A review by zinelib
Bianca Torre Is Afraid of Everything by Justine Pucella Winans

adventurous medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

They kind of had me at nonbinary lesbian birder teen, and the story is as compelling as the four-word description of its protagonist. Title character Bianca identifies as a sheep. As their title characteristic indicates, they've got some issues. They only have one friend, Anderson, a popular cis guy who shares their taste in nerdy fandoms. They're out to their sister, Kate,* but not their parents or anyone other than Anderson. A running theme in the book is Bianca's list of fears (complete list at the end), things like public speaking/humiliation, my mom reading my semi-erotic fanfic, being alone, beautiful people, phone calls, being needed in a crisis, and Doki Doki Literature Club! Bianca is awesome, but they are a little bit creepy in that they use their birding telescope to spy on their neighbors, which is sort of what gets them in trouble, but only sort of, because cult. 

The book is a murder mystery/thriller. It has a sense of humor but isn't too wink wink about it the way some books are. 

*their mom loves Shakespeare, but I didn't notice any other Taming of the Shrew similarities.