You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
ciuli 's review for:
Heretics Anonymous
by Katie Henry
3,5/5
Disclaimer: I waited way too long to write this review and I'm basing this solely on the notes I took while reading the book because I remember close to nothing about it lol
What happens when an atheist is forced to attend a Catholic high school? He looks for other outcasts that will help him stay afloat. Michael is changing schools after his family had to move yet another time due to his father's job, and he's faced with every teenager's struggle: making new friends. He meets Lucy and he's oh-so-wrong when he thinks she's atheist as well after he sees her argue with a nun during class. Only when he later tries to approach her he will find out that not only she's not an atheist, but her dream is to become a priest. Lucy introduces him to her eclectic group of friends: a Jewish gay boy, a unitarian boy and a politheist girl. Together they form the Heretics Anonymous, an after school group that, at the beginning, was only there so they could vent their frustration towards the school's stricht rules and the false messages it spreads. Things change when they decide that HA could help others as well, and so they start to boycott or find loopholes in the school rules, showing its faults.
What I liked the most about this book was the humor. It's very funny and I found myself laughing out loud at more than one banter and I loved it for that. Unfortunately, I found the plot to be very weak and, even though it started with a bang, I was very let down by the lack of progress in it. It didn't help that a huge part of the book was focused on Michael having a crush on Lucy and, though I'm not against romance, I don't think this aspect of the novel was as important as other subjects it was touching.
Other things I didn't particularly enjoy or understand were, for example, the way that Michael had to censor his feelings for what he was going through at home, because he was afraid Lucy would have judged him and thought he was ungrateful. I get where Lucy was coming from, and I can understand why she thought that having a family was better than having a mom who left. But telling Michael he should be grateful he had a family and should just suck it up and get over it, was disregarding his feelings. I'm not saying that Michael wasn't childish and selfish, because he was. But his father had his family move four times and he was now demanding they move on the other side of the world. He has a right to be upset. He has a right to be angry with his parents, who treated him as an adult only when it was fitting for them, when they wanted him to just get on with the plan, but then avoided telling him about the move until the last minute possible, because they knew they were being unfair. And he has a right to let out his emotions for this issue with his girlfriend and his friends without having to measure each and every single word for fear of being judged.
And while we're talking about his allegedly called 'friends' I sure didn't understand their behavior towards Michael at the end. Like, they were all in this together, and yes, Michael messed up a big deal by doing what he did without telling them first, without thinking really, but they turned their back on him without a second thought. Lucy told them they couldn't talk to him and they just executed her orders. What kind of dictatorship is that??
I'm not even mad at Lucy, because I can understand why she was mad and she had a right to. But the others, oh God, I wanted to strangle them all. They were like, you were only our friend for a few months, so we can basically pretend we weren't even friends to begin with and now we'll just ignore you until the school year is over. They avoided Michael and blamed everything on him and I just don't think it's fair.
I liked how they portrayed the relationship between Max and his dad because it felt real, the way he was rebelling being a teenager but also the fact that, even though the way he relayed his feelings were wrong, Michael was right. His dad wanted for them what he couldn't have when he was growing up, but he did so neglecting his kids and shoving them from one city to another disregarding their feelings.
I think it was a nice read, the humour was great and made me laugh a lot, plus it touches many important topics such as disinformation and homophobia ib a school setting, particularly important considering the setting was catholic.
Disclaimer: I waited way too long to write this review and I'm basing this solely on the notes I took while reading the book because I remember close to nothing about it lol
What happens when an atheist is forced to attend a Catholic high school? He looks for other outcasts that will help him stay afloat. Michael is changing schools after his family had to move yet another time due to his father's job, and he's faced with every teenager's struggle: making new friends. He meets Lucy and he's oh-so-wrong when he thinks she's atheist as well after he sees her argue with a nun during class. Only when he later tries to approach her he will find out that not only she's not an atheist, but her dream is to become a priest. Lucy introduces him to her eclectic group of friends: a Jewish gay boy, a unitarian boy and a politheist girl. Together they form the Heretics Anonymous, an after school group that, at the beginning, was only there so they could vent their frustration towards the school's stricht rules and the false messages it spreads. Things change when they decide that HA could help others as well, and so they start to boycott or find loopholes in the school rules, showing its faults.
What I liked the most about this book was the humor. It's very funny and I found myself laughing out loud at more than one banter and I loved it for that. Unfortunately, I found the plot to be very weak and, even though it started with a bang, I was very let down by the lack of progress in it. It didn't help that a huge part of the book was focused on Michael having a crush on Lucy and, though I'm not against romance, I don't think this aspect of the novel was as important as other subjects it was touching.
Other things I didn't particularly enjoy or understand were, for example, the way that Michael had to censor his feelings for what he was going through at home, because he was afraid Lucy would have judged him and thought he was ungrateful. I get where Lucy was coming from, and I can understand why she thought that having a family was better than having a mom who left. But telling Michael he should be grateful he had a family and should just suck it up and get over it, was disregarding his feelings. I'm not saying that Michael wasn't childish and selfish, because he was. But his father had his family move four times and he was now demanding they move on the other side of the world. He has a right to be upset. He has a right to be angry with his parents, who treated him as an adult only when it was fitting for them, when they wanted him to just get on with the plan, but then avoided telling him about the move until the last minute possible, because they knew they were being unfair. And he has a right to let out his emotions for this issue with his girlfriend and his friends without having to measure each and every single word for fear of being judged.
And while we're talking about his allegedly called 'friends' I sure didn't understand their behavior towards Michael at the end. Like, they were all in this together, and yes, Michael messed up a big deal by doing what he did without telling them first, without thinking really, but they turned their back on him without a second thought. Lucy told them they couldn't talk to him and they just executed her orders. What kind of dictatorship is that??
I'm not even mad at Lucy, because I can understand why she was mad and she had a right to. But the others, oh God, I wanted to strangle them all. They were like, you were only our friend for a few months, so we can basically pretend we weren't even friends to begin with and now we'll just ignore you until the school year is over. They avoided Michael and blamed everything on him and I just don't think it's fair.
I liked how they portrayed the relationship between Max and his dad because it felt real, the way he was rebelling being a teenager but also the fact that, even though the way he relayed his feelings were wrong, Michael was right. His dad wanted for them what he couldn't have when he was growing up, but he did so neglecting his kids and shoving them from one city to another disregarding their feelings.
I think it was a nice read, the humour was great and made me laugh a lot, plus it touches many important topics such as disinformation and homophobia ib a school setting, particularly important considering the setting was catholic.