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A review by thepetitepunk
Making Friends with Alice Dyson by Poppy Nwosu
3.0
Thank you NetGalley for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review.
What a cute, authentic story!
Making Friends with Alice Dyson will be incredibly relatable for anyone who is, or was, a shy, awkward, book nerd type kid. Alice, quiet and relatively innocent, is the complete opposite of Teddy Taualai, the mysterious bad-boy transfer student, yet they still manage to form an unlikely, adorable relationship. I really appreciated the characters in this story--everyone had such a distinct, interesting personality. I also loved that themes of friendship and self-discovery were woven within the central romance.
However, this book was not without flaws. My first issue was that these characters felt incredibly young. This is a story about teenagers in their last year of high school, about to go off to university next year, yet their dialogue felt like that of young children. There were many scenes that involving partying, drinking, touching, hooking up, etc., which did feel like the activities of older teenagers, but something about the conversations felt incredibly juvenile. The constant mentioning of popularity and status, along with the rumors and the way the characters fought with each others, just felt too young for people who are nearly adults.
My other issues revolved around the lack of conversation around certain subjects. For example, there was some blatant slut shaming, specifically slut shaming of Alice's best friend. Alice doesn't really stand up for her friend May when she is called a slut and there is no conversation counteracting the slut shaming. I know it's not realistic to assume all teenagers are actively fighting slut shaming, but I just was not comfortable with how casually the word slut was tossed around. Furthermore, I wanted more conversation about boundaries. I really liked Teddy but he did get quite pushy at some points. I strongly disliked this. Especially with Alice being a shy, "innocent" girl, I think it would have been extremely beneficial for the author to include a discussion on why girls should not let boundaries be pushed, even if they do like someone. It just felt like a huge red flag to me.
Overall, Making Friends with Alice Dyson is a quick, adorable read about first loves and high school life. I would recommend this to someone looking for a cute high school romance with contrasting characters, but I think it is important to mention that some crucial conversations were left out of this story.
What a cute, authentic story!
Making Friends with Alice Dyson will be incredibly relatable for anyone who is, or was, a shy, awkward, book nerd type kid. Alice, quiet and relatively innocent, is the complete opposite of Teddy Taualai, the mysterious bad-boy transfer student, yet they still manage to form an unlikely, adorable relationship. I really appreciated the characters in this story--everyone had such a distinct, interesting personality. I also loved that themes of friendship and self-discovery were woven within the central romance.
However, this book was not without flaws. My first issue was that these characters felt incredibly young. This is a story about teenagers in their last year of high school, about to go off to university next year, yet their dialogue felt like that of young children. There were many scenes that involving partying, drinking, touching, hooking up, etc., which did feel like the activities of older teenagers, but something about the conversations felt incredibly juvenile. The constant mentioning of popularity and status, along with the rumors and the way the characters fought with each others, just felt too young for people who are nearly adults.
My other issues revolved around the lack of conversation around certain subjects. For example, there was some blatant slut shaming, specifically slut shaming of Alice's best friend. Alice doesn't really stand up for her friend May when she is called a slut and there is no conversation counteracting the slut shaming. I know it's not realistic to assume all teenagers are actively fighting slut shaming, but I just was not comfortable with how casually the word slut was tossed around. Furthermore, I wanted more conversation about boundaries. I really liked Teddy but he did get quite pushy at some points. I strongly disliked this. Especially with Alice being a shy, "innocent" girl, I think it would have been extremely beneficial for the author to include a discussion on why girls should not let boundaries be pushed, even if they do like someone. It just felt like a huge red flag to me.
Overall, Making Friends with Alice Dyson is a quick, adorable read about first loves and high school life. I would recommend this to someone looking for a cute high school romance with contrasting characters, but I think it is important to mention that some crucial conversations were left out of this story.