A review by dragonlilly
XOXO by Axie Oh

emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes

4.0

This was a fun and extra sweet story with a lot to love! Axie Oh touches on a lot of important topics within this book, such as the difficult and terrible parts of idol life, bullying, being in a new country and school all at once and adapting to that culture, death of a parent and distance between parent and child, the importance of friends, and learning to chase after what you love and what makes you love life. One of the characters is also shown to be moving on from a break-up, and while I did hope they would get back together, it was also refreshing to see a character be ok with moving on, while also never regretting their past relationship and treasuring the happy moments they had. Axie Oh also discusses these topics by 'showing' rather than simply 'telling' and this really allowed these discussions to be more engaging and threaded all throughout the story in a great way,  illustrating the depth of her writing. I was constantly predicting what would happen next, and also constantly found some of my predictions to be wrong, but it made for a fun and lighthearted reading experience. Throughout the book, I even found some moments that reminded me of my own relationship and that was fun too. The friendships between characters were so deeply heartwarming and made me enjoy this book even further, and I really found myself enjoying the characters and story right from the start of the book. 
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