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A review by letsgolesbians
Over You by Amy Reed
2.0
2.5, rounding down.
I understand the need for stories about toxic friendships. I do. I have been in some of them, where one or both parties were just not good for each other. It happens. We need books about them. But this book was just so heavily one-sided. Sadie was a monster and Max had no confidence, and I could not for the life of me understand how they became friends. Remaining friends makes sense to me, and Max finally realizing how much she was being taken advantage of for years makes sense to me, her acting like a doormat in the first place makes sense to me. Sometimes people with strong personalities overpower those without; again, I've been on both sides. But Reed didn't give us any explanation as to why they were friends in the first place, how their friendship was at all beneficial to Max (I can guess, but actual reasons would have been great), or really anything that made me care about their friendship. I spent the entire book wanting Max to tell Sadie to fuck off. It didn't feel as complicated as friendships do in real life. The entire book seemed black and white without any shades of grey: Max was good, Doff was good, Old Glen was good, Sadie was bad, her mom was bad, Dylan was bad, etc. There are a lot of instances of people being judgmental in here and it's only called out sometimes. Max slut shames Sadie's mom, Dylan uses the word "dyke" and says it's okay because his ex is into women, annoying shit like that. And the privilege that's infused in this that I'm almost positive wasn't on purpose was ridiculous. There are references to slaves twice ("She'd be a horrible slave" and "it's like having my own personal slave") and ffs, can white women just not casually call people slaves? Slavery was not casual, slaves are not something to make a general reference to, so can you just stop? Do you really think slavery is funny?
Toxic friendship/sisterhood books are important, but this was not it for me.
I understand the need for stories about toxic friendships. I do. I have been in some of them, where one or both parties were just not good for each other. It happens. We need books about them. But this book was just so heavily one-sided. Sadie was a monster and Max had no confidence, and I could not for the life of me understand how they became friends. Remaining friends makes sense to me, and Max finally realizing how much she was being taken advantage of for years makes sense to me, her acting like a doormat in the first place makes sense to me. Sometimes people with strong personalities overpower those without; again, I've been on both sides. But Reed didn't give us any explanation as to why they were friends in the first place, how their friendship was at all beneficial to Max (I can guess, but actual reasons would have been great), or really anything that made me care about their friendship. I spent the entire book wanting Max to tell Sadie to fuck off. It didn't feel as complicated as friendships do in real life. The entire book seemed black and white without any shades of grey: Max was good, Doff was good, Old Glen was good, Sadie was bad, her mom was bad, Dylan was bad, etc. There are a lot of instances of people being judgmental in here and it's only called out sometimes. Max slut shames Sadie's mom, Dylan uses the word "dyke" and says it's okay because his ex is into women, annoying shit like that. And the privilege that's infused in this that I'm almost positive wasn't on purpose was ridiculous. There are references to slaves twice ("She'd be a horrible slave" and "it's like having my own personal slave") and ffs, can white women just not casually call people slaves? Slavery was not casual, slaves are not something to make a general reference to, so can you just stop? Do you really think slavery is funny?
Toxic friendship/sisterhood books are important, but this was not it for me.