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alexsbooks_'s review against another edition
5.0
Review to come, but for now, I loved it so much and everyone should read it
lovelykd's review against another edition
2.0
I get it, Izzy O'Neill should be the model for young feminism: sexually liberated, free to pursue any professional endeavor of her choice, fiercely independent, and without apology.
I get it.
Believe me ...I. Get. It.
As a woman whose lived her entire life fighting through the ignorance of both race and patriarchy, the value of a character like Izzy wasn't lost on me.
The problem for me was she wasn't all that good of a model.
Despite how far we've come as a society, tropes still exist for both boys and girls; all Steven seemed to do, in her creation of Izzy, was reverse the tropes.
After materials of a sexually explicit nature end up on an unidentified blog, Izzy becomes the reluctant face of all that's wrong with our youth--particularly its young women--and everyone seems to be willing to step up ans take their best shot.
Izzy is initially horrified but she takes most of it in stride, for the most part. For her, the ire is ridiculous given the fact she's being targeted mostly because she's a girl; it's tough not to admire her ability to stand up for herself and not be ashamed of acting on an impulse most men never think twice of dismissing.
Even so, it was difficult to dismiss the fact that teenage carelessness was the reason she ended up in the spotlight.
These days, nothing is "private"--as long as phones have cameras--so the contrivance of the situation, as a plot device, was problematic for me.
Who would believe having sex on a swing ...in plain view ...at a house party ... FULL of drunken teenagers would go unnoticed?
Even Izzy scratched her head at the craziness of that decision.
Which brings us to the origin of Izzy's decision-making.
It's clear the loss of her parents played a role in how she chose to live, yet her grief is barely discussed; by the time it is, it's in a dismissive manner.
Except, it does matter and likely should've been allowed to have more space in the telling of her story.
I'd have liked to have seen more of that in place of the far too many jokes which, honestly, weren't that funny.
We don't exist in a vacuum. Our experiences play a part in who we opt to become. To not have touched on that more, in this case, was an injustice to Izzy.
Overall, a story with a good message but it was a poorly executed telling.
*Thank you to Edelweiss+ for this advanced eGalley. Opinion is my own.
I get it.
Believe me ...I. Get. It.
As a woman whose lived her entire life fighting through the ignorance of both race and patriarchy, the value of a character like Izzy wasn't lost on me.
The problem for me was she wasn't all that good of a model.
Despite how far we've come as a society, tropes still exist for both boys and girls; all Steven seemed to do, in her creation of Izzy, was reverse the tropes.
After materials of a sexually explicit nature end up on an unidentified blog, Izzy becomes the reluctant face of all that's wrong with our youth--particularly its young women--and everyone seems to be willing to step up ans take their best shot.
Izzy is initially horrified but she takes most of it in stride, for the most part. For her, the ire is ridiculous given the fact she's being targeted mostly because she's a girl; it's tough not to admire her ability to stand up for herself and not be ashamed of acting on an impulse most men never think twice of dismissing.
Even so, it was difficult to dismiss the fact that teenage carelessness was the reason she ended up in the spotlight.
These days, nothing is "private"--as long as phones have cameras--so the contrivance of the situation, as a plot device, was problematic for me.
Who would believe having sex on a swing ...in plain view ...at a house party ... FULL of drunken teenagers would go unnoticed?
Even Izzy scratched her head at the craziness of that decision.
Which brings us to the origin of Izzy's decision-making.
It's clear the loss of her parents played a role in how she chose to live, yet her grief is barely discussed; by the time it is, it's in a dismissive manner.
Except, it does matter and likely should've been allowed to have more space in the telling of her story.
I'd have liked to have seen more of that in place of the far too many jokes which, honestly, weren't that funny.
We don't exist in a vacuum. Our experiences play a part in who we opt to become. To not have touched on that more, in this case, was an injustice to Izzy.
Overall, a story with a good message but it was a poorly executed telling.
*Thank you to Edelweiss+ for this advanced eGalley. Opinion is my own.
meredith_j's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
sad
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? No
3.75
siobhancollierauthor's review against another edition
4.0
The exact opposite of okay in this book:
-Izzy’s attitude at the beginning
-The comedy. I did not laugh until I was at 92%. I’m a little wary of protagonists who tell you they use humour a lot because you rarely see it.
