other people at her school and she doesn't have crushes on boys like her best friend Parker does. I really loved how Parker was such a great friend throughout, at one point they seem to be a bit distant but when Parker and Brie have a conversation about why Brie is feeling down, Parker is so supportive and just brilliant!
Brie's parents were sort of hit and miss for me. I loved her dad so much, he is the "good guy" in the family, he is always there to help her and is trying to work as hard as he can so she can do whatever she wants and make her dreams come true. Her mum however, annoyed me. I don't know if it was because of her love of Mary and her strong identification with religion, but I got so annoyed at her a few times because of her behaviour with Brie. I really couldn't handle her after she basically told her daughter she couldn't look at her, but I suppose that the author did a great job of representing what it can be like in conservative and religious families when one of the children come out to their parents.
Overall, this book was very well executed, the writing style flowed, the characters were great, especially Brie, and I loved how over the course of the book, Brie learned who she was and how to accept herself, while pursuing her dreams and trying to come to terms with her mum's love of Mary, trying to understand it and not let her mum down. I loved this book, it has great LGBT and religious rep, I gave it 4 stars and I recommend to everyone. I love middle grade books because I find them so much more complex and inclusive than books for other audiences and this was not an exception, it was great and I urge readers of any age to pick it up!
This book is a great LGBT middle grade in which we follow Brie Hutchens, a 13-year-old young girl who goes to a private Catholic school in America with her friends. Throughout this book, Brie starts to question her faith, she doesn't understand why her mother loves Mary so much and thinks that if she doesn't love Mary like her mum does, her mum won't love her. She also has to come to terms with questions about her identity and sexuality, and also struggling with school work and trying to get into her dream art school. I don't usually read books with religious topics, I'm not religious myself and struggle to understand how some peoples' attitudes or behaviours are kind of justified by the fact that they are religious, however, this book was not like that at all, it really surprised me and I really appreciated this different stance.
I loved the characters! Brie is just such a great character, she is really struggling and trying to come to terms with herself, and one day, her mum catches her doing something and to detract from it, Brie blurts out that she is going to be "crowning Mary", a really big event for the school. When she realises that she might not be able to get away with the lie, she has to try to get her grades up and write a winning essay to be chosen as the special person who gets to crown Mary and read their essay at the May Crowning.
Another really important part of this book is the passion that Brie has for soap operas and wanting to go to art school to act. I loved this part of the plot, I studied drama/theatre from the age of 11 to 18 and loved it so much, this book had a lot of nostalgia for me, especially when Brie was on stage acting and when she did her audition. I think that this subplot is such an important one because it's thanks to her watching soap operas that she realises that she isn't like other people at her school and she doesn't have crushes on boys like her best friend Parker does. I really loved how Parker was such a great friend throughout, at one point they seem to be a bit distant but when Parker and Brie have a conversation about why Brie is feeling down, Parker is so supportive and just brilliant!
Brie's parents were sort of hit and miss for me. I loved her dad so much, he is the "good guy" in the family, he is always there to help her and is trying to work as hard as he can so she can do whatever she wants and make her dreams come true. Her mum however, annoyed me. I don't know if it was because of her love of Mary and her strong identification with religion, but I got so annoyed at her a few times because of her behaviour with Brie. I really couldn't handle her after she basically told her daughter she couldn't look at her, but I suppose that the author did a great job of representing what it can be like in conservative and religious families when one of the children come out to their parents.
Overall, this book was very well executed, the writing style flowed, the characters were great, especially Brie, and I loved how over the course of the book, Brie learned who she was and how to accept herself, while pursuing her dreams and trying to come to terms with her mum's love of Mary, trying to understand it and not let her mum down. I loved this book, it has great LGBT and religious rep, I gave it 4 stars and I recommend to everyone. I love middle grade books because I find them so much more complex and inclusive than books for other audiences and this was not an exception, it was great and I urge readers of any age to pick it up!