A review by thebooknerdscorner
The Love Code by Mette Bach

2.0

A queer love story of a girl who is trying to redefine herself after losing her girlfriend, her social status, and her college savings. 

Astrid is just trying to survive her job serving frozen yogurt to jerks so that she has something saved up for university next year. It's been a long time since she's truly enjoyed anything for herself, so she joins a local robotics team to put herself out there. What she didn't expect is that the robotics captain is a cute nerdy girl that steals her heart. 

This book felt like eating cardboard. I can't say that the plot entirely sucked, but the writing was so bland that I couldn't bring myself to care about much of anything. The characters are so flat and have little personality; people aren't supposed to be robots despite what the author may believe. 

A sapphic robotics romance has the potential to be really cute, but this bland book certainly didn't do this concept justice. I understand that this book is penned for reluctant teen readers to fly through, but I feel that there still could have been any sort of creative writing throughout. 

The biphobia and anti-queer themes this book addresses are good, but I've seen this done time and time again in more elaborate ways than a bully making fun of a queer girl and treating his bisexual girlfriend like trash. 

Overall, "The Love Code" was an incredibly dry book that made me feel very little while reading it. I admit that it has positive messages about standing up to queerphobia and girls in STEM, but it's lacking in much else. I wish the writing would have had any personality whatsoever, then maybe this book would have gone somewhere. As it is, I found it too bland to find any enjoyment out of reading this quick queer romance.