-the setting. It was obviously written by a British person (I worked it out as soon as she mentioned piss taking, something I have explained at length to my US friends in various locations, only strengthened by other British references that I know my US friends wouldn’t have heard of). There’s nothing intrinsically wrong with that, but if you are writing about a place you don’t live in, do your research. There were basic things I knew were different stateside.
The exact equal of okay in this book:
-Ajita. For a long time I suspected her of hurting Izzy. I’m glad it wasn’t her.
-Betty, who works damn hard and has a heart and understands that maybe bringing up kids is difficult when the world is so different from how it was bringing up your own child.
-the overall messages.
-Izzy’s growth as a character. She might have been a pain in the ass to begin with but she was right - whatever her actions were for herself, she did not deserve the vitriol she received or the character assassination that occurred. Though I liked her character more when she was with Meg and Ajita in the diner.
Mostly, this book resonated hugely with me. I’m not exactly going through the same thing as Izzy in terms of a sex scandal, but in terms of friends who lie, who undermine your self esteem, who don’t seem to understand that the basics of friendship revolve on mutual respect and understanding of what each other needs and not compromising yourself for someone else. Who hasn’t been there?
-Izzy’s attitude at the beginning
-The comedy. I did not laugh until I was at 92%. I’m a little wary of protagonists who tell you they use humour a lot because you rarely see it.
-the setting. It was obviously written by a British person (I worked it out as soon as she mentioned piss taking, something I have explained at length to my US friends in various locations, only strengthened by other British references that I know my US friends wouldn’t have heard of). There’s nothing intrinsically wrong with that, but if you are writing about a place you don’t live in, do your research. There were basic things I knew were different stateside.
The exact equal of okay in this book:
-Ajita. For a long time I suspected her of hurting Izzy. I’m glad it wasn’t her.
-Betty, who works damn hard and has a heart and understands that maybe bringing up kids is difficult when the world is so different from how it was bringing up your own child.
-the overall messages.
-Izzy’s growth as a character. She might have been a pain in the ass to begin with but she was right - whatever her actions were for herself, she did not deserve the vitriol she received or the character assassination that occurred. Though I liked her character more when she was with Meg and Ajita in the diner.
Mostly, this book resonated hugely with me. I’m not exactly going through the same thing as Izzy in terms of a sex scandal, but in terms of friends who lie, who undermine your self esteem, who don’t seem to understand that the basics of friendship revolve on mutual respect and understanding of what each other needs and not compromising yourself for someone else. Who hasn’t been there?
jessicad90's review
5.0
https://www.reviewsandroses.nl/overzicht-boekrecensies/
Ook als een boek je niet direct aanspreekt, kan het alsnog een fantastisch boek zijn. Ik ben namelijk echt fan van Allesbehalve oké. Het verhaal leest heerlijk vlot weg dankzij de sprankelende schrijfstijl van Laura Steven. De humor in het boek is fantastisch, maar ook het zware onderwerp komt uitmuntend uit de verf. Ik denk dat het voor de young adults een goede eyeopener kan zijn, eigenlijk voor iedereen wel. Allesbehalve oké is een heerlijk vlot boek, met humor, maar ook met een maatschappelijk interessant onderwerp dat je doet nadenken. Het is goed geschreven, bevat goede en interessante karakterontwikkelingen, en zit vol feminisme. Ik ben zeker benieuwd naar een volgend boek van Laura Steven. P.s. blijkbaar komt er een vervolg op dit verhaal in 2019!
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Fantastisch geschreven boek. recensie volgt op www.reviewsandroses.nl
Ook als een boek je niet direct aanspreekt, kan het alsnog een fantastisch boek zijn. Ik ben namelijk echt fan van Allesbehalve oké. Het verhaal leest heerlijk vlot weg dankzij de sprankelende schrijfstijl van Laura Steven. De humor in het boek is fantastisch, maar ook het zware onderwerp komt uitmuntend uit de verf. Ik denk dat het voor de young adults een goede eyeopener kan zijn, eigenlijk voor iedereen wel. Allesbehalve oké is een heerlijk vlot boek, met humor, maar ook met een maatschappelijk interessant onderwerp dat je doet nadenken. Het is goed geschreven, bevat goede en interessante karakterontwikkelingen, en zit vol feminisme. Ik ben zeker benieuwd naar een volgend boek van Laura Steven. P.s. blijkbaar komt er een vervolg op dit verhaal in 2019!
