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A review by alongreader
Acting the Part by Z.R. Ellor
3.0
It's another mixed review! It never rains but it pours.
Before I say anything else; I gather that this author has said some problematic things about lesbians. However I don't know anything about them and I tried to judge this book on just what it is. I don't condone anything the author may have done or said.
So this read is very fast paced which is good, I tore through it. All the stuff about how TV shows work nowadays and how they're trying to please everyone at once, that was all really interesting and I loved it. I love anything that gets behind the scenes of things like this - however I felt that the show aspect could have been explained better, we were just kind of dropped into it. Quite late in the book I was still learning new things about the show that we really should have known already!
I understood what dysphoria is before, but I'd never felt it like this book made me feel it. It's nice to see books branching out a little from just being gay and excompassing other kinds of gender identity - Lily is trans and Greta is ace, but Greta's not dealt with in any kind of real way, it's just mentioned a couple of times. This goes for most things in the book; Greta, in my opinion, didn't have much of a personality. Lily's gamer group, the most important thing in the world to them, was barely there once Lily met their new love interest, the others just fell away.
There is a big 'twist' which I saw coming miles off. (I've probably read more books than the target audience for this one, but a quick glance at the reviews says that most people saw it coming.)
I loved Lily's determination to provide representation to the fans. There's a lot of strength there which I love seeing in characters. I liked the idea of this, but I think it needed a bit of work to really be great. There's a kernal here which I did enjoy and I would read the author again (once I've figured out what controversial things they said.)
Before I say anything else; I gather that this author has said some problematic things about lesbians. However I don't know anything about them and I tried to judge this book on just what it is. I don't condone anything the author may have done or said.
So this read is very fast paced which is good, I tore through it. All the stuff about how TV shows work nowadays and how they're trying to please everyone at once, that was all really interesting and I loved it. I love anything that gets behind the scenes of things like this - however I felt that the show aspect could have been explained better, we were just kind of dropped into it. Quite late in the book I was still learning new things about the show that we really should have known already!
I understood what dysphoria is before, but I'd never felt it like this book made me feel it. It's nice to see books branching out a little from just being gay and excompassing other kinds of gender identity - Lily is trans and Greta is ace, but Greta's not dealt with in any kind of real way, it's just mentioned a couple of times. This goes for most things in the book; Greta, in my opinion, didn't have much of a personality. Lily's gamer group, the most important thing in the world to them, was barely there once Lily met their new love interest, the others just fell away.
There is a big 'twist' which I saw coming miles off. (I've probably read more books than the target audience for this one, but a quick glance at the reviews says that most people saw it coming.)
I loved Lily's determination to provide representation to the fans. There's a lot of strength there which I love seeing in characters. I liked the idea of this, but I think it needed a bit of work to really be great. There's a kernal here which I did enjoy and I would read the author again (once I've figured out what controversial things they said.)