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A review by achilleanshelves
Noah Can't Even by Simon James Green
3.0
Noah Can't Even by Simon James Green is a young-adult contemporary novel told from the third-person POV of Noah Grimes a fifteen-year-old who literally never has anything good happen to him. It follows Noah as he navigates familial issues, bullies at school and his best-friend Harry coming out to him as gay.
Noah is extremely annoying as a central voice. Rather than awkward, he comes across as obnoxious and self-centred and never once thinks about the feelings of other characters. This book is marketed as Noah navigating his sexuality after Harry kisses him, however, the majority of the book is just Noah voicing his internalised homophobia and not confronting any of his feelings until he forced to do so.
However, this book, in all its ridiculousness, is exactly the kind of read I needed during this period of self-isolation and I am grateful to it for that. I will be reading the sequel, for sure.
Noah is extremely annoying as a central voice. Rather than awkward, he comes across as obnoxious and self-centred and never once thinks about the feelings of other characters. This book is marketed as Noah navigating his sexuality after Harry kisses him, however, the majority of the book is just Noah voicing his internalised homophobia and not confronting any of his feelings until he forced to do so.
However, this book, in all its ridiculousness, is exactly the kind of read I needed during this period of self-isolation and I am grateful to it for that. I will be reading the sequel, for sure.