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Fantastisch geschreven boek. recensie volgt op www.reviewsandroses.nl
tiffy137's review against another edition
4.0
Im going to begin by saying wow, what a cover. Its just so beautiful and full of colour. This book definatley gave an insight into what school especially secondary or high school is like when it comes to friendships and bullying. The main character Izzy is well developed and strong. She gives off strong feminist views and points which makes this book a good book for a feminist person to read as I feel that they can relate well to her as a character and an individual. As I read the book I found that this book covers a wide range of issues that are in our society today such as slut shaming, the concept of being friend zoned, Revenge porn, sexuality, religious views and money issues. I feel that this book is a must read for readers who love diversity. This book was also very emotional in how we saw how much izzy was affected by the outcomes that she couldn’t even go to her teachers for help against it.
I gave this book 4 stars as I loved how diverse it was, however there was something missing which I cant put my finger on
I gave this book 4 stars as I loved how diverse it was, however there was something missing which I cant put my finger on
thebookberrie's review against another edition
1.0
Ugh, I hated this so much. Can't decide between 1 or 2 stars because it did have some important conversations about slut shaming and revenge porn but everything else was rage-inducing.
The Exact Opposite of Okay is about a girl named Izzy who is an aspiring script writer who does whatever she wants. That is until a malicious website is opened, calling out all of Izzy's sexescapades and slut shaming her, even leaking her nudes. Izzy has never been ashamed before and she isn't going to start now even though it's hard to remind cool and collected.
The writing in this was so terrible and obnoxious. (Of course lots of HP and pop culture references because I can never escape!) The format is Izzy's blog/journal with her [interjecting comments like this], filled with her "humor". Personally I didn't find any of her humor funny and I got tired of most of the book being her going off explaining her version of feminism and how everyone else is wrong for judging her. I hated her so much from the very beginning and I want to cleanse her annoying personality from my mind. Also she is supposed to be American but it was so bad, like someone not American pretending to be super American while still using British slang. (Which it was.)
Apparently the author chose to set it in a place where revenge porn isn't illegal to deal with the emotional side rather than the law but... Izzy was pretty emotionless and chill about the whole damn thing? She had tons of paragraphs going off about how she didn't deserve this and how everyone sucked but I never felt any real emotion or regret from her.
Izzy didn't regret her actions at all and even at the end of the book, she just blames everyone else. Sis, actions have consequences and everything that happened in this book was a direct result of her not thinking. I don't think she deserved what she got of course because it was fucked BUT I wanted her to learn from this instead of acting like she'll do it all again without remorse. She was just so damn immature about everything and had ZERO character growth.
Izzy sleeps with two guys at one party, both guys she barely knows (literally had her first conversation like 2 lines before she slept with one of them??). One of it was in PUBLIC. On a garden bench. Someone takes a picture and Izzy is like, "oh my god my sex life is my own business how could they!!" It is literally everyone's business when you do that shit in public but okay.
Of course she later sends nudes to this guy just because he asks too and I just???? Her brain?? Where is that?? Never send nudes to some dude you barely know, come on! Tits and vag to those you trust ONLY. Which I guess is moot anyway because this author made hacking phones SO FUCKING EASY that even a caveman could do it but my point still stands. Also protip if you still want to get your tits out- don't include your face and an easily identified background! (This book was also weirdly against ever saying the word "vagina" and if I had to hear some seriously say "vag-jay-jay" again I was going to lose it.)
Izzy is not a real feminist. She picks and chooses her feminism and she interestingly only stands for it when she needs a shield to protect her from everyone judging her. Feminism is not "I can be messy as fuck and no one can say anything!!11!", thanks. In before someone comments: "tHiS bOoK iS aBoUt SlUt sHaMiNg wHiCh iS wHaT yOu ArE dOiNg". I'm not slut shaming her, I'm normal shaming her for never growing and never considering that maybe she should have used her brain, not her vagina. She CAN have all the sex she wants, I don't care- literally go off! But learn from your mistakes instead of going "I regret nothing and everyone else is wrong."
There is a Nice Guy in this book that gets a lot of attention too but personally I wasn't buying his motivation. He didn't even seem like a real character- he seemed like just a checklist of everything Nice Guys are / what they say instead of being a real person with motivation that made sense. Plus it was SO obvious who was behind the blog and I don't get why it was some big reveal?? That being said, dude can still choke.
On like the last chapter, Izzy gets together with a bunch of girls and they are like, WE SHOULD START A FEMINIST CLUB!! and then the book ends and I just laughed so hard because it came out of nowhere for a sequel. I literally had no idea who the other girl even was?? Also Izzy was a terrible friend to her best friend Ajita who should have honestly ditched her and never came back. Izzy's grandmother was ??? not important at all and had no personality either.
