A review by frantic_vampire
The Friend Scheme by Cale Dietrich

adventurous hopeful lighthearted mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25

Wow, this book gave me such mixed feelings and I’m honestly not sure how to process it. On the one hand, I loved this so much. And on the other, I just wanted so much more from this book. Like, the enjoyment factor was definitely there, but it’s got some problems.

I loved that Matt was so anxious about being in the family business and realizing that it was just not for him. Also, it felt like Matt was written as autistic or at least somewhere on the neurodivergent spectrum. It was so nice! I really loved that he was so happy to make a new friend! That was utterly precious and he needs to be protected at all costs. And the fact that Jason was also really happy to make a friend (even if it was under some dubious circumstances). I also really loved Luke as a big brother! He’s so supportive and loving to Matt. I would die for him! The last thing that I loved was that this didn’t have a lot of the usual teenage drama that comes with YA contemporary books.

The things that I didn’t like were numerous. But the number one being the gaslighting. Like holy shit, there was a lot of it! I just wanted to slap Jason every time he started pushing Matt to talk about his family and then turning it around on him and making Matt feel like a bad friend for not talking. I just...I didn’t like it, at all. There were also a couple of comments that came off as aphobic and they just didn’t need to be in this book. Another thing that I didn’t like was that there were so many little plot holes. Like, did Matt come out to his dad? Did he tell his dad about Jason? Did anyone figure out if the guy they killed was a cop?? And a few other things that just didn’t add up in the end.

As you can see my thoughts are mixed. The story was so enjoyed and fun to read, but there were some problems with it. And in the end it’s a little hard for me to justify giving this more than a 3.25 stars. But don’t let that deter you from reading this! It’s such a good read!
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