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ceeshay's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcohol and Grief
Moderate: Mental illness, Suicide, Lesbophobia, Abandonment, and Homophobia
Minor: Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Vomit, Outing, Toxic friendship, Body shaming, Toxic relationship, and Suicide attempt
merlesstorys's review against another edition
emotional
inspiring
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I picked this book up because it aid by Hayley Kiyoko and she is one of my favorite queer artists.
In general, I really liked this book. It‘s rather fast paced, and the characters were nice.
However I feel like it was too short with it’s about 300 pages. In the end, the character development rather lacked - there was definitely not enough substance in them for the last 80 pages. Every story was closed fast, and many important story beats were done by like 4 pages each, when it worked there (mostly the conflict with her father, her finding a new friend and losing her, and the conflict and fight between Coley and Sonya ). It could have used a 100 pages more to show us more of the inside of characters and explain many of their motivation between actions, before and after the typical conflict. Especially, as already named, the thing between rhe main characters is fixed up in the last : chapters with a maximum of 20 pages added up, at most, which was just too less to really root for them.
The characters were mostly great, with Alex being a favorite of mine. But they weren’t too much developed, especially the friend group. They were just stereotypes made out of cardboard, without much else to them. We never learn motivations, backgrounds, personalities.
The main characters Coley and Sonya are nicely written though, with an honorable mention for the diary entries of the latter - that were mostly never explained.
But what redeemed this book in the end was the fact that it used many of the locations of the same titled music video, which launched the music career by Kiyoko.
Also the fact that this whole story takes place in 2006 makes much sens, regarding the lack of smartphones in the teen group and everything.
In general, I really liked this book. It‘s rather fast paced, and the characters were nice.
However I feel like it was too short with it’s about 300 pages. In the end, the character development rather lacked - there was definitely not enough substance in them for the last 80 pages. Every story was closed fast, and many important story beats were done by like 4 pages each, when it worked there (mostly
The characters were mostly great, with Alex being a favorite of mine. But they weren’t too much developed, especially the friend group. They were just stereotypes made out of cardboard, without much else to them. We never learn motivations, backgrounds, personalities.
The main characters Coley and Sonya are nicely written though, with an honorable mention for the diary entries of the latter - that were mostly never explained.
But what redeemed this book in the end was the fact that it used many of the locations of the same titled music video, which launched the music career by Kiyoko.
Also the fact that this whole story takes place in 2006 makes much sens, regarding the lack of smartphones in the teen group and everything.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Homophobia, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic relationship, and Lesbophobia
Moderate: Blood, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Vomit, Death of parent, and Misogyny
Minor: Bullying, Physical abuse, Mental illness, Body shaming, and Abortion
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