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A review by bybyberry
Imogen, Obviously by Becky Albertalli
3.0
Oooh, I'm torn! It's been a while since I got so into a YA. The pacing, the characters, the dialogue, it all makes it a delicious page-turner. It's not too heavy on the romance clichés and has the right amount of YA silliness and lightness. I loved all the references to queer pop culture (as a Silk Chiffon stan, I felt seen) + the take on how damaging some of the "discourse" around queerness has become.
It's easy to root for Imogen, though you sometimes kinda want to shake her a bit. But overall, all the little details about being so in denial you don't realize you're in the closet are very relatable and interesting. 20yo me would have loved this book for sure.
But (and it's a big but) I have two main issues I can't quite get over.
First is Gretchen character. I 100% get that this story is very personal to the author, but it feels strange to put all your grieving inside an 18yo bi girl who suffered from heavy homophobia and make her the "discourse-loving mean queer". It feels like Gretchen is allowed no grace, to the point where you don't even get why Imogen is her friend (from the get-go, Imogen just talks behind her back every time Gretchen isn't around, which doesn't even fit Imogen's characterization, but I digress). This review said it best: "Albertalli wrote this from a place of bitterness instead of a desire to tell a story".
The second point is how the story tries to tell that there's not one way of being queer (which, yayy!!!), and yet... All the characters all like the same very queer mainstream things. Don't get me wrong, I love these things too, so it felt nice to be represented in this way. But the story is trying to break clichés while somehow also falling into LOTS of them? I was so waiting for a queer character in this story who has no idea who Clairo is and has "live love laugh" posters in her room, honestly.
God, the more I write this review and think about it, the more it rubs me the wrong way. Still giving it a 3 stars for now, let's see how I feel about this in a few months.
It's easy to root for Imogen, though you sometimes kinda want to shake her a bit. But overall, all the little details about being so in denial you don't realize you're in the closet are very relatable and interesting. 20yo me would have loved this book for sure.
But (and it's a big but) I have two main issues I can't quite get over.
First is Gretchen character. I 100% get that this story is very personal to the author, but it feels strange to put all your grieving inside an 18yo bi girl who suffered from heavy homophobia and make her the "discourse-loving mean queer". It feels like Gretchen is allowed no grace, to the point where you don't even get why Imogen is her friend (from the get-go, Imogen just talks behind her back every time Gretchen isn't around, which doesn't even fit Imogen's characterization, but I digress). This review said it best: "Albertalli wrote this from a place of bitterness instead of a desire to tell a story".
The second point is how the story tries to tell that there's not one way of being queer (which, yayy!!!), and yet... All the characters all like the same very queer mainstream things. Don't get me wrong, I love these things too, so it felt nice to be represented in this way. But the story is trying to break clichés while somehow also falling into LOTS of them? I was so waiting for a queer character in this story who has no idea who Clairo is and has "live love laugh" posters in her room, honestly.
God, the more I write this review and think about it, the more it rubs me the wrong way. Still giving it a 3 stars for now, let's see how I feel about this in a few months.