Reviews with content warning for Fatphobia - Out of the Blue

Reviews tagging 'Fatphobia'

Out of the Blue by Jason June

13 reviews

blewballoon's review against another edition

emotional funny 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

3.75

There were things I liked about this book. One is that it was refreshing to have a male main character/love interest who didn't have "hard planes of abs" for a change. I think there's been a lot of progress in terms of having romance novels with female leads that are a larger size, but I feel like there's still a big lack of the same for male leads. Another is that I like that the story concludes essentially that

friends and family are just as important, if not more than, a month long romantic relationship. Although, I do feel like the rest of the text didn't really support that conclusion since it spent a lot more time developing the romantic relationship than any others.

Unfortunately, I also disliked aspects of the book. I had seen that the reviews for this weren't great, but I tried to go in optimistically. I have to admit that the negative reviews are probably justified. The book did give me the vibes of reading merperson AU fanfic written by an inexperienced young author. I read The Spells We Cast by this same author and thought it was well written and very enjoyable, so maybe they have improved a lot. It does seem like this was a fun project for the author, so I'm happy they shared it.

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spark_879's review against another edition

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lighthearted medium-paced

Strong character development? Yes

4.0

i'm not sure i would have liked this story as much if i haven't been looking for a simple, lighthearted read, but since that's what i'm feeling like reading recently this fit the bill :)

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kiwii091's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny lighthearted medium-paced

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

4.5

A really enjoyable read for me that I couldn't put down. One of the biggest things I enjoyed about this book was the main character being a plus sized character and a swimmer - something I would've loved reading as a kid as a plus sized swimmer myself.

The ending absolutely devastated me however, to the point where I was crying. Mostly because the book seemed like it was going to end how I hoped it would, but then ended exactly how I dreaded it would. Sean and Creast still could've gotten together while maintaining their character growth, and honestly I really wish they had

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theaceofpages's review against another edition

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emotional lighthearted relaxing fast-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? Yes

3.5

"Labels everywhere and they all seem to be wrapped around genitals."

Firstly, yay for enby merfolk! DeFINitely one of the things that drew me in. I'm a little older than the target market for this, so please keep this in mind for my review.

Crest (ugh Ross) is forced to go ashore for a moon cycle so that they can become an elder merperson. They expect to hate every minute - humans are terrible after all. But they don't count on meeting Sean, a lifeguard, who shows them that humans can be good. They agree to help Sean get his boyfriend back as their selfless act so that they can return home at the end of the month, but as the fake dating trope goes, they end up falling in love. Crest then has to decide if they want to go back to the home they have always loved, or if they should stay on land with Sean, never to return to the mer world.

I have to agree with Crest. People are terrible. I know that drama is pretty typical of YA books (and this book is very YA - I don't mean that as a good thing or a bad thing but as a simple fact) but oh man, the characters were incredibly annoying. Is it accurate for their ages? Yeah, probably, but that doesn't change the fact that I ended up hating pretty much all of them. I did kind of like Crest (or at least disliked them less) but they too weren't the greatest. (sidenote: I liked the way they referred to people and didn't gender everything!)

That being said, this was a fun and easy read. Between being annoyed at everyone and the dragging middle I had a good time reading this. I think queer teens will enjoy this one! Just be prepared to be annoyed at everyone. And hey, queerphobes aren't really a thing in this book so if you are looking to escape that this would be a good choice.

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refrejarator's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful lighthearted sad 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

5.0

I was so excited to see a book with a nonbinary main character, and was not disappointed! The gay mer romance of the summer, and all summers to come!

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evelynyle_88's review against another edition

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adventurous funny lighthearted medium-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

5.0

Holy crap!

I never knew I needed a book of merfolk that came out so perfect like this. Out Of The Blue was just a perfect light fantasy with a gentle touch of magic for me. This is perfect for me who love The Little Mermaid in general.

This book has a sweet and cute story (but with some heartfelt moment) that made me; who read it... cry. I just love Sean and Ross (a.k.a Crest). I love them so much equally. They're made for each other. A fantasy dream book of merfolk and brief their history for me.

Oh! And I love Kavya too.. also Elder Kelp! We can't forget about them and their wisefulness. Thank you for bringing this book to life, Jason. I appreciate you. Can't wait to read Jay's Gay Agenda as my other read for your book!

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rubadubindabathtub's review against another edition

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adventurous medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes

4.0

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rickireadss's review against another edition

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3.0

i REALLY wanted to like this but it ended up just being very mid. the idea was cool, the execution was subpar. i liked our mcs but also wanted to just shake them because wtf were some of those decisions. i think the ending was severly lacking - i just didn't like it. the narrator for cress/ross had a very annoying voice, which made me not want to continue listening (sorry not sorry). i think the LGBTQIA+ rep was good though! just the plot and actual story was ehhh, so-so.

⚠️: infidelity, toxic relationship, car accident, body shaming, mental illness (depression, sc), fatphobia

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bashsbooks's review against another edition

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hopeful lighthearted 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

2.75

Out of the Blue is cute, and I love that one of the main characters is nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns. But I don't think it successfully pulled off the subversive ending that it was going for, sadly, and I think the reason why pervades the whole book: it gets distracted by being preachy.

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emily_mh's review against another edition

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lighthearted medium-paced

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

2.0

I feel cheated by this book. Everything about it was set up like a romcom: the cover, the tropes, the implied retelling of The Little Mermaid, the fact that Sean, one of the MCs, is obsessed with romcoms and points out all the romcom beats in the story… All this for it to end without the most important romcom beat, the Happily Ever After. The characters didn’t even get a Happy For Now. It was like a slap in the face, and aside from being a tonal shift the ending didn’t make sense for other reasons, too.

For example, the narrative is truly focussed on Crest and Sean’s relationship. Any character development is to the level you would expect in a romcom, NOT in a coming-of-age story where the relationship is there for formative purposes, which is what the ending turns the story into. So the ending feels jarring as it depends on having major character development in both MCs, which wasn’t the case. Ironically, the ending is the reason why Crest CAN’T have any major character development, because it depends on their views on humans and the Blue remaining the exact same. I was hoping at least for them to learn that there is a lot of nuance regarding humans and the environment given power systems like capitalism and white supremacy. I was also hoping they might seek to change the parameters of the Journey, because its conditions are unfair and don’t allow meaningful connections between human and mer to form. But Crest just returns to the sea, holding much the same beliefs, only thinking that they might try to spread love for humans among mer, which seems a bit of a weak resolution.

As you can tell it seems I didn’t like Crest in the end, but in fact I didn’t like them most of the book. They didn’t really try to give humans and life on land a chance because of their uninformed view of humanity. I also hated how hot and cold they were with Sean, getting so angry with him out of nowhere and not allowing Sean to explain. And then they really cheapened their connection with Sean when after one little misunderstanding (again, not allowing Sean to explain), they cheated on him.

The only reason this isn’t getting a one star is that there were some redeeming qualities. I was enjoying it in the beginning, I liked Sean as a character, and the worldbuilding surrounding the mer was interesting (despite the literal infodump in the middle).

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