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parasolcrafter's review
emotional
lighthearted
sad
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? Yes
1.5
this book is very...odd. its unclear who the audience is, as the writing is fairly juvenile and easy to follow, but the two sexual scenes in the book dont fit with a younger audience, but the writing isnt developed enough for an older audience. the adults feel stereotypical in their roles, too; the only father thats really there is a hardass whose been bad to his children, and the mothers are only there to be loving and supportive without motives of their own :/ his birth mother does have a sort of motive, but its shoved in at the end and her storyline ends abruptly so it doesnt even really matter. and his father development is HORRIBLE. like all it takes is one conversation for his dad to be nice to him...? im sorry, but thats not how things EVER happen with bad parents.
the main characters were fine, but they all just seemed shallow which is a shame because i saw potential for them all. this book needed to be longer and , frankly, better written. the pacing of this story is way off and it makes the relationship between gio and david very rushed into; the amount of pop-culture references was annoying as hell; the near therapy-level of speak from everyone is flat-out unrealistic and sterilized; and the shoe-horned in dialogue of things that just feel like bullet-points of inclusion is just sloppy, honestly. like...i dont get what this book was really trying to do? like, everything was just surface level and hardly explored or expanded upon, which is unfortunate because it had so many good things going for it! it really didnt work on anything it tried to touch on.
the main characters were fine, but they all just seemed shallow which is a shame because i saw potential for them all. this book needed to be longer and , frankly, better written. the pacing of this story is way off and it makes the relationship between gio and david very rushed into; the amount of pop-culture references was annoying as hell; the near therapy-level of speak from everyone is flat-out unrealistic and sterilized; and the shoe-horned in dialogue of things that just feel like bullet-points of inclusion is just sloppy, honestly. like...i dont get what this book was really trying to do? like, everything was just surface level and hardly explored or expanded upon, which is unfortunate because it had so many good things going for it! it really didnt work on anything it tried to touch on.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Death, Grief, Alcohol, Terminal illness, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, Chronic illness, Religious bigotry, Abandonment, Alcoholism, Cursing, and Drug use
Moderate: Gun violence, Mental illness, Sexual content, Child abuse, Homophobia, Biphobia, Infidelity, and Classism
zombiezami's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
tense
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
3.75
I liked how earnest this was. This book addresses a lot of issues that teens face. However, as others have said, the prose and characterization weren't quite right, given that the characters were teens. I also don't think it was necessary to describe the sexual encounters between teenagers. Otherwise, I liked this.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abandonment
Moderate: Racism, Alcohol, Homophobia, Biphobia, Sexual content, Chronic illness, Police brutality, and Gaslighting
Minor: Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Cursing, Gun violence, Alcoholism, Addiction, Child abuse, Child death, Adult/minor relationship, Pregnancy, Infidelity, Drug use, and Death of parent
Gangs, death of a sibling
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