A review by frankireads
Meet Cute Diary by Emery Lee

hopeful medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

what worked for me: the relationship between devin and noah is really strong throughout, even at the beginning when noah’s in his “ugh i don’t want to work and i don’t want to be friends with this person who puked on me” phase. i think i just ultimately really liked devin as a character? e was really earnest, didn’t really play into noah trying to start fights, and was generally more enjoyable than more of the cast (unfortunately). i also liked that noah gave em space to try out different pronouns and see what worked best for them. it’s moment like this that were really the strongest parts of the book--when noah shined best was when he was supporting his friends and listening to them, like a good friend should. oh, and i really enjoyed reading a book about a trans character that wasn’t like...riddled with transphobia. the problems were not being of noah’s transness (or his triracial identity), but situational things, and i really enjoyed not having to brace myself for dread every other minute.

what didn’t work for me: the tone of the book in noah’s pov read a bit too young on the ya side of things for me, which is totally fine! i know i’m probably not the intended audience here. however, a side effect of this was that noah came off way more self-centered and i don’t feel it was resolved well-enough in the end. that, and
the entirety of his relationship with drew was just. augh. was literally cheering along with his best friend when they broke up. i also hated there was no real closure to it? drew lied to him about something fairly big and i get it, you can just not have closure with relationships, it happens, but for this to be the romance that was marketed on the book as well the central focus for 3/4th of the book...
it fell flat for me, and made the ending feel rushed.

to read or not to read: honestly, if you’re not in the target demographic you might not have the intended view of this book, which at its core is a very sweet message of living one’s truth and finding happiness despite. i don’t regret reading this book, but i don’t think i’d read it again? still, i’d be willing to check out whatever emery writes next. 

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