A review by lostinvellichor
Take Her Down by Lauren Emily Whalen

4.0

Wow…Very complicated feelings about this book! Love all the queer rep and the modern take on Julius Caesar. Setting it as a student thesis was an interesting format for it to be written in and as a whole it is really well written, almost surprisingly so given high school setting, the very casual, modern dialogue style, and the almost flippant vibe of the first half…but it really goes deep and has a lot of emotional breadth, especially in the second half of the story. It does meander a bit in some places, but man, talk about bringing up some seriously visceral feelings with all the commentary on the 2016 presidential election.

And oof…the parts towards the end about what happened with Jude…those were emotionally really hard to read, to the point that I almost didn’t know if I could finish the book. But I did and I think it was wrapped up well, no "happy" endings here but I felt satisfied by how everything concluded. This is definitely one of those books that stays with you and gives you a lot to think about and process after reading.

Thank you to Bold Strokes Books for this eARC.