A review by beckyyreadss
Lark & Kasim Start a Revolution by Kacen Callender

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I wanted to read this book because I thought Felix Ever After was adorable and wanted to read more of Kacen’s work and this was on Kindle, so I was intrigued. This book was sweet and frustrating at the same time.  

This book is based on Lark Winters. They want to be a writer and for now that means posting anything and everything on their social media accounts – just to build their platform. When their former best friend accidentally posts a thread on Lark’s twitter declaring his love for a secret, unrequited crush, Lark’s tweets are suddenly the talk of the school. To protect Kasim, Lark decides to take the fall, pretending they accidentally posted the thread in reference to another classmate. It seems like a great idea: Lark finally gets the courage to ask out their crush, Kasim keeps his privacy and Lark’s social media stats explode. But living a lie takes a toll – as does the judgement of thousands of Internet strangers. Lark tries their best to be perfect at all costs, but nothing seems good enough for the anonymous hordes or for Kasim, who is growing closer to Lark, just like it used to be between them. In the end, Lark must embrace their right to their messy emotions and learn how to be in love.  

Kacen has a great way of making you fall in love with these characters and makes you want to protect them. The whole way through this book I just wanted to hug Lark and Kasim and also tell Lark to think before they speak. I love how much of writer they wanted to be and that they were pushing so hard for it, but they also didn’t realize the effect their twitter had on people. I love that everyone in this book was part of the LGBT community and that some of the people were still horrible people (Micah and Patch I'm looking at you). I think everyone should read this book – children, parents, teachers, students. Just to show how easy it can be to accept people who are non-binary and people who are queer and still struggling with their identity, plus with this book being based around the pandemic and Black Lives Matter protests – it shows what these kids were dealing with.  

I don’t have any weaknesses with the storyline or anything like that. But I would have loved for this to be multiple POV with Kasim’s POV and Sable’s POV. Just to see how they were feeling during the hard-hitting scenes and when Kasim went to New York.  

I would love another book in this series of Lark thriving as an author and how Kasim, Sable and Lark get on in their relationship. 
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