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scriptrix's review against another edition
This concept really hits different after an actual pandemic. She literally "infects" him on purpose for no reason... after 3 years of COVID, that's a yikes from me.
lemonmarigold's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
relaxing
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
bnicely16's review against another edition
lighthearted
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
liralen's review against another edition
3.0
Hooked me with the (erm) hook, but didn't really reel me in with execution. In Quarantine, Flora and Oliver find themselves in a pickle partially of Flora's making: they're in a thirty-day quarantine to make sure they don't 1) have a strong new strain of mono or 2) pass it on to more vulnerable people if they do. They're trending on Twitter and Instagram, the girl Oliver has had a crush on for years is finally interested, and meanwhile it's occurred to them both that (previously strangers) they maybe like each other.
So the concept is fun, and so is the 'quaranteen' hashtag. But I really wanted more, and there were so many ways that this could have been stepped up. Like:
-It's a dual POV book, but I had to keep double-checking to be sure whose chapter I was in, which is not a great sign. I've been thinking about how little I know about the characters, beyond their neighbourhoods of New York and the fact that Oliver is chronically anxious (and has a dead/deadbeat father) and Flora has a cousin with some sort of disability. What are their favourite school subjects? What do they do in their free time? Do they have any idea what they want to study in college? What year of school are they in? How are they managing missing three+ weeks of school? None of this really seems to come into play, because they mostly talk about how Oliver can win the heart (...or hashtags...) of a thoroughly unsympathetic character.
-There's never actually any stress about the super mono. Even when, it's already been established that the mono isn't actually dangerous for most people. It could have had known risks...or risks could have developed over the course of the book...but they weren't.
-The Other Woman is just completely irredeemable, which makes her boring. Worse, Oliver is completely oblivious to the fact that she's both awful and blatantly using him. It would have been so much more complicated if, for example, she had been genuinely interested and they had to figure out that they just weren't a good fit, or if they'd been dating for a while and she'd planned to break up but then felt like she couldn't while he was in quarantine.
-The medical care they receive is...questionable. The CDC is involved, and there's drama, and then...a medical intern is seemingly in charge of 90% of their care, the extent of which seems to be keeping them in semi-isolation and taking their temperature every two hours. For a month. Which means that they're not able to get more than two hours of sleep at a time for a month. Oddly, this doesn't seem to bother them, even though it is a much more obsessive level of temperature collection than is done for a quarantine for, say, Ebola, which is actually, you know, potentially deadly. (Also odd: treatment doesn't really seem to change if somebody is sick, which means that there's no medical purpose to obsessive temperature-checking.) Probably this comes down to a limited amount of research about quarantine and communicable diseases, but...you know what there isn't? There also isn't any mention of, say, doctors coming in to ask lots and lots of questions to figure out how they were exposed; there isn't any mention of med students (other than the ever-present Joey-the-intern) being paraded in to stare at them; there isn't any sense of urgency to their care unless two-hour temperature checks are involved.
-Flora's mono is talked about as a done deal (i.e., she's definitely sick) once she has one high temperature reading. You know what they don't do? They don't do a very basic blood test to confirm mono. What's the timeline on infection? We don't know. Can they test for it? We don't know. What's the treatment? Nothing specific, as far as we know. How has it presented in other patients? We don't really know. DETAILS. If you're going to make up an illness that provides the impetus for the rest of the book, GIVE ME DETAILS. (Note: the book is very very very clearly inspired by Ebola, and I am very very very glad that Cicatelli-Kuc made something up rather than trying to make this a meet-cute Ebola book, which just...sounds wrong on about 12,000 levels.)
-Wouldn't it be interesting if their quarantine were somewhere else? Like, if in addition to dealing with the quarantine, they were dealing with cultural differences or less fancy medical facilities? This might also provide a...less thin...rationale for them sharing a room for the duration of their quarantine. (Realistically, I don't know if this would happen, as repatriation is pretty standard for Big Medical Things, but...wouldn't it be interesting?)
So...still fun? But I wish this had gone through a few more thorough rounds of editing aimed at ramping up literally anything other than the mean-girl drama.
