Reviews with content warning for Homophobia - Kate In Waiting

Reviews tagging 'Homophobia'

Kate In Waiting by Becky Albertalli

15 reviews

impatientchild's review against another edition

Go to review page

funny lighthearted 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

3.25

Content Warnings

beckyyreadss's review

Go to review page

emotional fast-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? Yes

3.0

I love Becky Albertalli and I love most of her work. I didn’t really enjoy Yes No Maybe So, but I love Simon v the Homo Sapien’s Agenda. I wanted to read more of her work and was hopefully for this book and . . . well, it just fell flat.

This book is based on Kate Garfield. She and her best friend Anderson Walker are not co-dependent, even though everyone thinks they are. They carpool together to and from theatre rehearsals, they consult each other on every single life decision, and they crush for the same guys. This isn’t usually a problem . . . until Matt Olsson shows up. He is Kate and Anderson’s long-distance crush, and he is now at their school. Matt is talented and sweet, and Kate likes him, really likes him. The only problem? So does Anderson. Turns out, communal crushes aren’t so fun when real feelings are involved. This one might even bring the curtains down on Kate and Anderson’s friendship.

I'll start with what I liked – Ryan and Noah – the F boys for the win. They were the only ones that didn’t annoy and that I didn’t want to kill. They were both real and I was rooting for them during this book. Ryan is the whole one who was willing to spit the truth and not care because he prefers the truth out in the open. Noah was a complete golden retriever who just wanted to make Kate happy (who didn’t deserve it by the way.)

Okay, Kate drove me nuts, I get it’s a YA and it’s not supposed to be serious, but it was very repetitive - I like Matt, he is flirting with me and Anderson, Anderson is breaking the rules so I'm gonna break the rules, my best friend now hates me, Noah is following me around. That was like the first ten chapters and then times that by eight – that's the story. This book could have been shortened by 100 pages if you cut Kate’s inner monologue down. Anderson was a hypocritic, he is ranting to Kate about keeping an open line of communication and then the second him and Matt start dating he runs and lets Kate believe Matt likes her – that was just a shitty thing to do, I understand why but it could have been done better. The communal crush thing just was weird and I would never do that with anyone. Kate and Anderson didn’t deserve the happy ending they got because they were just so toxic and annoying the whole way through this book. Matt could have disappeared, and I wouldn’t have noticed as he is barely in it for the big MMC.

Content Warnings

teacupalpaca's review against another edition

Go to review page

lighthearted medium-paced

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

2.0

Content Warnings

mayareadsxo's review against another edition

Go to review page

funny hopeful lighthearted relaxing medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Content Warnings

readwithanne's review against another edition

Go to review page

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

3.75

Content Warnings

cheye13's review against another edition

Go to review page

lighthearted reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Albertalli is one of those authors that I'm afraid to read from, because I'm afraid I've hyped them up in my memories (the visual adaptations don't help this lol), and then is always as good as I remember when I actually set eyes to page.

For the majority, this is probably a run-of-the-mill, if above average, YA/coming of age novel. But for me specifically, there were events and emotions and situations – both in the synopsis and otherwisee – that rang far too true and formative. Stellar book.

Content Warnings

rinku's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional funny 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

4.0

Kate in Waiting was my first read of 2022 and I’m happy that it was this book. The story centres around the theatre kids Kate, Andy, and Matt. Kate and Andy both fall in love with Matt which threatens to tear their yearlong friendship apart.

The plot itself was really cute but a bit predictable. Around the half, I already had the right intuition who would end up with whom, and I was happy by the results. The school life was written so well too, and it just makes you wanna go back to school honestly. Just seeing your friends every day is a luxury you start to appreciate when it’s gone.

I also appreciated how diverse this book is. In fact, I haven’t read a book before that integrates diverse characters so easily. As a writer myself, I admire the way Albertalli does it, so simplistic and natural but not without mentioning the hardships some people have to suffer because of their identity.

Kate was an amazing main character, and it was easy to connect to her. I felt the emotions she had just as strongly, for example her disappointment that only Andy goes into the advanced drama class or

Spoiler

when Matt told her that he was gay, and Andy told her that they’re dating. My heart dropped both times because I could feel Kate’s disappointment so intensely. I was to be honest first mad with Andy as well, but I later started to understand his behaviour and that he didn’t want to out Matt without his consent. The only thing here that I didn’t find too realistic is how fast Kate was over Matt

. Furthermore, she grows so much in the course of the story and realizes that her way of putting people in different boxes is not the right way to approach other people, especially concerning her brother and Noah. Her insecurity because she was bullied in the past for her singing was depicted great as well.

But the story introduced too many characters and names that I sadly couldn’t completely keep up with who was who. I say sadly, because the authors describe the behaviour of her characters so vividly that you instantly have a picture of them in your head.

Since this was my first novel of this author, it took me some time to get used to <i>Albertalli’s</i> writing style. At the beginning, it was just too much for me. It’s so full of pop cultural references which felt a bit exhausting and overloaded. I had the same feeling with the humour; I smiled a few times while reading this book, so the book was funny, but it tried at some points too hard to be funny and teenager-like.

Still, this was an enjoyable and cute read and I’m eager to read more by the author!

(On an off-topic sidenote, I just watched Super Eyepatch Wolf’s fantastical video about Garfield where he mentions that Garfield is just everywhere, and wouldn’t you know it: Kate’s last name is Garfield. Not gonna lie, I was a bit freaked out by this lmao.)

Content Warnings

darryn_gray's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional funny inspiring lighthearted relaxing 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

5.0

I absolutely loved this book! I haven't read a book so fast in so long, I found myself nearly instantly falling for the characters and relating to all of them in different ways. This might be my all-time favorite book by Becky Albertalli! It's a very fluffy book that mos of the time leaves you feeling all warm on the inside. Very well written as I felt like I perfectly understood everything going on in not only Kate's mind but also her best friend Anderson's. The friendships felt real and honest.
The chapters are very short and its a very easy read, easily a book you can read in the span of one day, even if you're a slow reader

Content Warnings

sophiesmallhands's review

Go to review page

emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted 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

4.0

Content Warnings

lennie_reads's review

Go to review page

emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective 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? It's complicated

5.0

This book was so FREAKING CUTE I can't cope 😭😭😭

Thanks to NetGalley & Penguin Random House for my ARC!

I adored this book.
I love Kate so so much.

The main POV character in this book is not queer, or at least she doesn't mention anything about being queer in the book. Her best friend Anderson is gay and one of her other best friends is trans, her 4th best friend may be on the asexual spectrum but nothing is confirmed. So I technically wouldn't class this book as queer but that's just me.

This book had that undeniable Albertalli wholesome magic and made me all warm and fuzzy inside.

Kate & her best friend Anderson often have the same crushes but never do anything about them so it's just a bit of fun. That is until their summer camp joint crush transfers to their school and becomes attainable.

I feel like a lot of drama in this book could've been resolved with simple communication but Albertalli always does friendship and teen drama well.

I love how it kept you on your toes whilst
also being so funny and sweet.

I also loved the Rapunzel references, the theatre club, the musical references etc. (No HP references unlike in her previous books)

And I am obsessed with Kate and who she ends up with (no spoilers here but the quote 'its so fluffy I'm gonna die' definitely feels appropriate!)

This is now my second favourite Albertalli books after Simon vs and if you love sweet YA contemporary romance then you need to pick this up.

This book has gay rep, black rep, Jewish rep and trans rep, as well as divorced parents.

CW: homophobia, divorce, bullying

Content Warnings

More...