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A review by briannareadsbooks
How to Be Remy Cameron by Julian Winters
3.0
ARC provided by the publisher via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.
This book was cute and fun and didn't take me long to read! It took me three days to get like 15% into it because I was not that interested in first. But then I really dived in and finished the last 85% in an afternoon. It was nice, but not one of my favourite books.
I'll start off with some things I wasn't a fan of. First, there were so many characters that I couldn't keep up with. I still didn't remember the differences between some of Remy's best friends and I just let it go. Another thing was so much of the conversation and Remy's thoughts were cringe-y. I kind of got over that too and thought that maybe it was just Remy's personality and not the writing? It was also a tad predictable at times. There were two major plot points I saw coming that didn't really surprise me. The Mad Tagger plot was useless to me, it seemed to mainly be there for the sole purpose of giving the characters something to talk about other than Remy's boy drama. Lastly, while I think the discussion of labels in this story is important to people who don't really like to fit under a label, as someone who loves labels and labelling myself as things because they bring comfort and security, I couldn't connect with Remy's struggle of trying to deflect all the labels people were throwing at him.
But there were lots of things I really liked! For one, it was the diversity of the cast of characters. I will admit that when the ~diverse~ characters were introduced, it seemed that Julian Winters tried not to make it a big deal. But then it ended up seeming like a big deal and a little forced. Besides that cringe-y introduction of all the characters in Remy's friend group, the rest of the characters and their lives/races/sexualities were pretty subtle. This was pretty realistic to me as someone who went to a majorly racially and sexually diverse high school. It was very common for people of different races and sexualities to be out and open. Also, I LOVED REMY. He was so cool, I would love to be friends with him. His life and intersections were very interesting to me and I think he's just a great person. His relationship with Ian was very wholesome to me and the way they explored coming out, sex, talking, and their relationship in general with such patience and care was so beautiful!
Overall, this book was just okay but I know it will touch many people. I'm interested in reading Running with Lions now, though!
This book was cute and fun and didn't take me long to read! It took me three days to get like 15% into it because I was not that interested in first. But then I really dived in and finished the last 85% in an afternoon. It was nice, but not one of my favourite books.
I'll start off with some things I wasn't a fan of. First, there were so many characters that I couldn't keep up with. I still didn't remember the differences between some of Remy's best friends and I just let it go. Another thing was so much of the conversation and Remy's thoughts were cringe-y. I kind of got over that too and thought that maybe it was just Remy's personality and not the writing? It was also a tad predictable at times. There were two major plot points I saw coming that didn't really surprise me. The Mad Tagger plot was useless to me, it seemed to mainly be there for the sole purpose of giving the characters something to talk about other than Remy's boy drama. Lastly, while I think the discussion of labels in this story is important to people who don't really like to fit under a label, as someone who loves labels and labelling myself as things because they bring comfort and security, I couldn't connect with Remy's struggle of trying to deflect all the labels people were throwing at him.
But there were lots of things I really liked! For one, it was the diversity of the cast of characters. I will admit that when the ~diverse~ characters were introduced, it seemed that Julian Winters tried not to make it a big deal. But then it ended up seeming like a big deal and a little forced. Besides that cringe-y introduction of all the characters in Remy's friend group, the rest of the characters and their lives/races/sexualities were pretty subtle. This was pretty realistic to me as someone who went to a majorly racially and sexually diverse high school. It was very common for people of different races and sexualities to be out and open. Also, I LOVED REMY. He was so cool, I would love to be friends with him. His life and intersections were very interesting to me and I think he's just a great person. His relationship with Ian was very wholesome to me and the way they explored coming out, sex, talking, and their relationship in general with such patience and care was so beautiful!
Overall, this book was just okay but I know it will touch many people. I'm interested in reading Running with Lions now, though!