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A review by beforeviolets
Fresh by Margot Wood
dark
funny
hopeful
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
This is one of those cases when I'm rating a book in the 3-star range because I had a decent amount of negative thoughts but they mostly felt like personal opinions and not generalized critiques on the story.
I will start off by saying that I am a tough sell on YA contemporaries so I know I'm not the target audience for this one.
Overall, I loved the messy college vibe. The way Elliot (our MC) was forced into a reckoning of self-reflection and required an immense change of perspective about what being a responsible and independent human being looks like was an incredibly accurate depiction of a by-product of going off on our own that most of us face. Though the specifics of the drama with her friends was all-too-predictable, I did appreciate the way it was used as a tool for Elliot to learn what good friendship and bad friendship looks like and how to know when it's something worth fighting for versus when its not. This is something I am still learning about to this day, and I thought this was well portrayed in the book throughout.
I also loved the way that Margot Wood took risks with her writing style. I thought the "choose your own adventure" and screenplay inserts and such were incredibly creative and helped keep the pace and the excitement of the story up even through the more conceptually monotonous events. It was incredibly fun and I honestly feel like more books for younger audiences should start implementing these tactics.
This book is quirky, cheesy, and sex positive in a way that is refreshing for YA. However, I fear that it falls into the issue I find with a lot of media aimed towards younger audiences, which essentially creates a stigma and judgment around people who are late bloomers and who don't have any romantic or sexual experiences in high school and college. I found this mostly during the beginning of the book, when Elliot immediately shamed her roommate for never having had a boyfriend and essentially telling her that she needs to get laid ASAP. There just didn't seem to be a lot of nuance in approaching the experience levels of different characters. This wasn't a huge issue, just one that I wish was offered a bit more care.
I think my biggest issue with the book was the narrative tone. The author's attempt to be relatable was far too visible, which, in my opinion, created distance between the reader and the character. It ended up just coming across as so performative that I didn't feel able to really drop into Elliot's feelings or her story as deeply as I wanted to. This might have partially come from the choice to have Elliot cognizantly narrate the story instead of just allowing us to live through her thoughts and actions, as well as the consequence of having an unreliable narrator that struggles with emotional intimacy and likes to laugh her way through situations and therefore might've been keeping even the readers at arm's length. But especially since she was our guide through this world and this story, it was just frustrating to feel as though I wasn't able to fully access her feelings and experiences.
This story also dealt with some DEEP topics and this lack of emotional intimacy between the narrator and the reader felt like it kept this book from being able to explore those topics in full. I would have loved to see some more time spent in those moments to allow both the characters and the audience to cope with the difficulties they were facing. Especially as a YA book, it's important to show impressionable audiences the reality of those situations and how they can affect your world. It felt so focused on the larger plot that I felt that those moments were really missed.
I would recommend this book to anyone who's starting off in college and is afraid of their own mistakes. I think this would be so comforting to so many people during a time when everyone feels pretty alone and confusing and caught up in a whirlwind of new experiences.
I will start off by saying that I am a tough sell on YA contemporaries so I know I'm not the target audience for this one.
Overall, I loved the messy college vibe. The way Elliot (our MC) was forced into a reckoning of self-reflection and required an immense change of perspective about what being a responsible and independent human being looks like was an incredibly accurate depiction of a by-product of going off on our own that most of us face. Though the specifics of the drama with her friends was all-too-predictable, I did appreciate the way it was used as a tool for Elliot to learn what good friendship and bad friendship looks like and how to know when it's something worth fighting for versus when its not. This is something I am still learning about to this day, and I thought this was well portrayed in the book throughout.
I also loved the way that Margot Wood took risks with her writing style. I thought the "choose your own adventure" and screenplay inserts and such were incredibly creative and helped keep the pace and the excitement of the story up even through the more conceptually monotonous events. It was incredibly fun and I honestly feel like more books for younger audiences should start implementing these tactics.
This book is quirky, cheesy, and sex positive in a way that is refreshing for YA. However, I fear that it falls into the issue I find with a lot of media aimed towards younger audiences, which essentially creates a stigma and judgment around people who are late bloomers and who don't have any romantic or sexual experiences in high school and college. I found this mostly during the beginning of the book, when Elliot immediately shamed her roommate for never having had a boyfriend and essentially telling her that she needs to get laid ASAP. There just didn't seem to be a lot of nuance in approaching the experience levels of different characters. This wasn't a huge issue, just one that I wish was offered a bit more care.
I think my biggest issue with the book was the narrative tone. The author's attempt to be relatable was far too visible, which, in my opinion, created distance between the reader and the character. It ended up just coming across as so performative that I didn't feel able to really drop into Elliot's feelings or her story as deeply as I wanted to. This might have partially come from the choice to have Elliot cognizantly narrate the story instead of just allowing us to live through her thoughts and actions, as well as the consequence of having an unreliable narrator that struggles with emotional intimacy and likes to laugh her way through situations and therefore might've been keeping even the readers at arm's length. But especially since she was our guide through this world and this story, it was just frustrating to feel as though I wasn't able to fully access her feelings and experiences.
This story also dealt with some DEEP topics and this lack of emotional intimacy between the narrator and the reader felt like it kept this book from being able to explore those topics in full. I would have loved to see some more time spent in those moments to allow both the characters and the audience to cope with the difficulties they were facing. Especially as a YA book, it's important to show impressionable audiences the reality of those situations and how they can affect your world. It felt so focused on the larger plot that I felt that those moments were really missed.
I would recommend this book to anyone who's starting off in college and is afraid of their own mistakes. I think this would be so comforting to so many people during a time when everyone feels pretty alone and confusing and caught up in a whirlwind of new experiences.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault, Alcohol, and Sexual content
Moderate: Drug use
Minor: Fatphobia and Rape