Reviews

Forest Hills Bootleg Society, by Nicole Goux, Dave Baker

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mfendrich's review

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adventurous emotional fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

slaughtermelons's review

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medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.75

I like the art style, and the little side bubbles of information about each character give me Scott Pilgrim vibes. I also really liked all of the little anime references throughout the story (I've added some to my watch list), and the way Kelly kept having to correct everyone who called them cartoons. I really enjoyed this book up until the ending, which was ok, just a bit disappointing. I didn't realize until I got to the author's note at the end that these two also created Everything is Tulip, so that seems to be their thing. I feel like they always leave me with a kind of pessimistic view of humanity.

Spoiler

The ending was kind of a downer, which is fine, but this one was really hopeless feeling. I didn't see the point other than just.. sometimes people suck and friendships end. Brooke is too worried about being popular to think about her real friends, Kelly cheats on Brooke with Melissa, and Melissa gets mad at everyone over unspoken things. Maggie is probably the worst of them all. Being all holier-than-thou about selling the dvds, while all along she's been stealing from her mother (and when her friend tells her to stop stealing, she steals more to buy them all expensive jackets?) then she's the one who causes them all to get caught in the end, while she just moves on to following an (apparently) even worse friend group and laughing at her old friends. Overall.. probably realistic for a bunch of high schoolers though?

tswanson103's review

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adventurous lighthearted tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

The art for this was incredible, and I loved the writer’s storytelling but the actual story was pretty mediocre for me.

leolikesbooks's review

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1.0

1.5 stars. Maybe.

I can’t find my notes on the book anymore, so I’ll keep it short here.
I disliked every single character in this book and found the dynamic between the friend group very uncomfortable to read about.

Kelly’s anime obsession was portrayed in a way that felt completely unrealistic to me. It was so over the top and I couldn’t take her character seriously.

I found the completely random information on random people unnecessary and didn’t get the point of it.

The ending wasn’t great, but it fit the story and made sense.

The art style was alright though.

[I received a free copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.]