Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

Off the Record by Camryn Garrett

6 reviews

labyrith_of_a_thousand_mirrors's review against another edition

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challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective 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

5.0

Took me a while to read it, which made it hard to remember names that weren't mentioned for a while. But that's on me. And so is taking long. My depressed ADHD brain was just a mess for a while. But today reading was what helped so I finished it. 

I really liked the writing style, though I sometimes felt taken out of the scene by all of the thoughts that were sprinkled in between dialogue. It made the reaction time just seem... off. Not saying it's not realistic, I know from experience, anxiety thoughts are faster than spoken words. But you don't read them faster than the dialogue. You experience the scene at the pace you're reading. But I actually struggle with the same thing in my writing. 
I kinda like the point it left off. Might seem unfinished to some but I think it ended in the right place. 
I really enjoyed the relationship between the sisters. Garrett managed to masterfully walk the line between "unrealistically perfect" and "over the top abusive." They were still realistic sibling relationships, with all the bickering that doesn't make it toxic but just realistic. They still love and support each other, even though they get on each other's nerves. I wish I had that with my siblings.
The book tackled a really tough topic. And I think she masterfully did it. Without it being a dogma. It was still nuanced, I like the distinction between "problematic faves" and "faves that ruin somebody's life". The bottom line was just "stuff is not black and white" and "there is not one right way of acting as a survivor."
Also, good job on the fat representation. As someone who is not fat, this really broadened my view on what it's like to be fat. I already had some idea, but this definetely added to it. 

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lqvekanej's review

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challenging emotional fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0


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aus10england's review

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adventurous fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.75

First half: two stars 
Second half: three stars 

This was quite the whirlwind of the story, some aspects that I like included the diversity, the mental health rep, the behind the scenes look of journalism,  and the well written banter between characters. 

Some things that didn’t work for me was the pacing, I felt that even though we were going on a multi city adventure, it all kind of blurred together. 

Also the story arch of
the main character not getting into college was all but wrapped up in like a paragraph which was kind of confusing.


Could totally see a huge number of people loving this story, just wasn’t for me unfortunately. 

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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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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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melaniereadsbooks's review

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challenging emotional funny inspiring reflective 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? Yes

4.5

Thank you to Netgalley and Knopf Books for Young Readers for an arc of this book.

Josie has always had anxiety, but she doesn't let that stop her from pursuing her dream of becoming a journalist.  When she wins a competition for Deep Focus magazine, she is sent on a 2 week long publicity tour with the cast and crew of a new movie to write a profile on the lead actor.  What she doesn't expect is a more important story comes to light while talking to the cast of the movie, and she knows that she will have to do everything in her power to make sure it gets told.

I loved this book! I feel like this is such an important story to tell, and it is absolutely relevant to our society. I definitely got really angry at what was going on at times and frustrated because it is so similar to things that have happened in real life.

 I also really loved Josie. I majorly identified with her right from the beginning, and got caught up in her journey and character growth! I loved that she didn't have it all together, but she was working on it and determined to succeed. I also really liked the supporting cast, her sister, her new friends and her mentor.  They all were very interesting characters that did a lot for the story.

Pub Date: May 18, 2021




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