Reviews

First of all, as a demi person myself, I understand how important this duology is as far as representation goes but that doesn't mean I can turn a blind eye at the many many faults I found in this book.

I believe the first installment's charm came mostly from a place of nostalgia for what the earlier 2010s were like, silliness and all fully embraced. So this book, being released closer to the start of the new decade while still being set at the same time as the first, to me feels a bit disconnected.

There's a lot of things here that were also slight issues on the first book but I let them slide thinking it was a character choice made by the author considering the main character was autistic and very much his own person and it worked nicely in showing his progress throughout the story. However, when we get into this book, Josy kind of feels the same as Casey did, and a part of me fears it's the dreaded infantilization ace people have to endure day in and day out but in story form.
Asexual people are only different to the rest of the population in the fact that their relationship and perception of sex varies depending on their own preference or connection to their significant others if they desire to have them. There's no other distinction. There is no need to portray them as childish or clueless or whatever.

Another problem is that Josy kind of never felt like a full fledged character and I think deep down it's mainly because he's no match to Gus. Josy never stops feeling like a side character even in his own story and that's tragic and senseless when speaking of a celebrity on the rise.
Story wise, there's nothing there for us to look forward to other than the romance and even that is underwhelming. The acting parts are very slow and the found family aspect of this doesn't land as hard because it was already done on the previous book.
We spend a lot at the start of the story reading how Josy wants to make it big and be famous and then Quincy shows up and for some reason he no longer cares about fame, just the craft. I think Quincy ended up being more of the focus and while he's great, he's not the protagonist.
I appreciated all the mental health talk and focus and it's great because these things need to be discussed but it felt too on the nose and also it didn't make as much of an impact because Josy had nothing to do with it. He was just a supportive spectator.

It was nice to get to see all the townsfolk again but I think the book would've worked better had they been in LA or somehow had Xander and Serge been there too. All in all I suppose I wish I hadn't read this except I got a bit more of Casey and Gus every now and then, and that was nice. The rest made little to no difference. I was hoping to catch a break from my least favorite parts of the first book here but once again we got more Mitzi/Mytzy scenes and more online articles. Sigh.

This is my third book by this author and I'm starting to wonder if all his protagonists will have that same childish/naivete personality to them because that would be a shame and while it worked fine for the first two books I read, (Wolfsong and HTBANP) for me it didn't here.

Content Warnings

littlebookterror's review against another edition

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the humor is killing me, but in the not-fun way, so I'm gonna dip.
[Klune, why are all your books the best or the worst but nothing in between?]

charlie_reads_sometimes's review

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emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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