Take a photo of a barcode or cover
thearieslibrary 's review for:
Dear Wendy
by Ann Zhao
DID NOT FINISH: 40%
When I seen this had aroace rep, I was so excited to read it. However, I couldn’t have been more wrong - the whole book of what I had read felt like it lacked personality.
The characters felt incredibly flat, like there was nothing of substance to them which made it really hard for me to care for them. I also find it hard to believe that two people’s experiences of being aroace are exactly the same, which also made it hard for me to distinguish between both of their POVs and remember who was who, as their voices were just not distinctive enough for me. They seemed to blend together. There are other reviews that go into other issues about this book and the queer characters, better than I can as 40% was enough for me to draw the line and DNF. The reason for both of the main characters being in a feud online felt so incredibly petty, to the point where I was shocked to find out they were 18 years old and not younger, as they both acted childish. Also, every single man who was introduced in this book was spoken about awfully, which I truly didn’t expect at all going into this book. I have a hard time believing that every single man these people have encountered have all been awful. To sum up, I just wasn’t interested in any of the characters, the plot or how this book ended.
Some parts of the writing came across so juvenile and made me cringe by how silly it often sounded. A example is “people are still debating whether asexual people are queer. I mean, hello, what do they think the A in LGBTQIA stands for?” which then not even a page later it says, “I’m fairly sure my parents don’t think hi people exist.” “What the fuck? What do they think the B in LGBTQ stands for?”. As the author would say, hello?? Why are you forgetting to include the same community in a acronym that you’ve just said not even a page earlier that people are debating asexual people being queer, which by you not including them in the acronym you’re adding to the exact thing you’re complaining about? Make it make sense. It’s truly not hard to use the acronym LGBTQIA+ to ensure that every single queer community is represented. There’s probably other instances that I’m sure other reviews would have pointed out but this is the main one that stuck with me and had me debating DNFing.
It is such a shame as it truly did have potential and would have been lovely to have some much needed aroace rep, if it truly reflected that community.
The characters felt incredibly flat, like there was nothing of substance to them which made it really hard for me to care for them. I also find it hard to believe that two people’s experiences of being aroace are exactly the same, which also made it hard for me to distinguish between both of their POVs and remember who was who, as their voices were just not distinctive enough for me. They seemed to blend together. There are other reviews that go into other issues about this book and the queer characters, better than I can as 40% was enough for me to draw the line and DNF. The reason for both of the main characters being in a feud online felt so incredibly petty, to the point where I was shocked to find out they were 18 years old and not younger, as they both acted childish. Also, every single man who was introduced in this book was spoken about awfully, which I truly didn’t expect at all going into this book. I have a hard time believing that every single man these people have encountered have all been awful. To sum up, I just wasn’t interested in any of the characters, the plot or how this book ended.
Some parts of the writing came across so juvenile and made me cringe by how silly it often sounded. A example is “people are still debating whether asexual people are queer. I mean, hello, what do they think the A in LGBTQIA stands for?” which then not even a page later it says, “I’m fairly sure my parents don’t think hi people exist.” “What the fuck? What do they think the B in LGBTQ stands for?”. As the author would say, hello?? Why are you forgetting to include the same community in a acronym that you’ve just said not even a page earlier that people are debating asexual people being queer, which by you not including them in the acronym you’re adding to the exact thing you’re complaining about? Make it make sense. It’s truly not hard to use the acronym LGBTQIA+ to ensure that every single queer community is represented. There’s probably other instances that I’m sure other reviews would have pointed out but this is the main one that stuck with me and had me debating DNFing.
It is such a shame as it truly did have potential and would have been lovely to have some much needed aroace rep, if it truly reflected that community.