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A review by readingunderadesk
One in a Millennial: On Friendship, Feelings, Fangirls, and Fitting In by Kate Kennedy
2.5
Usually I pop onto NetGalley to do my reviews more or less as soon as I finish a book, but I marinated on this one a few days. I think, in the end... it wasn't for me?
Going back and reviewing the info, it's marketed as a 'commentary on millennial pop culture' but it was... a memoir of a person who was really into pop culture...? And not at all what that pop culture meant to... culture, and how it really affected those that grew up within its grasp.
Kate Kennedy (who I was wholly unfamiliar with prior to reading this book) is only about four-ish years younger than I am, but we experienced a lot of the same things -- in completely different ways. Reading Once in a Millennial was like listening to the little sister of a classmate talk a lot about pop culture of the time, thirty years later. And while that pop culture was really important and formative to all of us who grew up through it (especially us who were raised as girls as media "for girls" is continually undervalued) it really just didn't affect me the same way as it did her. I have fond memories of TGIF nights but the whole boy crazy phase skipped me (and then I turned out to be not straight and very strongly demiromantic/sexual bordering on the "a" part of the spectrum, so, the gap is real) and living my school age life around what boys may think of me just... completely passed me by. So I'm glad she called it "One in a Millennial" and explains it's her very personal experience living through the 90s (00s, and now) and it's fascinating how very different we who grew up in the same era are.
Also, unfortunately, I found the very "I got really into Hamilton during That Period and it obviously affects my writing" rhymes that happen SO OFTEN really distracting and it took away a lot of this reading experience for me. Same goes with the constant trying to see how she could work in every possible pun/play on words/reference as much as possible. I didn't like that! A play on words and a reference is so fun but when it happens SO MUCH it's just distracting and not as clever as it probably felt at the time.
So, not for me, but I can see how a lot of people roughly my age would probably like this a lot.
Thank you to NetGalley and St Martin's Press for the eARC in exchange for review!
Going back and reviewing the info, it's marketed as a 'commentary on millennial pop culture' but it was... a memoir of a person who was really into pop culture...? And not at all what that pop culture meant to... culture, and how it really affected those that grew up within its grasp.
Kate Kennedy (who I was wholly unfamiliar with prior to reading this book) is only about four-ish years younger than I am, but we experienced a lot of the same things -- in completely different ways. Reading Once in a Millennial was like listening to the little sister of a classmate talk a lot about pop culture of the time, thirty years later. And while that pop culture was really important and formative to all of us who grew up through it (especially us who were raised as girls as media "for girls" is continually undervalued) it really just didn't affect me the same way as it did her. I have fond memories of TGIF nights but the whole boy crazy phase skipped me (and then I turned out to be not straight and very strongly demiromantic/sexual bordering on the "a" part of the spectrum, so, the gap is real) and living my school age life around what boys may think of me just... completely passed me by. So I'm glad she called it "One in a Millennial" and explains it's her very personal experience living through the 90s (00s, and now) and it's fascinating how very different we who grew up in the same era are.
Also, unfortunately, I found the very "I got really into Hamilton during That Period and it obviously affects my writing" rhymes that happen SO OFTEN really distracting and it took away a lot of this reading experience for me. Same goes with the constant trying to see how she could work in every possible pun/play on words/reference as much as possible. I didn't like that! A play on words and a reference is so fun but when it happens SO MUCH it's just distracting and not as clever as it probably felt at the time.
So, not for me, but I can see how a lot of people roughly my age would probably like this a lot.
Thank you to NetGalley and St Martin's Press for the eARC in exchange for review!