A review by spearly
Only Mostly Devastated by Sophie Gonzales

lighthearted sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.5

Sometimes in life, terrible things happened. And sometimes really, really amazing things happened. And sometimes, those things all kind of happened at once.

Only Mostly Devastated follows Ollie, who, after visiting his sick aunt in North Carolina for the summer and having a summer romance there with a boy named Will, ends up moving to NC so he and his family can stay close to her as she gets worse.

This was a cute story. Well.. it had its cute moments. Honestly, I've been on a teen YA romance kick lately and, after reading some pretty great stories (including one from the same author, Sophie Gonzales called Perfect on Paper), this fell strictly middle of the pack. Nothing special. Not something I would read again, and not something I'll really remember after I write this review.

I won't pretend to know or understand the queer teen experience. I'm sure there's a lot of authenticity to Will and his fear of coming out, to Ollie having to sneak around to be with the guy he likes. And I'm sure, with all of Will's fears, a lot of his behaviour made sense ie.
ignoring Ollie at school, getting close with his ex when his friends start to suspect, not speaking up when his friends make homophobic jokes
but that doesn't mean I liked it. I was frustrated with Will. I was frustrated with Ollie. I didn't understand Lara's brattiness (
and yes, it's implied it has to do at least partly with some inernalized biphobia, but that doesn't excuse how shitty she treats her friends. At one point, she literally tells her friend Naimh, who's a bit overweight and wants to be a model, that a real model wouldn't be eating what she was.
. You don't need to give the girl with a secret a mean streak to make her 3-dimensional, you know?

But then I think about it, and I'm like... well, I'm sure there were moments when I was in high school that I said some shitty things too. That I acted bratty. That I was judgy. And yet, despite these all being valid points, that doesn't mean I like to read about characters like that.

In the end, Only Mostly Devastated just didn't hold a candle to some of the other books I've read in the genre, especially when it comes to queer romance.
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