Reviews with content warning for Bullying - Lakelore

I wanted to love this book. The description sounded so promising and it was an anticipated read for me for 2022.

I love the trans rep. I love the neurodiversity rep. I love the relationships, platonic and romantic. I love the way in which Lore calls out the education system's flaws in teaching reading. Everything else just fell flat. I didn't feel like a lot happened and I was a bit confused by the world under the water.

This won't likely be a go-to recommendation for me, but I'll keep it on my list.

Content Warnings

hobbithopeful's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad 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? Yes

4.0

Lakelore is an emotional magical story of accepting yourself, and being brave enough to trust others with your truths. POVs alternate between main characters Bastián and Lore, two nonbinary trans Mexican teenagers that struggle with being themselves and navigating the world around them. Lore struggles with Dyslexia, while Bastián works through their ADHD by creating and painting alebrije sculptures. Bastián has discovered that when they release the colorful alebrije into a nearby lake, they transform into the fantastical creature and swim away. Lore is the only other person that is able to see the magic of the lake, and peer into the other world like Bastián is able to. As the lake and its magic begins to encroach on the daily lives of Lore and Bastián, they must learn to confront their pasts, and their futures.
I loved the way gender and its fluidity was discussed in this book, how some days they felt more boy and more girl, and how they interpreted it in terms of "70% boy today".
I have always enjoyed all of Anna-Marie McLemore books, and even though this one followed heavier topics and had a more serious tone, I still had a great time reading it, and it left me with a lot to think about.
The Cover
I adore this cover! The colors on the bottom look so dreamy and trippy and creates an out of body feeling for the illustration. The symbolism of them both being in the water with barnacles growing on them, with maybe an allusion to the fact they are both partially emotionally drowning was extremely well done. It is also a pleasant surprise to see brown characters *actually* be brown and not be white washed.
Cover by
Carolina Rodriguez Fuenmayor

Content Warnings

30something_reads's review against another edition

Go to review page

4.25

4.25⭐ 😭 I'm not crying, you're crying.

When the guy looks at me, he sees a brown girl. And I am a brown girl, just like I’m a brown boy, just like I’m both and neither, in different proportions depending on the day. I’m the gradients of blue and green and violet and silver that the lake turns.

This is one of those books that I am so glad exists for adolescents today. I wish younger me had these kinds of books with this kind of representation.

On the surface, it’s a story told in dual POV about two trans teens, Bastian and Lore, and their discovery of a mysterious world beneath the lake. But when the world beneath the lake begins integrating with their real world, they must figure out a way to stop it.

This is also a story of two teens meeting and feeling fully seen for the first time by one another. Not only for being latine, queer, and trans, but also for their neurodivergency. And all of the intricate ways they must navigate society- Bastian with their ADHD and Lore with their dyslexia.

Once you get past the fear of being seen, you can get to the part where you know you’re not alone.

The depiction of these characters experiences with ADHD and dyslexia were so poignant. It’s so clearly personal to the author, but it also brought tears to my eyes because my neurodivergent ADHD brain felt so seen in those moments.

How do you tell someone that you had to work to learn not follow every impulse your brain has?... That you came into the world with so much quicksand you needed professional help to learn to steer around it?

Beautiful writing. Wonderful representation. A book everyone should read.

Content Warnings

oliverreeds's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous emotional hopeful 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

3.75

i fought with this rating and im still unsure in my decision but im sticking with it for now. the dialogue was good, the scenes were great, the mix of lake and reality and the characters were phenomenal. sometimes i just got a bit frustrated with how much the author leaned on adhd and dyslexia for these characters. it sometimes felt like there wasnt anything else to them and maybe that was the point— that your brainscape makes up and defines your reality but i think it may have been better to also focus on things the characters do that werent particularly relevant to their neurodivergency.

Content Warnings

spark_879's review

Go to review page

emotional medium-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

i second other people's comments about amazing enby & nd rep.

also this was absolutely not the main focus of the story, but yay for queer parent rep!

Content Warnings