Reviews with content warning for Racism - Off the Record

Reviews tagging 'Racism'

Off the Record by Camryn Garrett

22 reviews

taleofabibliophile's review

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adventurous challenging emotional reflective tense fast-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? No

4.75

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e_flah's review

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challenging emotional inspiring medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Off the Record tackles a lot of topics in a relatively short page count with mixed results. I found Josie's journey to grow in her confidence as a journalist really compelling and appreciated her complicated relationship with her sister, Alice. This book had a powerful emotional climax that was very well-written. It was also great to see YA grapple with questions about separating the art from the artist, which is a discussion that only seems to grow more important.

For what didn't quite work for me -- The romance between Josie and Marius felt a little bit under-developed. I would've loved seeing more of them navigating romantic interest before jumping all-in. The pacing felt a bit wonky as well. The events in the synopsis don't happen until around the 100-page mark but then so much is packed into the remainder of the book.

I just wish Off the Record had been a smidge longer. I would've loved a bit more time with Josie and Marius, particularly

as the reconciliation between them at the end felt super rushed

. There are many topics in this book that would have benefitted from more exploration. All that said, though, I found Off the Record a compelling YA contemporary that did an excellent job thoughtfully tackling #metoo.

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janvpals's review

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challenging emotional hopeful inspiring medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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jennalouisereads's review

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emotional hopeful informative inspiring 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? It's complicated

4.75

TRIGGER WARNING: Sexual assault, sexual harassment, fatphobia, internalized fatphobia

17 year old Josie Wright is an aspiring journalist who just won a contest with Deep Focus magazine to write a profile on rising movie star Marius Canet. Soon she finds herself in a world surrounded by glamour, a world where as Black, bisexual and fat, she feels like she'll never fit in, despite her growing feelings for Marius. She finds a friend in Penny, Marius' costar who ends up confiding in Josie about an open Hollywood secret, the well respected and revered director Roy Lennox has sexually assaulted not only her but various other women in in the industry. Lennox also happens to be the director that Marius is working with next. Penny knows that Josie is the only one that can tell this story and expose Lennox. But Josie is herself is reluctant. What if she lets these women down? What if she ruins Marius budding career? But she won't give these women their voice...who will?

Do you ever read a book that you love so much you wonder? Why haven't I heard about this book before? That's how I felt reading Off the Record. I really loved how despite that fact that this book dealt with such heavy topics it still felt like a teen driven story. Yes the story is so so so important but I loved how it was ultimately a book about Josie and her relationship to what was going on. The writing style was also very easy to jump into and the author did a great job balancing themes of not only sexual assault, but anxiety and fatphobia. The romance was also really well done too.

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betweentheshelves's review

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emotional inspiring 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

2021 appears to be the year of YA contemporaries talking about powerful men getting exposed for abusing their power. I've read probably 3 or 4 books specifically on this topic that came out this year. I'm not complaining, though! I think these are important discussions to have, and the more we talk about it, the more we can hold these people accountable.

Outside of the plot/subject matter, there is a lot of great representation in this book. Josie struggles with being fat in the book, accepting herself and feeling confident. She's also bisexual (or possibly pansexual), though this is a much quieter part of the book. Garrett has crafted an extremely relevant book that I think will resonate with a lot of teens.

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pastry's review

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emotional hopeful inspiring fast-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? It's complicated

3.5

This was really good, and the whole #MeToo plotline was really moving, I really appreciated how well this was written, and how hard it was for so many of these people to come forward and speak out against someone in such a powerful position. However, I think that part is so incredible, but this book at the heart was still mostly a YA about teenage love, and while that's cute, overall it felt a bit odd of a mix and oftentimes the teenage love stuff would overshadow the really important story that Camryn Garrett is actually trying to tell. I still really genuinely recommend it, because it is such an important story and still so well written too, it just wasn't a 100% for me.

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platoniciris's review

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challenging emotional inspiring tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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sidbookreviews's review

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emotional inspiring fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

Wow, this book was so good! I loved Camryn Garrett's first book, Full Disclosure, but I think I loved this one even more! Off the Record is such an important and powerful book, and I absolutely loved Josie and her voice. Honestly so much of this book was just perfect, from the characters to the romance. Definitely a new favourite!

Full review to come on my blog soon!

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mfieldshalva's review

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challenging emotional hopeful reflective tense 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

4.0

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ame_lepage's review

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challenging emotional inspiring fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I really liked this, but there was just a lot going on.
This book tried to be many things. Overall, I think it was pretty well done, but in terms of personal preferences, I would have liked the plot to focus more on the Metoo movement and the experiences of the victims. I thought the author sometimes shied away from certain aspects and I would have liked her to go deeper.
However, I did find a lot of myself in the main character Josie. I could really relate to her on many aspects like her anxiety and her problem with body image.
I discussed many important themes and I think it's a book that everyone should read.

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