guywho_reads's review
3.0
Under very odd circumstances two ex-best friends have another chance at saving their friendship. While preparing July’s body for her funeral, Dinos is given a redo on righting his wrongs and getting his best friend back... even if it’s for a short time. As old fights resurface, the pair need to sort out what actually ended their friendship before time permanently runs out for July.
Ive become a fan of Shaun David Hutchinson over the past few months. I think this was my least favorite novel I’ve read of his so far. I appreciate how the characters were rounded and how the concept of queer identity was handled. The story dealt with many adult themes and yet the book was lighthearted and a pleasant read.
Ive become a fan of Shaun David Hutchinson over the past few months. I think this was my least favorite novel I’ve read of his so far. I appreciate how the characters were rounded and how the concept of queer identity was handled. The story dealt with many adult themes and yet the book was lighthearted and a pleasant read.
wolfie16's review against another edition
5.0
delightful, fresh & hip af
easy read, laid back, funny & queer friendly....lighthearted while still tackling the importance of death. highly recommended as far as YAF goes.
easy read, laid back, funny & queer friendly....lighthearted while still tackling the importance of death. highly recommended as far as YAF goes.
jordongreene's review against another edition
5.0
The Past and Other Things That Should Stay Buried is the zombie (not zombie) story we all needed!
I’d heard plenty of people talk about the book before picking it up and it lived up to the hype. I laughed, and smiled, and cried through it. The characters were real and complex. I even hated July for a while, but Dino had his own flaws. There are so many good lessons, and moments that really speak to you, or at least me.
Simply said, I loved it.
I’d heard plenty of people talk about the book before picking it up and it lived up to the hype. I laughed, and smiled, and cried through it. The characters were real and complex. I even hated July for a while, but Dino had his own flaws. There are so many good lessons, and moments that really speak to you, or at least me.
Simply said, I loved it.
beamae's review
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
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
shaneindeglia's review
2.0
Pretty bummed about this one. I was really excited when I heard about this book, especially after reading We Are the Ants, but I was majorly disappointed by a lot of elements. Most of it, though, had to do with Dino and July and how infuriating they both were as characters.
ljacobus's review
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
readabookorfive's review
5.0
One Of those straight girls who talks about how much you love gays, but what you actually love is reading about it watching gay dudes make out so you can go on and on about how it’s so cute. You’re all for the cause until it means supporting girls making out or folks who don’t want to make out with anyone or people who don’t identify as boys or girls. You just want your cute boys kissing and that’s it.
This is honestly such a hard review for me to write because I just cannot put into words how much I truly loved and in some parts, saw myself in this book and this story. It hit me so hard and I just loved it. It was my first dip into Shaun David Hutchinson's work and I cannot wait to read all of his other books because this was just incredible.
A good friend will bury your body, a best friend will dig you back up
In The Past and Other Things That Should Stay Buried we follow our main character Dino who's parents are morticians which is the family business and one day, Dino's ex best friend, July passes away and as he's getting her ready for her funeral, she sits up on the table, undead and a lot of things unfold from there.
As well as having a really intriguing plot, the characters in this story really blew me away. I loved Dino so much and really related to him in some parts. I loved July even though I did find her to be rude and unlikable in small parts of the story and I love, love, LOVED Rafi, he was most definitely my favourite character, he was just so pure. The dynamic between all of these characters was so interesting, Dino and July's friendship was such an interesting relationship to analyse throughout the whole book and I loved that we got to learn bits and pieces about why this massive falling out had happened and then what had really happened with July and the party, that bit made me cry my heart out.
July was such an interesting character to explore, a girl who died and is having a very hard time accepting the fact. Trying to make things better with her ex best friend who doesn't seem to want to know. I felt like July had so much character development over the story as we found out more and more about her. I loved that to start with, she was this unlikeable narrator that wormed her way into my heart as the book carried on. One of my favourite scenes in the book was definitely the party scene where we see July in a different light, Rafi's friends were saying things that I thought were fair and a real issue in society and I think that was really where July started to learn her mistakes and truly feel bad for the things that she had done. Obviously, Dino also was nowhere near perfect and I really liked the fact that they both learnt from their mistakes together.
Like I said, a part of the story that really hit me was during the party scene where they were speaking about how it seemed that July was fine with Dino because, teenage girls, stereotypically, love it when there is a m/m couple that they can say is cute but don't have the same support for a f/f couple or for a couple who don't identify as a gender and I think that's such an important discussion that needs to be had because it's kind of true. And I'm really glad that the author decided to shine a light on it.
Overall, I absolutely adored this book. It is definitely now one of my favourite books of all time. It was so emotional and beautiful but also so funny in places, I found myself laughing out loud, smiling to myself and crying when listening to the audiobook and I just am so glad that I loved it so much and I cannot wait to dive into some more of his works!
This is honestly such a hard review for me to write because I just cannot put into words how much I truly loved and in some parts, saw myself in this book and this story. It hit me so hard and I just loved it. It was my first dip into Shaun David Hutchinson's work and I cannot wait to read all of his other books because this was just incredible.
A good friend will bury your body, a best friend will dig you back up
In The Past and Other Things That Should Stay Buried we follow our main character Dino who's parents are morticians which is the family business and one day, Dino's ex best friend, July passes away and as he's getting her ready for her funeral, she sits up on the table, undead and a lot of things unfold from there.
As well as having a really intriguing plot, the characters in this story really blew me away. I loved Dino so much and really related to him in some parts. I loved July even though I did find her to be rude and unlikable in small parts of the story and I love, love, LOVED Rafi, he was most definitely my favourite character, he was just so pure. The dynamic between all of these characters was so interesting, Dino and July's friendship was such an interesting relationship to analyse throughout the whole book and I loved that we got to learn bits and pieces about why this massive falling out had happened and then what had really happened with July and the party, that bit made me cry my heart out.
July was such an interesting character to explore, a girl who died and is having a very hard time accepting the fact. Trying to make things better with her ex best friend who doesn't seem to want to know. I felt like July had so much character development over the story as we found out more and more about her. I loved that to start with, she was this unlikeable narrator that wormed her way into my heart as the book carried on. One of my favourite scenes in the book was definitely the party scene where we see July in a different light, Rafi's friends were saying things that I thought were fair and a real issue in society and I think that was really where July started to learn her mistakes and truly feel bad for the things that she had done. Obviously, Dino also was nowhere near perfect and I really liked the fact that they both learnt from their mistakes together.
Like I said, a part of the story that really hit me was during the party scene where they were speaking about how it seemed that July was fine with Dino because, teenage girls, stereotypically, love it when there is a m/m couple that they can say is cute but don't have the same support for a f/f couple or for a couple who don't identify as a gender and I think that's such an important discussion that needs to be had because it's kind of true. And I'm really glad that the author decided to shine a light on it.
Overall, I absolutely adored this book. It is definitely now one of my favourite books of all time. It was so emotional and beautiful but also so funny in places, I found myself laughing out loud, smiling to myself and crying when listening to the audiobook and I just am so glad that I loved it so much and I cannot wait to dive into some more of his works!
jj_whatsherface's review
dark
emotional
funny
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0