Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'
Margo Zimmerman Gets the Girl by Brianna R. Shrum, Sara Waxelbaum
9 reviews
imstephtacular's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Biphobia
Moderate: Ableism, Sexual content, Cursing, Toxic friendship, and Emotional abuse
Minor: Outing, Injury/Injury detail, Bullying, and Homophobia
sophiesmallhands's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Biphobia
Minor: Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Toxic friendship, and Ableism
the_vegan_bookworm's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
This book is slightly less than 5 stars for me because the ending felt a little lackluster. Margot and Abby never really get the romantic moment they deserve. Margot's resolution of her confusion around masking feels rushed and has a lack of closure. Abby's parents and Charlie have a similar lack of closure to their arcs. There is one small dialogue of conflict, and it's never visited again. It seemed like the authors didn't know how to wrap the story up after all of the world building, so they rushed to something of a conclusion.
With this said, it's an incredible read and I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to see Jewish, autistic, sapphic characters finding their joy and authentic voices.
Graphic: Biphobia, Abandonment, Ableism, and Lesbophobia
Moderate: Sexual content
dododenise's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Really enjoyed it.
Graphic: Homophobia, Biphobia, Lesbophobia, and Toxic friendship
Moderate: Abandonment, Sexual content, and Ableism
tinysierra's review against another edition
4.25
This book is laugh out loud funny. At least, I found myself chuckling at different points.
Margo Zimmerman Gets the Girl takes place in a red state (Florida) and mentions the Don’t Say Gay bill.
Throughout the book, Abbie is struggling with her parents dysfunctional relationship with each other and distant relationship with her. She’s also dealing with her biphobic best friend, who ends up making an ableist comment about Margo later. Meanwhile, Margo’s coming out
I would call it slow burn. After a while it does get kind of annoying hearing about how “Margo/Abbie isn’t my type. She doesn’t like me” but eventually they get over it.
In the end, Margo does figure out that there is no right way to be queer. But before that, she gets a lesson on queer history and stereotypical gay behavior. It’s interesting to think about how queer people can be so similar yet so different.
There are important conversations about gay sex, consent, boundaries, and how intimacy with your partner is what you two personally make it out to be.
One thing I didn’t understand was the John Mayer references? Guess it must be because I’m a Swiftie >.>
Graphic: Biphobia
Moderate: Ableism, Homophobia, and Toxic friendship
Minor: Sexual content
lim's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
5.0
Moderate: Biphobia and Toxic friendship
Minor: Sexual content and Ableism
alexfromistemor's review against another edition
- 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 loved this book! Loved it, loved it, loved it!
I found myself reading two books dealing with neurodiversity essentially at the same time, but in different ways (the other being the arc for Cleat Cute). And obviously, the settings and scenarios are different, as well, but still I found it interesting that these two books both dealt with neurodiversity (I think of the Tiktok sound 'Oh, you're a queer couple? Which one of you has ADHD and which one is autistic?').
This book was also just so, so refreshing about just how plainly the characters talk about everything, ever. It's both no-holds-barred, and yes also thoroughly accurate when it comes talking about queer identities, biphobia, autism, sex, all of it. The authors have a note at the start about how they they wanted to be able to write a book about messy people and they nailed it! No one is a stereotype (apart from a few perfect moments of disaster queer mentality). The popular kids aren't necessarily the bad guys, the queer outcasts not necessarily the good guys, they're all just people, with flaws and virtues enough to feel real.
I love how much Margo knows herself. Not necessarily about being gay, per se, but knowing that she needs to know things to be able to be comfortable with them. Abbie as the expert about something that says right off the bat no one can be an expert about. The two of them together, with their start as fairly antagonistic, then friendly, and steadily building to love felt earned, and honest! The care they have for one another, not just when it comes to other people but also when one of them is being a dumbass, is great! They communicate!
I don't really have any negatives about the book, really. The closest I can come deals with the ending, thus spoilers:
My qualms are so, incredible miniscule, I can't even see them as worthy of losing anything from the rating, so I'm happily giving this 5 stars.
Graphic: Homophobia, Biphobia, and Ableism
Moderate: Bullying, Sexual content, Abandonment, and Panic attacks/disorders
Minor: Child abuse
danileah07's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Biphobia, Homophobia, and Lesbophobia
Moderate: Sexual content
Minor: Panic attacks/disorders
ezwolf's review against another edition
- 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
3.0
I am very split on how I feel about this book.
First, I loved that it was queer Jewish rep, but without really any homophobia or antisemtism. I think this is only the second book I've read with Jewish characters where 'G-d' is used, it's also one of the ways I knew that they were Jewish before the line that confirmed it (I would have been very surprised if a character with a brother named Mendel wasn't Jewish).
I also really liked Margo on the whole as a character. She was very relatable in a lot of ways and I always appreciate that. On the flip side, I had a hard time with Abbie. She was was quick to be angry with Margo often and a lot of her "flirting" just came off mean so it was harder for me to take that as any build up to them having a relationship. Abbie has a lot of character growth and not all characters need to be nice, but they also kind of do when the story wants me to root for her to get together with another one. I did think that they had good communication though. This was most notable at the end of the book during what would usually be the "yay we're finally together, oh no! miscommunication, look we've made up, the end!". Instead we get them together and then Margo does not let that miscommunication happen, which was fantastic!
I thought Mendel was an interesting character, but it felt completely blindsiding for Margo to just "oh yeah my sibling is non-binary/agender/genderqueer" when you're 80% of the way through the book. That's something the audience should be told at the beginning.
A lot of things felt incredibly dragged out, but especially the back and forth with both Margo and Abbie denying feelings/she's not my type while very obviously actually having feelings. It felt like we could have come to the conclusion sooner or at least done more to show the building of feelings past thinking the other was hot. I'm not denying either of them having a crush, but Margo claiming to love Abbie by the end felt like about a hundred steps were missing on the way from crush to love.
Charlie. I really hated Charlie. I know that part of Abbie's growth came from realizing how terrible of a friend that Charlie was, but Charlie was a truly terrible friend and part of the queer community. Again, I know that was the point and I think it gave a good jumping off point for Abbie to realize the way she was telling Margo she had to do things like stand, sit, walk, dress to be taken seriously as queer was wrong.
The sex scene at the end was waaaaaaay more explicit than I was expecting out of a YA book and I realize I am not the intended audience of this book but it still felt like it pushed the YA grouping just a bit.
Thank you to NetGalley and Inkyard Press for making this available in exchange for an honest review!
Graphic: Biphobia, Sexual content, and Toxic friendship
Moderate: Bullying and Ableism
Minor: Domestic abuse, Outing, and Child abuse