A review by fictionaladventures
How to Excavate a Heart by Jake Maia Arlow

emotional funny hopeful lighthearted fast-paced
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This was such a charming read! I wouldn’t call it YA—it’s NA for sure, both because the characters are in college and because of the sexual content. It wasn’t TOO graphic like scene-wise, but sex was just a huge subject in the story so it didn’t feel YA.

Shani went through some awesome character development in this. I loved all the choices the author made with that. She learned some of the most important lessons there are to learn and it was a joy to read that. Shani’s voice was so real and relatable and charming. All the characters felt real while at the same time being enjoyable to read about. It wasn’t as Christmas focused as I expected, but that means it doesn’t have to be read just around Christmas time—it’s more of a wintery read than anything. And the chapter titles were amazing lol.

I got kinda choked up in the scene where Shani came out to her mom! It was so incredibly touching!
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