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marmaladereads 's review for:
The Breakup Lists
by Adib Khorram
This was a cute high school romance. There's not much of a plot, just following the general course of the school year, which is pretty typical for high school, and makes it a fairly character driven book. The entire book is told from Jackson's point of view and written entirely in his inner voice, like a journal, with some thoughts crossed out and replaced, and some rather embarrassing or inappropriate thoughts that maybe don't make it into most novels. It made for a pretty fun read and I loved Jackson's voice throughout.
Another thing I really enjoyed was the representation in the book - both with MCs and side characters across the board. Jackson is gay, hard of hearing, and Iranian-America, a trifecta of identities that make him feel pretty isolated at school and even in his own family, none of whom ever learned how to sign (an infuriating but all too common experience for Deaf children in hearing families). Since the story is told from his POV, we as the reader get to experience every moment of conversation he misses, whenever people mumble or give up on trying to communicate with him entirely, and that was quite well done. We also get to meet a whole cast of queer, non-binary, Black, Middle Eastern, Deaf characters, without any of them feeling tokenized. I especially loved Bowie, Jackson's BFF, who is non-binary and totally fabulous, as well as being CODA (Child of Deaf Adults) and one of the only people who signs with Jackson.
Liam, the love interest, is one of Bowie's friends, and takes a pretty early interest in Jackson - including learning how to sign, and joining the school play (where Jackson is stage manager). I loved the early interactions between Liam and Jackson. The pining is intense, as is the cluelessness on Jackson's part, it was pretty adorable.
Unfortunately the book goes in pretty frustrating directions from there. Both Liam and Jackson make pretty questionable choices which hurt the people around them, especially Jackson's sister. I think this all ultimately resolves and contributes to their character growth, but pretty much all of the characters (excluding Bowie who is a darling) come out looking pretty morally gray in ways that turned me off of the characters a bit, and made for a pretty frustrating read through the middle of the book. I also didn't enjoy the typical third act break up, especially when
Ultimately this book started off really great, but went in directions that really didn't work for me and hindered my enjoyment of it.
I also had a couple of more minor gripes that hindered my enjoyment but probably wouldn't impact most readers:
1. There were quite a few cliches throughout in word choices or language. Everyone's skin is "porcelain" or "alabaster" or "chocolate", hair is "raven", that sort of thing.
2. I found very little of Jackson's experience as a Techie in theater to jive with mine. Jackson is a solo stage manager with basically no tech crew, which seems kind of bizarre. I was hoping to get more theater kid nostalgia out of this one. What's a little sad is that he seems to really love theater but then also doesn't actually like anyone involved in theater, which adds to his isolation. I found it somewhat confounding, but I guess everyone's high school experience is going to vary quite a bit.
Another thing I really enjoyed was the representation in the book - both with MCs and side characters across the board. Jackson is gay, hard of hearing, and Iranian-America, a trifecta of identities that make him feel pretty isolated at school and even in his own family, none of whom ever learned how to sign (an infuriating but all too common experience for Deaf children in hearing families). Since the story is told from his POV, we as the reader get to experience every moment of conversation he misses, whenever people mumble or give up on trying to communicate with him entirely, and that was quite well done. We also get to meet a whole cast of queer, non-binary, Black, Middle Eastern, Deaf characters, without any of them feeling tokenized. I especially loved Bowie, Jackson's BFF, who is non-binary and totally fabulous, as well as being CODA (Child of Deaf Adults) and one of the only people who signs with Jackson.
Liam, the love interest, is one of Bowie's friends, and takes a pretty early interest in Jackson - including learning how to sign, and joining the school play (where Jackson is stage manager). I loved the early interactions between Liam and Jackson. The pining is intense, as is the cluelessness on Jackson's part, it was pretty adorable.
Unfortunately the book goes in pretty frustrating directions from there. Both Liam and Jackson make pretty questionable choices which hurt the people around them, especially Jackson's sister. I think this all ultimately resolves and contributes to their character growth, but pretty much all of the characters (excluding Bowie who is a darling) come out looking pretty morally gray in ways that turned me off of the characters a bit, and made for a pretty frustrating read through the middle of the book. I also didn't enjoy the typical third act break up, especially when
Spoiler
it took most of the book for the characters to actually start dating.Ultimately this book started off really great, but went in directions that really didn't work for me and hindered my enjoyment of it.
I also had a couple of more minor gripes that hindered my enjoyment but probably wouldn't impact most readers:
1. There were quite a few cliches throughout in word choices or language. Everyone's skin is "porcelain" or "alabaster" or "chocolate", hair is "raven", that sort of thing.
2. I found very little of Jackson's experience as a Techie in theater to jive with mine. Jackson is a solo stage manager with basically no tech crew, which seems kind of bizarre. I was hoping to get more theater kid nostalgia out of this one. What's a little sad is that he seems to really love theater but then also doesn't actually like anyone involved in theater, which adds to his isolation. I found it somewhat confounding, but I guess everyone's high school experience is going to vary quite a bit.