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A review by lilacfield
Flip the Script by Lyla Lee
2.25
Since I enjoyed “I’ll Be the One” and thought the premise of this book seemed really interesting, I decided to read this book. A sapphic romance between two actresses in a kdrama who play rivals?? I had such high hopes!
However, this book fell flat for me in multiple areas. The development of the romance, which I thought would be the center of the book, felt like it happened before the book began. I didn’t even feel like rooting for them necessarily because their relationship was just… there? And it happened in the back half of the book?
The first half was dedicated to just Hana and Ryan working on their show and dealing with their drama together. And despite spending half of the book with Ryan and him ending up being a close friend to Hana, it still feels like we barely know anything about him. It’s the same with Minjee too, actually. I loved them all becoming friends, but their friendship still didn’t feel genuine and it’s definitely because we just don’t know these characters very well. Certain times Hana would mention things like “oh, it’s just like Minjee to dress like that that!” or “it’s just like Ryan to do this!” and I’d be like ??? Since when??? We don’t know anything about them at ALL outside of the show.
On that point, the writing just was not for me. I can’t help but compare it to “I’ll Be the One” and while both definitely feel very juvenile, this book felt like we were just being told everything. I could SENSE when a long winded explanation was about to come my way because it was set up the same way every time.
I really wanted to like this book so I could have another great sapphic story to recommend to people. Unfortunately, this book just wasn’t for me.
However, this book fell flat for me in multiple areas. The development of the romance, which I thought would be the center of the book, felt like it happened before the book began. I didn’t even feel like rooting for them necessarily because their relationship was just… there? And it happened in the back half of the book?
The first half was dedicated to just Hana and Ryan working on their show and dealing with their drama together. And despite spending half of the book with Ryan and him ending up being a close friend to Hana, it still feels like we barely know anything about him. It’s the same with Minjee too, actually. I loved them all becoming friends, but their friendship still didn’t feel genuine and it’s definitely because we just don’t know these characters very well. Certain times Hana would mention things like “oh, it’s just like Minjee to dress like that that!” or “it’s just like Ryan to do this!” and I’d be like ??? Since when??? We don’t know anything about them at ALL outside of the show.
On that point, the writing just was not for me. I can’t help but compare it to “I’ll Be the One” and while both definitely feel very juvenile, this book felt like we were just being told everything. I could SENSE when a long winded explanation was about to come my way because it was set up the same way every time.
I really wanted to like this book so I could have another great sapphic story to recommend to people. Unfortunately, this book just wasn’t for me.