A review by bellaashley
A Thousand Boy Kisses by Tillie Cole

emotional sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

I finally did it and read Tillie Cole's A Thousand Boy Kisses. This was one of the most hyped up books I ever read and let me tell you, I did NOT enjoy myself.
Trigger warnings would have been nice, since this book deals with a topic I try to avoid. 

I cried. Of course I did, it was sad, but that wasn't the problem, well not entirely. The problem was pretty much everything else about this story. The characters fell flat for me, I don't feel like we got to know them very well. There were some cringe-worthy moments where we get to know the characters past (when they were 8 years old), which made me really dislike the book. I liked the beginning of the present (the characters are 17 now) though. Up until we find out about the topic this book is dealing with. I should have stopped reading then. I found the rest of the book was super sappy, extremely unrealistic and honestly, it really gets you down, there's literally nothing to be happy about. NOTHING.
Oh and I found out about the Queen passing while reading the last pages of the book, so I felt twice as depressed when I finished.

1 star for A Thousand Boy Kisses - just wasn't my cup of tea

<spoiler >Attention spoiler and rant ahead:
moments that almost made me hurl the book across the room

* When Poppy's grandma hands her the jar and tells her to fill it with boy-kisses. Am I the only one who thinks this is, I don't know, kind of inappropriate? I mean she is a kid, eight years old and her grandmother talks to her about kissing boys. She practically tells her to go and do it. I don't know about you, but most eight-year-olds I know don't enjoy the thought of kissing boys or girls. 
So of course Poppy thinks she has to start right away. She goes and kisses her best friend who is also eight and they both like it so much, so they do it again and again and again!?! They are supposed to be eight but they talk and act like adults. "Rune reached for my hand. He started tracing patterns on the back with his fingertips." Eight-year-olds don't do that. And they certainly don't say things like "I've wanted to kiss you for a while now. And well, you're mine and I liked it."
I wasn't even 30 pages in but this already made me dislike the book a lot. 

* never want to read the words "as special as special can be" and "my heart almost burst" again

* Rune has to move overseas and his parents tell him the night before, so messed up!

* and last and certainly my least favorite part, when Rune just dies 10 years after Poppy for whatever bulls*** reason so they can reunite in heaven or wherever the f they are. You've got to be kidding! I don't think I've ever been this mad at a book before









































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