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goosemixtapes 's review for:
Bad Romance
by Heather Demetrios
this is a great book! there are a lot of great things about this book! here are some of them!
>the second person POV. i'm biased, because i love second person and i love when books get weird with their formatting (i think we should all get weird with formatting about ten times more often. i actually would have loved to see more retrospective narration in this), but it genuinely works here regardless of my bias: the entire book is directed from grace to gavin, the boyfriend who becomes her prison, & addressing him as "you" gives the whole thing this specific and sometimes twisted sort of intimacy. you can never really forget how close they are, even when you hate him, because neither can she.
>heather demetrios says in her afterward that this book is drawn from a relationship she had, and that shows, because it bleeds authenticity. particularly in the way it escalates. gavin has some red flags at the start, but that's also compounded by the reader's meta knowledge of the plot; the relationship genuinely seems to start as something sweet and equal, and while i never PERSONALLY found gavin attractive (again, meta knowledge + i'm a lesbian), i understand why grace does, and i understand why she holds off for so long about realizing that her relationship with gavin has become a slowly tightening vise. (and oh man, when it tightens. the way i went from "huh that's a red flag" to "holy shit jesus christ fuck this guy" was like watching a car crash.)
>grace's relationship with her family, particularly her mother, isn't center stage, but it fills in a perfect background - her stepfather and mother are both abusive, though in very different ways, and it's VERY apparent why grace is so vulnerable to the sort of manipulation gavin pulls: when he's the only person to show her kindness, when he plays off her self-esteem issues, when being with him instead of at home is at least the lesser of two evils. also, her mother is written with so much... nuance? depth? compassion isn't exactly the right word; you aren't on grace's mother's side and you definitely aren't supposed to be. but she's still made a three-dimensional character instead of The Stereotypical Evil Mother, and that also makes it all ten times as painful, because she keeps choosing to hurt her daughter.
>i really like that grace doesn't just break up with gavin and immediately get into a relationship with someone else. this is a book that prioritizes friendship (particularly grace’s friendship with her female friends*) & taking care of yourself, especially when you’ve spent so much of your life putting yourself last, and i find that very important.
*also one of her best friends is a lesbian and there is never once a moment of any of the straight girls worrying about her being predatory or smthn. they have sleepovers they go swimming etc etc and it's just a non-issue and i know this is an INCREDIBLY low bar but it made me happy anyway as a lesbian with problems and complexes in my brain
>and as much as i hate to water books down to “Something Important TM,” i DO think that it’s important that a YA book like this exists. not to get on my soapbox, but man. sometimes YA romance is bad. to have a book like this, that marks out what an unhealthy relationship looks like, sympathizes with its main character and doesn't blame her for her situation but also makes it clear that it's critical she get out of the relationship, strikes me as Very Important, and not in a tired trite way.
>just a good book in general. would have read it faster if not for The Tasks
>the second person POV. i'm biased, because i love second person and i love when books get weird with their formatting (i think we should all get weird with formatting about ten times more often. i actually would have loved to see more retrospective narration in this), but it genuinely works here regardless of my bias: the entire book is directed from grace to gavin, the boyfriend who becomes her prison, & addressing him as "you" gives the whole thing this specific and sometimes twisted sort of intimacy. you can never really forget how close they are, even when you hate him, because neither can she.
>heather demetrios says in her afterward that this book is drawn from a relationship she had, and that shows, because it bleeds authenticity. particularly in the way it escalates. gavin has some red flags at the start, but that's also compounded by the reader's meta knowledge of the plot; the relationship genuinely seems to start as something sweet and equal, and while i never PERSONALLY found gavin attractive (again, meta knowledge + i'm a lesbian), i understand why grace does, and i understand why she holds off for so long about realizing that her relationship with gavin has become a slowly tightening vise. (and oh man, when it tightens. the way i went from "huh that's a red flag" to "holy shit jesus christ fuck this guy" was like watching a car crash.)
>grace's relationship with her family, particularly her mother, isn't center stage, but it fills in a perfect background - her stepfather and mother are both abusive, though in very different ways, and it's VERY apparent why grace is so vulnerable to the sort of manipulation gavin pulls: when he's the only person to show her kindness, when he plays off her self-esteem issues, when being with him instead of at home is at least the lesser of two evils. also, her mother is written with so much... nuance? depth? compassion isn't exactly the right word; you aren't on grace's mother's side and you definitely aren't supposed to be. but she's still made a three-dimensional character instead of The Stereotypical Evil Mother, and that also makes it all ten times as painful, because she keeps choosing to hurt her daughter.
>i really like that grace doesn't just break up with gavin and immediately get into a relationship with someone else.
Spoiler
i was worried it might happen with gideon - of course a healthy relationship is something grace deserves and is allowed to want, but going from one guy to the next feels precarious. but demetrios handles this perfectly; the situation with gideon ended unexpectedly but realistically (she hurts him without intending to, he has a different girlfriend at the end of the book & seems happy with her, THEY STAY FRIENDS AND ARE STILL KIND TO EACH OTHER), and grace acknowledges that she needs time to just exist by herself!*also one of her best friends is a lesbian and there is never once a moment of any of the straight girls worrying about her being predatory or smthn. they have sleepovers they go swimming etc etc and it's just a non-issue and i know this is an INCREDIBLY low bar but it made me happy anyway as a lesbian with problems and complexes in my brain
>and as much as i hate to water books down to “Something Important TM,” i DO think that it’s important that a YA book like this exists. not to get on my soapbox, but man. sometimes YA romance is bad. to have a book like this, that marks out what an unhealthy relationship looks like, sympathizes with its main character and doesn't blame her for her situation but also makes it clear that it's critical she get out of the relationship, strikes me as Very Important, and not in a tired trite way.
>just a good book in general. would have read it faster if not for The Tasks