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A review by lcrou002
The Love Curse of Melody McIntyre by Robin Talley
5.0
Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins for providing me an e-arc of this book in exchange for an honest review
This is the first contemporary fiction book of Robin Talley’s that I’ve read and it may actually be my favorite. Which says a lot because I have a total Thing for penpals and there was Music from Another World earlier this year…
BUT this book was awesome! I can see it having wide audience appeal. Yes, it’s a queer YA novel but it’s 2020 and a lot of teens are pretty open-minded. I’d even recommend this one to the straights if they’re at all active in their school’s theater department because it’s totally a novel for drama kids and I don’t know that crew members really have that many to choose from. This book took me right back to the incredible fun, pride, and stress of high school musical season. If Talley wasn’t a theater kid it certainly seems that she’s done her research. She’s even got me wanting to pick up a(n abridged) copy of Les Misérables. The Love Curse… made total since without knowledge of Les Mis but it was so good, it made me curious.
There were so many details of the book I liked. The protagonist, Melody McIntire, is bisexual and has had both boyfriends and girlfriends. She’s dated a lot and while some characters try to shame her for it the overall message is that it’s fine to have dated widely. The current love interest, Odile, has relatively little dating experience and that’s fine too. And while Melody McIntire is very 16 in some of her decisions (as she should be in a book for 16 year olds!) she has also cultivated great friendships and working relationships with her exes which I feel is an important behavior to see modeled.
Overall a great book and I can’t wait to read Talley’s next one.
This is the first contemporary fiction book of Robin Talley’s that I’ve read and it may actually be my favorite. Which says a lot because I have a total Thing for penpals and there was Music from Another World earlier this year…
BUT this book was awesome! I can see it having wide audience appeal. Yes, it’s a queer YA novel but it’s 2020 and a lot of teens are pretty open-minded. I’d even recommend this one to the straights if they’re at all active in their school’s theater department because it’s totally a novel for drama kids and I don’t know that crew members really have that many to choose from. This book took me right back to the incredible fun, pride, and stress of high school musical season. If Talley wasn’t a theater kid it certainly seems that she’s done her research. She’s even got me wanting to pick up a(n abridged) copy of Les Misérables. The Love Curse… made total since without knowledge of Les Mis but it was so good, it made me curious.
There were so many details of the book I liked. The protagonist, Melody McIntire, is bisexual and has had both boyfriends and girlfriends. She’s dated a lot and while some characters try to shame her for it the overall message is that it’s fine to have dated widely. The current love interest, Odile, has relatively little dating experience and that’s fine too. And while Melody McIntire is very 16 in some of her decisions (as she should be in a book for 16 year olds!) she has also cultivated great friendships and working relationships with her exes which I feel is an important behavior to see modeled.
Overall a great book and I can’t wait to read Talley’s next one.