Reviews

Amelia Westlake Was Never Here by Erin Gough

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ihateprozac's review against another edition

4.0

Amelia Westlake is a positively delightful tale of queer girls inventing a hoax character to expose the injustices in their stuffy private school. Set against this are themes of finding love, navigating friendships, and standing up for what you believe in. And best of all, it’s queer as hell!

It’s full of so many things I love:
- Female/female romance
- Multiple queer female characters including QPOC
- Enemies-to-lovers trope
- Princess-and-the-Pauper/Girl-from-the-Wrong-Side-of-the-Tracks trope

Admittedly I don’t read a lot of OzYA that’s actually set in Australia (most of it tends to be speculative fiction). I had some concerns that this would be Sydney-centric or full of Aussie colloquialisms, but it’s surprisingly accessible for an international audience! You could honestly cut and paste this story to any major city and it would be easily understood.

I was sooooo here for the amount of queer girls in this story. One of the protagonists, Harriet, likes girls. Her classmate and friend-with-benefits is a bisexual Vietnamese-Australian girl. The other protagonist is an openly out lesbian who’s dating another openly queer girl from another school. Their relationships all get a bit tangled, but it’s never quite a love triangle nor does it ever quite suffer from the “There are queer girls? They’re cheating on each other!” device.

The thing that holds this back from being a full 5 star contemporary for me (and I’m getting spoilery here) is

Spoiler

the friendship with Natasha.

I liked that Erin Gough depicted a friendship where both parties fucked up, and which wasn’t easily resolved by the end of the book, but I don’t think

Spoiler

Natasha gets to demonise Harriet, when Natasha fucking OUTED her in the school newspaper! I’m mad as hell that a queer girl outed other queer girls in a school publication, then had the audacity to use the defense “well you were a bad friend and you put my job in jeopardy and I’m a journalist so I have a right to the story”.

I’m still mad about it and the more I think about it, the angrier I get!!!

GAH.

Overall it was a really enjoyable read and full of fluffy queer gal hijinks, but

Spoiler

Natasha

can honestly get in the fucking bin.

Representation: multiple F/F romances, bisexual and lesbian female characters, Vietnamese-Australian QWOC minor character

quinnjean's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted 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? Yes

5.0

kategallo's review against another edition

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4.0

I had so much fun reading this! It ticked all of my favourite YA/contemporary boxes - feminism, empowerment, a big 'fuck you' to sexism and sexual harassment, and lesbian main characters. Not only that, but I was shocked to discover that the book is set super close to my area of Sydney! It was very accurate with the 'rich, upper-middle class' stereotypes that we get around here, especially the poncey, conservative Mosman-dwellers of the North Shore. I loved the character development of both Will & Harriet as the book progressed, and the fact that they are both humanised in each other's eyes the more they interact. While there were certainly a few trope-y scenes, particularly in the end, the plot was intriguing and the issues at hand were realistic. It covers a lot while still being a relatively light-hearted read, thanks to Gough's great use of humour throughout.

This book hit so well on the influence of wealth and status on the happenings of school politics, and that teachers can and will get away with a lot of terrible things if it means the school's reputation isn't compromised. I've always been a believer in students, especially girls, standing up for what they believe is right. In that sense, it does break my heart that there is

Spoiler

disloyalty/cheating

in this book, regardless of how well-deserved or insignificant it was. That's always a theme that I can't reconcile with, and it sucks that it was in here. Please stop normalising that in YA/queer contemporary, it's the worst.

miffyf's review against another edition

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4.0

9781743585528

Harriet and Will have nothing in common. Over-achiever. Over-bearing. Doormat. Activist. Nothing in common at all. Enter Amelia Westlake.

I enjoyed this a lot. There are so many flips that a longer review would be drowning in spoilers. Just read it yourself. It’s well worth it.