Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Out of the Blue by Jason June

5 reviews

sunflower7skull's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful lighthearted relaxing medium-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

3.0

This was not really my kind of book, to be honest. It was fairly well-written but I found myself cringing often - in truth, I'm usually not one for romcoms anyway. But I loved the rep and overall didn't dislike the book, it just wasn't for me. I'd definitely recommend this book to someone who's a fan of romance books with unconventional twists and anyone who really enjoyed mermaid books growing up!
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avalon_green's review against another edition

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

2.75

I definitely judged a book by it's cover. It looked really cute from the front, but was definitely really weird. The in depth detail of how mermaids have sex... was a lot. There were some really good elements in the book, like finding out that you need to love yourself, what depression looks like in a parent, and how to grow in a friendship. I had a feeling that I knew how the book ended, and I was mostly right, but the plot twist (the way I had thought) had another plot twist! I really loved the representation of different kinds of queerness, genders, and love. There were bi characters, lesbian, gay, and non-binary all represented very well in this book.
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writewithapendragon's review

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adventurous emotional funny lighthearted 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

Loved the mermaid lore, characterization, and perfect level of romance for a YA title. Great body rep and queer rep. Highly recommend, can’t wait to read their other books!!!
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bookcaptivated's review

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful 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

4.0

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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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