Reviews

This Is Kind of an Epic Love Story by Kacen Callender

kimapede's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful reflective sad 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

_kayreads_'s review against another edition

emotional hopeful tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

Here is the thing, I like this author a lot. I enjoyed "Felix Ever After". I was hopeful. I just found a lot of the characters bit annoying. I was so proud of Ollie for standing upstairs for himself when he was treated bad by Nate. But I really didn't like Flo for most of the book. 

I thought the ending was sweet though.  It is about growing and dealing with pushing boundaries. Overall, 2.5

zk00's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

aliena_jackson's review

1.0

It’s really creepy that someone wrote a bunch of sixteen year olds as obsessed with sex. Sex and relationships are ALL they talk about, and it’s creepy. The pacing is super fast, and not in a good way. To put it into perspective: I was 15 pages from the end and I thought about quitting then and there because I hated all of these characters so much. Don’t waste your time with this one folks, it’s not worth the agony.

christiana's review against another edition

3.0

Pretty scattered and inarticulate for me. Bird and his friends say “sorry” constantly, don’t know what they want until someone kind of tells them what to do, and can’t keep each other’s secrets to save their lives (just like real teens), but for some reason, it read more annoying than endearing for me.

abbie_'s review against another edition

lighthearted fast-paced

2.5

This is my third book by Kacen Callender and I definitely prefer their middle grade stuff to their YA. I liked Felix Ever After more than this though, unfortunately this was just too much teenage drama for the sake of drama. Characters go from berating other characters for cheating, to cheating themselves within 50 pages. Nate flits from being in love with Flo to being in love with Oliver James in about three seconds flat. Also, if you cannot even say the words relating to sex out loud, you’re not ready to have sex. Oh boy.

As always, though, love the casual queer rep and also the deaf rep in this book. Also liked Nate’s mam, and their backstory - both of them find themselves hesitant to dive into relationships because of losing their dad/husband young. But most things, the grief included, felt a tad rushed. 

Not bad, just not really for me!

animelanie's review against another edition

3.0

3.5 stars

papertraildiary's review

4.0

This book is so awesome. More coherent notes to come... might bump up to 5..

steph01924's review

3.0

Not really my cup of tea. The characters were very messy in a realistic way, but unfortunately they were all kind of a jerky in a realistic way too. Check out my full review at Forever Young Adult.

shelw93's review against another edition

3.0

I’m in the middle of this book, and I’ve had a lot of mixed feelings while reading but overall I am really enjoying it. Nathan is such a relatable character for me. I don’t always agree with what he’s doing but he’s emotion behind it is so real. Flo has been getting on my damn nerves, it kinda feels like I’m suppose to like her but I don’t. She’s so selfish and should give him room to get over her. OKAY the real reason I had to stop reading and leave a review right now is because of this part I just read.

“Well, none of us think we’re really any good at anything. Most times, turns out we’re not.”
My eyebrows raise. Most times, people just say something like, “I’m sure you’re great.”
He pauses, then continues, “You could be shit at it. That doesn’t mean you should stop.”
He claps his hands together for a second, thinking carefully about his words, before he keeps speaking. “If you feel the need to do it—to write, or paint, or take photos, or anything—then that’s what you have to do. That’s the one most important thing that you can do. Because if you don’t, then there isn’t any point to anything, right? You’ve got to do it. You’ve got to keep writing.”


This part literally hit so close to me, it’s so beautiful and insightful. Anyways, the writing is really good and the story has been pretty good.

*****

OKAY I have finished it. Hmmmm, I just don’t know how I feel about it overall. There’s a lot I loved and a lot I didn’t like. The writing is good, the characters were okay, Nathan didn’t really have enough character growth for me. Plus when oliver dumped his boyfriend and they got together then they were talking about having sex all happened so fast. the break up felt anticlimactic and I think the boys got together too soon. Idk I really did enjoy the read and the writing kept me smiling and getting emotional.