Reviews

Os Dois Mundos de Astrid Jones by A.S. King

rhiannadanielle's review against another edition

reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

3.5

bbboeken's review against another edition

4.0

Net zoals bij The Fault in Our Stars, lijkt dit boek in het begin op een ietwat zeemzoeterig liefdesgedoe af te stevenen. Net zoals bij dat andere boek, is dat evenwel niet meer dan een prelude vol achtergrondinfo, die het hek open zet voor een mooie finale.

jnlletrry's review against another edition

3.0

3.5 stars

kimberlymichelle's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective 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? It's complicated

4.5

quartofgoats's review against another edition

5.0

I think this book did a lot of things right. It reminded me a LOT of myself in high school, and I'm glad that's over and I'm different and my life is different. Always thankful for a gay happy ending. Very nice and thoughtful, characters and the depth really got me

sarasofraz's review against another edition

5.0

A.S. King is amazing. This book was really great. I loved the characters, i loved the way she enfolded philosophy in the book and I adored the protagonist. This is a coming-out story and like many others of that genre it aims to give people courage to come out, and in my opinion it's one of the better books on that topic.

verena895's review against another edition

3.0

Meh.

Het verhaal ging langzaam en het was veel van hetzelfde. Ik vind het (blijkbaar) toch leuker om te lezen over iemand die weet dat ie queer is en dat het geen probleem is.

Het einde is wel satisfying en ik ben blij dat alles toch nog goed komt.

donttakemybooks's review against another edition

4.0

Hmmm. I don't think I connect very well with A.S. King's characters or writing, even though I like them. But this book gave me a lot to think about. I had a few nitpicks, of course, but this was incredibly readable and a story I had a hard time putting down. Glad I read it, but probably not a story I'll be thinking of a month from now.

abigailrosalynn's review against another edition

3.0

I read this book on a day that I incidentally had a lot of free time, normally I probably would have taken 2 days. I really enjoyed this book! I loved the sentiment and warmed up to the main character and ended up really liking her. There is a magical element to the book, but I didn't even realize it until I was reading reviews here, and had just assumed that these things were just stories/in the mind of the MC.

Spoiler

I also really enjoyed in the acknowledgements that King addressed Socrates and some of the other elements as well, because I was really concerned/confused about the line between magic and possible hallucinations. While I thought the the end resolutions were nice, some of them were unbelievable. I really didn't like Dee and didn't get into their relationship AT ALL, but did like the acknowledgement that her behavior was unacceptable as too many times that sort of thing isn't talked about.

I love how Astrid's philosophy class influenced her so much, because I have that happen to me every semester and really loved that part of the book. It really reflected my own high school experience and all the existential crises I've gone through as well as my strive to understand the world. I will say that I was slightly triggered by the behavior and attitude by some of the characters so I would content warn:

Spoiler

emotional abuse, depression (that isn't addressed), unhealthy family dynamics, also breaches of consent and pushy sexual behavior

Even though now I'm reflecting and realizing there were many parts I didn't like about this book, and though it was an emotional journey for me personally, I still really enjoyed reading it and it did leave me with a lighthearted feeling by the end!

heresmika's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.0

i really like the idea of saying “i love you” to random people who you would never see again. from the passengers of planes who fly above her house, to cashiers at grocery stores. it was sweet to see all the love the main character carried! the connection between astrid and the passengers was fascinating, i like how their stories intertwined without them knowing about each other.

the tone of this book is a bit gross and uncomfortable. the story happens in a small southern town who is very anti gay people, women, poc, etc. and some of the sentences in the book made me feel a bit weird. it’s impressive that the author was able to invoke such feelings just through her book, but the characters in here are just bad people. even the ones we are supposed to love still do terrible things. either cheating on partners, outing friends, calling people slurs - the book was just tough to get through. i understand that the main character is supposed to symbolize better things for the town, and that some people can reject the norms that happen in such places, but even her actions were complicated. the voice actor for the book was incredible and managed to say things with such emotion that i couldn’t just ignore the sentences.

the philosophy talks were interesting and i found it really funny that she conjure a figure of a known philosopher whenever she is debating with herself about a topic.

i really didn’t like dee’s relationship at the beginning. she was so pushy and tried to force the main girl to do stuff she isn’t comfortable with. towards the end i started to support the two of them together, but it was horrible to see how she tried to force astrid to change.

there wasn’t too much plot and all of the characters were awful, but it was cool to see the character development of the main cast.