youaremykiseki 's review for:

Infinity Alchemist by Kacen Callender

3.75

adventurous challenging tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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I mostly enjoyed this book, but I wasn't a huge fan of the theme and conclusion that

Ash was mostly just complaining about how hard his life was compared to everyone else as if poverty and hunger are not actual significant barriers to study/learning/ability

. They had the pretty typical "everybody has their own struggles" thing which was fine I guess. I did enjoy that they actually ended up

being in a poly relationship and that the confusion and anxiety/jealousy during/leading up to it was actually explored a bit but the attitudes felt a bit too convenient, somehow

. I also enjoyed that there were a lot of aspects of transness/gender fluidity that were fairly naturally discussed. I've not read too many YA books featuring trans and gnc characters so it was nice to see. I will say that the plot felt secondary to the character's relationships, and also a lot more focus on their physical relationships than I expected. I don't know that I would call it explicit, but it was definitely more explicit than I expected for a YA novel.