So the concept is fun, and so is the 'quaranteen' hashtag. But I really wanted more, and there were so many ways that this could have been stepped up. Like:
-It's a dual POV book, but I had to keep double-checking to be sure whose chapter I was in, which is not a great sign. I've been thinking about how little I know about the characters, beyond their neighbourhoods of New York and the fact that Oliver is chronically anxious (and has a dead/deadbeat father) and Flora has a cousin with some sort of disability. What are their favourite school subjects? What do they do in their free time? Do they have any idea what they want to study in college? What year of school are they in? How are they managing missing three+ weeks of school? None of this really seems to come into play, because they mostly talk about how Oliver can win the heart (...or hashtags...) of a thoroughly unsympathetic character.
-There's never actually any stress about the super mono. Even when
Spoiler
Flora does turn out to be sick-The Other Woman is just completely irredeemable, which makes her boring. Worse, Oliver is completely oblivious to the fact that she's both awful and blatantly using him. It would have been so much more complicated if, for example, she had been genuinely interested and they had to figure out that they just weren't a good fit, or if they'd been dating for a while and she'd planned to break up but then felt like she couldn't while he was in quarantine.
-The medical care they receive is...questionable. The CDC is involved, and there's drama, and then...a medical intern is seemingly in charge of 90% of their care, the extent of which seems to be keeping them in semi-isolation and taking their temperature every two hours. For a month. Which means that they're not able to get more than two hours of sleep at a time for a month. Oddly, this doesn't seem to bother them, even though it is a much more obsessive level of temperature collection than is done for a quarantine for, say, Ebola, which is actually, you know, potentially deadly. (Also odd: treatment doesn't really seem to change if somebody is sick, which means that there's no medical purpose to obsessive temperature-checking.) Probably this comes down to a limited amount of research about quarantine and communicable diseases, but...you know what there isn't? There also isn't any mention of, say, doctors coming in to ask lots and lots of questions to figure out how they were exposed; there isn't any mention of med students (other than the ever-present Joey-the-intern) being paraded in to stare at them; there isn't any sense of urgency to their care unless two-hour temperature checks are involved.
-Flora's mono is talked about as a done deal (i.e., she's definitely sick) once she has one high temperature reading. You know what they don't do? They don't do a very basic blood test to confirm mono. What's the timeline on infection? We don't know. Can they test for it? We don't know. What's the treatment? Nothing specific, as far as we know. How has it presented in other patients? We don't really know. DETAILS. If you're going to make up an illness that provides the impetus for the rest of the book, GIVE ME DETAILS. (Note: the book is very very very clearly inspired by Ebola, and I am very very very glad that Cicatelli-Kuc made something up rather than trying to make this a meet-cute Ebola book, which just...sounds wrong on about 12,000 levels.)
-Wouldn't it be interesting if their quarantine were somewhere else? Like, if in addition to dealing with the quarantine, they were dealing with cultural differences or less fancy medical facilities? This might also provide a...less thin...rationale for them sharing a room for the duration of their quarantine. (Realistically, I don't know if this would happen, as repatriation is pretty standard for Big Medical Things, but...wouldn't it be interesting?)
So...still fun? But I wish this had gone through a few more thorough rounds of editing aimed at ramping up literally anything other than the mean-girl drama.
goldenhour_reads's review
lighthearted
relaxing
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
clarareadsandwatchesnetflix's review against another edition
3.0
This was written BEFORE the pandemic?!?!? What?!?! Miss Katie got it all right and I am live laugh loving how she predicted the future.
The plot was mid and the characters were very two dimensional. Plus, no people of color or gays but whatever *eye roll* The only person of color was the male mc (he was HALF mexican) and it was never talked about, his side of the family that was mexican was never featured and his dad left him?? what is this weird ass representation?? anyways.. yeah, I'm hispanic and yeah, my dad is present in my life!!! shocking to break it to you guys, but, hispanic fathers are very much present most of the time. That's all. I liked the short chapters too.
The plot was mid and the characters were very two dimensional. Plus, no people of color or gays but whatever *eye roll* The only person of color was the male mc (he was HALF mexican) and it was never talked about, his side of the family that was mexican was never featured and his dad left him?? what is this weird ass representation?? anyways.. yeah, I'm hispanic and yeah, my dad is present in my life!!! shocking to break it to you guys, but, hispanic fathers are very much present most of the time. That's all. I liked the short chapters too.
ammr8973's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
graciesaunders's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
lwanberg's review against another edition
3.0
Overall it’s a cute cheesy romcom, but Oliver stayed with Kelsey for far too long, and Flora is such an overly dramatic teenager I wanted to scream in her face “just get over yourself!!!!!” more than a few times.