A review by shmadsie
If This Gets Out by Cale Dietrich, Sophie Gonzales

3.0

3.5. Ugh, this book is hard to rate because I want to rate disparate aspects so radically differently. For the relationship between Zach and Ruben, I'm five stars all the way, rah rah, yes, boys! The chemistry was fantastic as was the confusion and the misunderstandings to such a fragile and badly defined early relationship. I also really liked the reality of branding and public relations and fatigue and deifying regular people aspect of this - I have no idea if it matched up to real life but I do know it felt real. Where this fell apart for me a little were the side characters. Angel's behavior was so magnified that he felt like a caricature - honestly everything with him felt like a first pass, like I was still reading a draft that just said: insert druggie kid behavior here - and Jon only had the vaguest sense of 'outline' so he ended up feeling superfluous. In a four man boyband no one should feel superfluous but beyond: religious and Dad owns the label, I know absolutely nothing about this kid. I also didn't feel like the stuff with Ruben's Mom ended in a satisfying place at all, and i wish we'd gotten more of a proper conclusion on that because she was such a frustrating character throughout that a better resolution felt more than earned.