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A review by smokedshelves
Seven Percent of Ro Devereux by Ellen O'Clover
5.0
thank you to the author and harper teen for providing an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.
now, i don’t know when this review will be posted. i’m currently writing this mid-strike. so, of course, i’m not posting this until, well, who knows when. but what i can say is it’s a bit of a shame that i can’t immediately rave about my first five star read of the year. and who knows if i’ll have none, one, or even ten more until then. ultimately, i’m so glad that this is my first five star read of 2023.
when i’d first heard about this book, i remember it pitched as a bit like a black mirror-esque story using the childhood game of MASH as a tipping point. and you might not know this about me, but i absolutely adore black mirror. its messy and scary and it’s the type of stories (many, which are set in our near contemporary world) that gives me the underlying heebie-jeebies. and that’s a bit what i was hoping for with this story.
now, i knew going into it that it wasn’t going to get as dark, this is a YA contemporary after all. but it has its sad moments and it has its concerning moments following ro (and miller) after getting unexpectedly thrust into the limelight. we see how people can be power hungry, how an image can be created and destroyed within such a short life cycle. we experience a flame catch over an imperfect app, changing peoples life trajectories. and i ate it all up.
i truly truly adored the tech side of it, even though i’m not usually the biggest fan of stories featuring fame or celebrities. but for this, we see how ro is still just a teenager, wanting to have her thing. wanting to do her best. wanting to prove her deep-set insecurities wrong. and that’s what kept me hooked. ro, and all her flaws. ro, knowing when she finally went too far and working to correct her mistakes. it’s humanistic.
oh, and of course throw in a little bit of second chance, childhood best friends romance and you’ve got the icing on the cake. honestly, there’s so much i could say about the parallels between ro and miller’s childhood and the events of the book. but we’d be here a while. just know, it was so so well done. at least i think so.
this whole book was just so technically polished, everything thought out so perfectly for me, but still so real and in the nitty-gritty of this teenager’s life. and i happily flew through it all.
now, i don’t know when this review will be posted. i’m currently writing this mid-strike. so, of course, i’m not posting this until, well, who knows when. but what i can say is it’s a bit of a shame that i can’t immediately rave about my first five star read of the year. and who knows if i’ll have none, one, or even ten more until then. ultimately, i’m so glad that this is my first five star read of 2023.
when i’d first heard about this book, i remember it pitched as a bit like a black mirror-esque story using the childhood game of MASH as a tipping point. and you might not know this about me, but i absolutely adore black mirror. its messy and scary and it’s the type of stories (many, which are set in our near contemporary world) that gives me the underlying heebie-jeebies. and that’s a bit what i was hoping for with this story.
now, i knew going into it that it wasn’t going to get as dark, this is a YA contemporary after all. but it has its sad moments and it has its concerning moments following ro (and miller) after getting unexpectedly thrust into the limelight. we see how people can be power hungry, how an image can be created and destroyed within such a short life cycle. we experience a flame catch over an imperfect app, changing peoples life trajectories. and i ate it all up.
i truly truly adored the tech side of it, even though i’m not usually the biggest fan of stories featuring fame or celebrities. but for this, we see how ro is still just a teenager, wanting to have her thing. wanting to do her best. wanting to prove her deep-set insecurities wrong. and that’s what kept me hooked. ro, and all her flaws. ro, knowing when she finally went too far and working to correct her mistakes. it’s humanistic.
oh, and of course throw in a little bit of second chance, childhood best friends romance and you’ve got the icing on the cake. honestly, there’s so much i could say about the parallels between ro and miller’s childhood and the events of the book. but we’d be here a while. just know, it was so so well done. at least i think so.
this whole book was just so technically polished, everything thought out so perfectly for me, but still so real and in the nitty-gritty of this teenager’s life. and i happily flew through it all.