book_loser's review
dark
emotional
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Addiction, Suicide attempt, Self harm, Forced institutionalization, Homophobia, Grief, Vomit, Pregnancy, Panic attacks/disorders, Mental illness, and Death
liralen's review
3.0
Yes on concept and meh on execution for me. Banjo's compelling for her relative scarcity in YA fiction: I can't think, offhand, of another YA protagonist who is queer and also facing teenage pregnancy. I love that, of all the things Banjo struggles with throughout the book, worrying about What It Means to be both queer and pregnant is not one of them. There's also quite a diverse cast—differences in sexuality, gender identity, race, economic background, family situation, et cetera.
What didn't work as well: an awful lot of the plot amounted to backstory—what happened with Gray. It's important to Banjo's experience but felt a little as though the reader was being asked to be devastated over the loss of a character the reader was seven months too late to meet. Also not at all sold on the friendship-possibly-turning-into-more towards the end of the book. No chemistry, plus they both have a fair amount of their own things to sort out.
What didn't work as well: an awful lot of the plot amounted to backstory—what happened with Gray. It's important to Banjo's experience but felt a little as though the reader was being asked to be devastated over the loss of a character the reader was seven months too late to meet. Also not at all sold on the friendship-possibly-turning-into-more towards the end of the book. No chemistry, plus they both have a fair amount of their own things to sort out.
Spoiler
When one character is flipping between 'How dare you consider adoption! Adoption is cruelty! Date me and we can be teenage co-parents!' and 'I'm running away to Ethiopia as soon as I can', it's a safe bet that they haven't figured out yet which direction their life is going in.jennybeastie's review
4.0
Huge shout-out for representation -- for queer characters (several, including trans), pregnant teens (several, including generational), young adults being shunted into psychiatric facilities and/or mistreated by their families, adoptions that harm, and one of the best representations of survivors dealing with grief in the aftermath of a suicide. Also for both bad and good therapists, bad and good doctors, poverty, supportive vs non-supportive families, kids having to fend for themselves when crisis overtakes a family. This book has a lot going on, and isn't going to sugarcoat it. In that sense, it's a really important book, and Banjo is a really amazing center. It is at times, unfocused. The cover makes it look like it might be a graphic novel (nope). I wish the romance at the end had remained a friendship, because I agree with another reviewer that they don't seem to have a romantic chemistry, but perhaps in this case, romance is finding someone who you can rely on. There are many types of love.
I think this book is pretty thoroughly YA.
I think this book is pretty thoroughly YA.
arielkay's review
5.0
It takes a very strong writer to capture what it’s like to live in a spectrum, of gender identity or sexual orientation or indecision or of feelings, but Nina captures it beautiful. A powerful book that demonstrates that sometimes where we are broken is where the light comes in and that healing is always possible.
greysonk's review
challenging
emotional
hopeful
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Self harm
Moderate: Suicide
chachos's review
5.0
Queer teen mama
There was so much good in this story, even though so much of it was heartbreaking. The cast of characters were real and it was amazing how much of the Pacific northwest I could feel in the description of where they went.
There was so much good in this story, even though so much of it was heartbreaking. The cast of characters were real and it was amazing how much of the Pacific northwest I could feel in the description of where they went.
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