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A review by briannareadsbooks
Blaine for the Win by Robbie Couch
3.0
ARC provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
I loved The Sky Blues. It was one of my favourite books of 2021 and I was so excited to read more of Robbie Couch's work, but this just fell flat. I definitely will read more of Robbie's work in the future, and hopefully I love them as much as The Sky Blues.
The book follows Blaine, a teenage muralist whose boyfriend, Joey, breaks up with him because he's not "serious enough." His boyfriend is a part of the student council and has rich parents who expect him to go to university, while Blaine is a fly by the seat of his pants kind of guy. To win Joey back, Blaine decides to run for class president and quit painting to show Joey he can be a Serious Guy.
The characters were so one-dimensional and flat. Blaine has no passions or personality besides the fact that he's an artist and is constantly covered in paint. His best friend's girlfriend Camilla has seriously ZERO personality besides her love of dinosaurs (she wears dinosaur clothes and works at the dinosaur exhibit and makes dinosaur jokes). The only character I actually liked was Trish, who has some semblance of a personality as a Black lesbian with mental health issues and a headstrong, loyal, and fun personality.
The conflicts were some of the silliest and most easily-resolved conflicts I've ever seen in a YA book. The unnecessary third act conflict where everyone is mad at each other for no reason and then they all apologize and make up... And the final plot twist I could see coming from a mile away.
The romance was also completely under-developed. The love interest and the main character had one heart-to-heart and suddenly they were in love? It was really unbelievable.
I debated DNFing it because I truly didn't care where the story ended up going.
BUT it wasn't terrible. I know some people will like it. It's sweet, cute, fun, wholesome teenagers. I just wasn't that interested.
I loved The Sky Blues. It was one of my favourite books of 2021 and I was so excited to read more of Robbie Couch's work, but this just fell flat. I definitely will read more of Robbie's work in the future, and hopefully I love them as much as The Sky Blues.
The book follows Blaine, a teenage muralist whose boyfriend, Joey, breaks up with him because he's not "serious enough." His boyfriend is a part of the student council and has rich parents who expect him to go to university, while Blaine is a fly by the seat of his pants kind of guy. To win Joey back, Blaine decides to run for class president and quit painting to show Joey he can be a Serious Guy.
The characters were so one-dimensional and flat. Blaine has no passions or personality besides the fact that he's an artist and is constantly covered in paint. His best friend's girlfriend Camilla has seriously ZERO personality besides her love of dinosaurs (she wears dinosaur clothes and works at the dinosaur exhibit and makes dinosaur jokes). The only character I actually liked was Trish, who has some semblance of a personality as a Black lesbian with mental health issues and a headstrong, loyal, and fun personality.
The conflicts were some of the silliest and most easily-resolved conflicts I've ever seen in a YA book. The unnecessary third act conflict where everyone is mad at each other for no reason and then they all apologize and make up... And the final plot twist I could see coming from a mile away.
The romance was also completely under-developed. The love interest and the main character had one heart-to-heart and suddenly they were in love? It was really unbelievable.
I debated DNFing it because I truly didn't care where the story ended up going.
BUT it wasn't terrible. I know some people will like it. It's sweet, cute, fun, wholesome teenagers. I just wasn't that interested.