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A review by burnedstory
I'll Be the One by Lyla Lee
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
relaxing
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
The story is trying to go places the author is maybe scared to got I do not know, as it is the author's debut in the YA genre, maybe they wanted to play it safe. They deliver but not in the way you would expect from the description or the marketing of the book.
The writing is kind of meh here and there but then again it's a first book, so understandable. There is some slang or maybe tonig of sentences that's very social mediasque but again, this work is published in 2020 and the characters are teenagers so that's fair I guess.
I loved how the mother daughter relationship is handled in the story, very realistic not at all flowers and roses. That's my favourite thing about the book.
My second favourite would be the potrayal of friendships for some reason a lot of times teenage female friendships in settings like the one of the story are portrayed catty, which is not real cause community or friendships in teen years are your biggest supporters. I understand a lot of people don't find them but a lot do as well.
The romance subplot in my opinion was unnecessary it's very cute and fluffy though.
I also liked the author mentioning the fetishization of Korean culture by some westerners, it's a little mention not even a subplot but I was hoping there would be something like that so that's a plus point from me.
Now, I am not a plus size person and neither is the author (they mention so in the acknowledgement) so the fatphobia seemed very and I mean very surface level. It's also hard to believe that a 17 year old is so mature in the environment Skye is in especially, she has support but it still boggled my mind a little to directly be presented with a confident person but then again me expecting a fat person to have body image issues is fatphobic. Saying this, Skye does have issues but we aren't really shown how she overcame them or how she actually handles them now which was a huge disappointment for me. Also no inner mechanisms of the show are focused on, considering it's the most important part of the story, I would have liked more insight into that.
To sum it up all, kind of performative but cozy and comforting read. Would definitely recommend if yoh like the premise of it. Now, I have a bunch of k-pop artists to listen to that are mentioned in the book.
P.S- As a Straykids fan, lobed it when district 9 was mentioned. A little special moment for me.
The writing is kind of meh here and there but then again it's a first book, so understandable. There is some slang or maybe tonig of sentences that's very social mediasque but again, this work is published in 2020 and the characters are teenagers so that's fair I guess.
I loved how the mother daughter relationship is handled in the story, very realistic not at all flowers and roses. That's my favourite thing about the book.
My second favourite would be the potrayal of friendships for some reason a lot of times teenage female friendships in settings like the one of the story are portrayed catty, which is not real cause community or friendships in teen years are your biggest supporters. I understand a lot of people don't find them but a lot do as well.
The romance subplot in my opinion was unnecessary it's very cute and fluffy though.
I also liked the author mentioning the fetishization of Korean culture by some westerners, it's a little mention not even a subplot but I was hoping there would be something like that so that's a plus point from me.
Now, I am not a plus size person and neither is the author (they mention so in the acknowledgement) so the fatphobia seemed very and I mean very surface level. It's also hard to believe that a 17 year old is so mature in the environment Skye is in especially, she has support but it still boggled my mind a little to directly be presented with a confident person but then again me expecting a fat person to have body image issues is fatphobic. Saying this, Skye does have issues but we aren't really shown how she overcame them or how she actually handles them now which was a huge disappointment for me. Also no inner mechanisms of the show are focused on, considering it's the most important part of the story, I would have liked more insight into that.
To sum it up all, kind of performative but cozy and comforting read. Would definitely recommend if yoh like the premise of it. Now, I have a bunch of k-pop artists to listen to that are mentioned in the book.
P.S- As a Straykids fan, lobed it when district 9 was mentioned. A little special moment for me.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Fatphobia