Scan barcode
katherinevarga's review
fast-paced
I love that this follows the beats of a rom-com, but is centered on platonic love. The stakes are incredibly low, making this a chill and relaxing read about the simple dramas of starting college. The prevalence of texts and "Dear Wendy" advice posts makes reading this feel like scrolling through Tumblr.
Excruciatingly Gen Z, but I was able to follow along and that made me feel like a hip and cool millennial.
Excruciatingly Gen Z, but I was able to follow along and that made me feel like a hip and cool millennial.
rainasage's review against another edition
2.25
I have a lot of feelings about this book, most of them not great, which pains me as an aroace person who so so wanted to love this book.
The cons (they are numerous):
the narration style
The narration is stilted and overly formal. It was immediately hard for me to picture it as a college student's inner monologue. Everybody overshares and has long and rambling dialogue when speaking out loud and then, in their heads, Sophie and Jo both have almost robotic thought processes where they lead you through every possible facet of why they made they decisions they do, all the while using big words and few contractions.
Wendy VS Wanda
I also think Wendy and Wanda's online beef is very one note and silly (it just keeps dragging on the same way it starts out from like chapter one) and I feel like there needed to be more build up to them becoming internet enemies than there was because there’s not really any good reason for how into antagonizing each other they are.
Sophie Vs Jo
This is about the third act drama of this book. Basically it's not convincing.I found that most of the drama actually felt very contrived and unrealistic. And, like,usually friend drama is a little bit silly, but the way everything came together wasn't satisfying and just left me thinking, this is worth a 5 minute conversation, not 2 weeks of ignoring each other... and the author seems to know that too because the conflicts are eventually resolved with short conversations, they just happen after the characters drag their feet for weeks for no reason. The main conflict is so badly paced that as it's winding down there's still an hour and a half left of the audiobook, and I was left sitting there like, what more is there to do in this story that could take over an hour?? This is a side tangent but I'd even argue that the piece of advice Jo gave Leann wasn't even that bad. It was coming from a place of selfishness, but considering Leann didn't have herself figured out and Katie had told Jo she wasn't interested in dating? It was half-decent advice.
Sophie and Jo as friends
I also think that, as someone who has a really close friendship with another ace person, Sophie and Jo, the supposed center of the platonic love story here, don't ever really end up having that.Their friendship just doesn't really get convincingly deep enough for me to even think of them as best friends, let alone best friends with that deep queer-platonic love they describe themselves as having in the end. Like... they just don't have the trust in each other I associate with that kind of friendship. Their friendship is really just starting out when the story ends. They're still getting to know each other.
The Pros (they are few and with caveats):
Aro-Ace Rep
The one truly good thing I can say for this book is that I needed a book like this (ideally one that was better written) a few years ago when I was processing coming out.
Sophie and Jo do have good conversations about struggles I went through when I came out like being aro and lonely, microaggressions from families, and labeling discourse. And part of me is like, I did really needed a book like this when I was a teenager to sort through all those feelings and know they were normal and relatable.
However, the big but to this is that from the beginning there’s a lot of focus on explaining these labels and explaining the nuances of different ways to be aro-ace. I sort of feel like every ace book I’ve read is really more interested in explaining the identity to non-ace folks and people who haven’t figured out that they’re ace yet. And what I really want as an ace young adult is books that get into those deeper struggles but don’t feel the burden of over explaining them so that they cater to non-ace readers. Like I want to read an aro ace book that feels like it’s FOR ace people and not like it’s more interested in educating people who don’t understand.
These conversations also don't feel very organic in the text because they mostly come up when one of the characters outright asks to talk about ace experiences, or when they're in an aroace club meeting, or when they're in a women and gender studies lecture. This, especially when combined with the stilted, overly academic narration style, made it feel like this book shifted into random lectures about identity instead of organically having things come up as issues the characters were struggling with.
The cons (they are numerous):
the narration style
The narration is stilted and overly formal. It was immediately hard for me to picture it as a college student's inner monologue. Everybody overshares and has long and rambling dialogue when speaking out loud and then, in their heads, Sophie and Jo both have almost robotic thought processes where they lead you through every possible facet of why they made they decisions they do, all the while using big words and few contractions.
Wendy VS Wanda
I also think Wendy and Wanda's online beef is very one note and silly (it just keeps dragging on the same way it starts out from like chapter one) and I feel like there needed to be more build up to them becoming internet enemies than there was because there’s not really any good reason for how into antagonizing each other they are.
Sophie Vs Jo
This is about the third act drama of this book. Basically it's not convincing.
Sophie and Jo as friends
I also think that, as someone who has a really close friendship with another ace person, Sophie and Jo, the supposed center of the platonic love story here, don't ever really end up having that.
The Pros (they are few and with caveats):
Aro-Ace Rep
The one truly good thing I can say for this book is that I needed a book like this (ideally one that was better written) a few years ago when I was processing coming out.
Sophie and Jo do have good conversations about struggles I went through when I came out like being aro and lonely, microaggressions from families, and labeling discourse. And part of me is like, I did really needed a book like this when I was a teenager to sort through all those feelings and know they were normal and relatable.
However, the big but to this is that from the beginning there’s a lot of focus on explaining these labels and explaining the nuances of different ways to be aro-ace. I sort of feel like every ace book I’ve read is really more interested in explaining the identity to non-ace folks and people who haven’t figured out that they’re ace yet. And what I really want as an ace young adult is books that get into those deeper struggles but don’t feel the burden of over explaining them so that they cater to non-ace readers. Like I want to read an aro ace book that feels like it’s FOR ace people and not like it’s more interested in educating people who don’t understand.
These conversations also don't feel very organic in the text because they mostly come up when one of the characters outright asks to talk about ace experiences, or when they're in an aroace club meeting, or when they're in a women and gender studies lecture. This, especially when combined with the stilted, overly academic narration style, made it feel like this book shifted into random lectures about identity instead of organically having things come up as issues the characters were struggling with.
rosalyn's review against another edition
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Too much mention of Miss T. Swift. Otherwise, I enjoyed it.
sinoush's review
emotional
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
eloevera's review
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
paprikaschildkroete's review against another edition
emotional
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
cortg15's review against another edition
informative
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
jizellereads's review
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
didn’t really know what this was about until like a little after reading it so i might not have picked it up it if i actually had known the premise. but it was cute, the plot and “tension” just seemed a bit dumb
absarokamw's review against another edition
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
blotchedspots's review
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
I don't think I've ever read a book which focused on even one aro or ace person, so this was a nice change to have two aroaces be the main characters! It was really well written, but there are some parts that while they aren't necessarily "heavy" are not topics I imagine people want to have to deal with if they're reading books as escapism, so just FYI that they do get into some discussions of less than ideal things that float around those identities.