I'm not a total monster- I did feel sorry for Izzy and how violated she felt from her nudes being leaked, and how only she was impacted by the scandal not the boy who did the exact same things. It just felt like this book was so close to getting to something I could have loved but it just ruined it all with poorly written characters, annoying writing, and plot that goes nowhere.
The Exact Opposite of Okay is about a girl named Izzy who is an aspiring script writer who does whatever she wants. That is until a malicious website is opened, calling out all of Izzy's sexescapades and slut shaming her, even leaking her nudes. Izzy has never been ashamed before and she isn't going to start now even though it's hard to remind cool and collected.
The writing in this was so terrible and obnoxious. (Of course lots of HP and pop culture references because I can never escape!) The format is Izzy's blog/journal with her [interjecting comments like this], filled with her "humor". Personally I didn't find any of her humor funny and I got tired of most of the book being her going off explaining her version of feminism and how everyone else is wrong for judging her. I hated her so much from the very beginning and I want to cleanse her annoying personality from my mind. Also she is supposed to be American but it was so bad, like someone not American pretending to be super American while still using British slang. (Which it was.)
Apparently the author chose to set it in a place where revenge porn isn't illegal to deal with the emotional side rather than the law but... Izzy was pretty emotionless and chill about the whole damn thing? She had tons of paragraphs going off about how she didn't deserve this and how everyone sucked but I never felt any real emotion or regret from her.
Izzy didn't regret her actions at all and even at the end of the book, she just blames everyone else. Sis, actions have consequences and everything that happened in this book was a direct result of her not thinking. I don't think she deserved what she got of course because it was fucked BUT I wanted her to learn from this instead of acting like she'll do it all again without remorse. She was just so damn immature about everything and had ZERO character growth.
Izzy sleeps with two guys at one party, both guys she barely knows (literally had her first conversation like 2 lines before she slept with one of them??). One of it was in PUBLIC. On a garden bench. Someone takes a picture and Izzy is like, "oh my god my sex life is my own business how could they!!" It is literally everyone's business when you do that shit in public but okay.
Of course she later sends nudes to this guy just because he asks too and I just???? Her brain?? Where is that?? Never send nudes to some dude you barely know, come on! Tits and vag to those you trust ONLY. Which I guess is moot anyway because this author made hacking phones SO FUCKING EASY that even a caveman could do it but my point still stands. Also protip if you still want to get your tits out- don't include your face and an easily identified background! (This book was also weirdly against ever saying the word "vagina" and if I had to hear some seriously say "vag-jay-jay" again I was going to lose it.)
Izzy is not a real feminist. She picks and chooses her feminism and she interestingly only stands for it when she needs a shield to protect her from everyone judging her. Feminism is not "I can be messy as fuck and no one can say anything!!11!", thanks. In before someone comments: "tHiS bOoK iS aBoUt SlUt sHaMiNg wHiCh iS wHaT yOu ArE dOiNg". I'm not slut shaming her, I'm normal shaming her for never growing and never considering that maybe she should have used her brain, not her vagina. She CAN have all the sex she wants, I don't care- literally go off! But learn from your mistakes instead of going "I regret nothing and everyone else is wrong."
There is a Nice Guy in this book that gets a lot of attention too but personally I wasn't buying his motivation. He didn't even seem like a real character- he seemed like just a checklist of everything Nice Guys are / what they say instead of being a real person with motivation that made sense. Plus it was SO obvious who was behind the blog and I don't get why it was some big reveal?? That being said, dude can still choke.
On like the last chapter, Izzy gets together with a bunch of girls and they are like, WE SHOULD START A FEMINIST CLUB!! and then the book ends and I just laughed so hard because it came out of nowhere for a sequel. I literally had no idea who the other girl even was?? Also Izzy was a terrible friend to her best friend Ajita who should have honestly ditched her and never came back. Izzy's grandmother was ??? not important at all and had no personality either.
I'm not a total monster- I did feel sorry for Izzy and how violated she felt from her nudes being leaked, and how only she was impacted by the scandal not the boy who did the exact same things. It just felt like this book was so close to getting to something I could have loved but it just ruined it all with poorly written characters, annoying writing, and plot that goes nowhere.
orlabutler's review against another edition
emotional
funny
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0