A review by sappho
Both Sides Now by Peyton Thomas

funny lighthearted fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

2.5

What a strange book! What an odd experience! I think if you liked RWRB you will enjoy this and if you couldn’t stand it then you should move a little to the left. 

I enjoyed that book mostly and I enjoyed this book.. ish? I think? I don’t know I feel like this will age very strangely? With all the references to
Contrapoints and Timothee Chalamet and Lindsay Ellis and Riverdale. That sure places this at a very specific point in time! The Timothee Chalamet bit made me fucking scream tho. 

I feel like the Ari in this narrative. Like I’m someone who’s always been a little bit inspired by the way this author talks about transness and his various anxieties and OCPD and weird sense of humor and taste in literature. And. I feel really weird about it!  Because this is a really weird book!


Why was Nasir like that.
Why does the South Asian character say the n word, make Asian flush jokes at Jonah, and also hate the Irish, all in the same scene. Was he racebent at the last minute because that's the only explanation I can think of for why he's like that.


I was an egged teen in debate club and I hated it so so so much but I was ready to be compelled by this familiar world and see a hopeful side of it. Is it ridiculous to have wanted more nitty-gritty debate lore? Some of the politics ends up very muddled
(you read the economist. you wear a Hamilton hoodie. you want to join Antifa. you don't even know Obama put kids in cages too. mic drop moment. are there any bezos/gates critiques to be found amongst the plethora of neutral references to them existing. isn't the book about politics? why is it so vague when the 2019-isms are so specific)


I think there are some useful lessons here, like.  
Going to an in-state college isn't the end of the world. Don't white knight on behalf of the racism your friends experience (although jonah stood up to bailey because of finch and like finch and jonah still got together in the end so I'm not really sure how sharp a point that ends up being??? like it would be so easy to interpret that as still being okay in the end god. okay) 

But the point of the book being debate... what exactly are we supposed to take away from this? It glossed over any comparable debates like gay marriage (briefly mentioned) or ... I don't think it mentioned anything to do with racism like when students have to debate like. The civil war.

AND LETS GET INTO THE DISCUSSION OF KIDS IN CAGES BECAUSE WHAT POINT DO YOU WANT US TO DRAW FROM THAT SCENE

I'd be lying if I said people saying this is reskinned South Park fanfiction aren't giving me "what were YOU doing at the devil's sacrament" vibes but why else would the creators be in the acknowledgements section. What an absolutely insane choice for a nominally leftist work.


I don't know. It was insane in a way that made me laugh in that I couldn't believe some of these things got onto paper. So that's something. I keep lowering my rating when I look at other books I've reviewed and get to thinking "do I REALLY want to rate BSN higher than this? does it REALLY deserve it more?" and coming back and dropping more quarter stars.
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