themermaddie's reviews
467 reviews

i feel like firstly i need to give a blanket statement that the premise of this book gives off alllllll the red flags, but it was available at the library and i was curious what this obvious rwrb rip off would change. the 2 stars is for the book itself, not counting for the overall problematic aspect of the entire concept.

first, dre was ... annoying as fuck. he was self and whiny and weirdly not empathetic to dean's decision to stay in the closet, especially as the son of the literal republican nominee. his voice did not endear him to me and i didn't care about him at all, therefore i'm annoyed that my favourite character was the white republican boy. dre seemed to take his parents unconditional love for granted and i was not a fan of how he just didn't seem to understand why dean wasn't in the same safe environment to come out as he was. secondly, i'm not mexican so i can't speak for that rep specifically, but dre's pov definitely doesn't read as poc. it hardly seems a factor in his dislike of dean's mom; instead he only criticises her for her lgbt legislation and gun control (which are both things to criticise) but it was especially strange to not address the border issues as a mexican american. poc experience doesn't get erased by queerness and that definitely does not come thru here. it kinda felt like dre and his family were only mexican so that dre's dad could have something "count against him", in the way that dean's mother being a woman counts against her, by way of different societal privileges.

i actually felt a lot of empathy for dean's situation, that's an incredibly difficult position to be in. i wish there had been more about his relationship with his mom, i enjoyed the bit near the end where he expresses all the things he disagrees with her about and how he still can't stop loving her. it's a complicated relationship to have with someone like that, especially one's own mother, and i think that sort of complexity would have been more compelling than the end result of "dean's Republican Mom gets a redemption arc bc she accepts him on national tv." i liked him much more than dre and i thought his actions felt more believable, but the way he speaks can get a little didactic, especially when it comes to speaking about his sexuality. i saw someone else criticise the portrayal of the asexual character as stiff and robotic; i'm not ace but definitely worth a thought.

i thought their romance was insta but it was developed over time after that. it was weird that they got so close so fast after the shooting drill, esp when they didn't really know/like each other. it was also very ~teenage~ which like, yeah i know it's YA but YA can still be complex and good? this book tried to take on so many difficult topics while also trying to appeal to a YA romance crowd and it just doesn't really succeed at any of them. the political atmosphere doesn't really succeed in playing out, neither of them feel genuinely swamped by the election, and the election ends up feeling like a proxy for their teenager love affair.

the blackmail plot was obvious from the very moment it was introduced and was horribly executed. it was so obvious that this apolitical political romance needed a third party candidate to be the "real villain" who ended up just being the antagonist in a kids spy movie. the ending was cheesy and unrealistic, and SPOILERS the lack of reveal in the final chapter is such a cop out and a terrible way to end the book. you can't yell "love wins, asshole" and not reveal whether or not dean's mom repeals gay marriage. dre and dean's gay love is not more important than legislation that actively puts queer ppl's lives in danger and love doesn't conquer all, particularly not here.

there's so much to complain about but i'm sleepy and this book was a bad idea. i don't know how this could've ended happily even having READ the happy ending.

also who the fuck is mindy and why is she like that lmao

3.5 stars

ummm lesbian spy? yes please.

i had a lot of fun with this one! i loved the way it was told in dual timelines and really got to know and love vera in that way, i liked the back and forth exploration of her character. i can't say i followed the political discussion the entire time lmao but i did understand it in the atmospheric sense, so at least the setting was built nicely. it felt like the bits in killing eve where villanelle is living in paris, just laying low and observing. i like vera but i do wish i could have gotten to know her on a more personal level, it feels as though i'm still being kept at a little bit of a distance. it's a very spy noir type of book, and the writing was just beautiful so i rounded up to 4 stars. i am excited for thé second book!!

sophie gonzales's YA books w bisexual main characters >>>>

i admit i was a little hesitant about picking this one up bc i don't like grease, but i love sophie gonzales so i had to give it a try. she always creates such realistic and complex high school friend groups, everyone feels like they could be a real person and i love it. i loved how weird lara was in particular, i have such a soft spot for her.
i didn't think i'd fall for will like i did, he's just a sweet confused boy and to be honest he's a little bit basic/bland but in the same way you just can't not like him??? little bit of a himbo with a mean streak. i thought ollie was unfair to him occasionally, just bc ollie couldn't understand what it was like to be closeted in north carolina as opposed to california, but i liked that the book touched on not losing yourself in a relationship, and i do think that ollie's requests of will were very reasonable and just ~self care~. i love a good HEA so i'm glad we got there in the end. this isn't an all time favourite for me but sophie gonzales did deliver once again so i'm completely here for it

3.5 stars

read for class, review to come later, after i've written my essay :)

~

okay i'm back and if you saw me turning in my essay 24 hours late no you didn't

i enjoyed this book far more than i expected to. i thought this was a really lovely translation that had some beautiful turns of phrases, and the writing was stunning. the narrative is very much nonlinear in a postmodern way, i liked how duras wove storylines through one another by playing w the chronology of events. now i see how her affair with the chinese man was the lena through which she was able to analyse her family traumas, as though unable to look at it directly like the sun unless filtered through another event. you never really hear about specifics about her brother's death, but i feel like that's the point; it's not really about what happened but its effects on you in the wake of it, and that very much gets conveyed.

interesting introduction, and beautifully reprinted versions of frida's diary in full colour printed on sturdy paper. i thought the analysis in the back was helpful for someone like me who went in with close to no knowledge about frida's life, although i do feel like some analyses verged on unnecessary assumptions (e.g. "she must have been in a bad mood when she painted this" or "these ink splotches illustrate her declining health bc her hands must have shook") but what do i know, i do comparative lit not art history, maybe that's how all AH books are. as someone writing an essay on this book, i would also like to say that referencing this and having to flip back and forth to find the corresponding page and analysis was hell, and don't even get me started on trying to track down one specific drawing.

godDAMN this was a good book

i didnt love my last shaun david hutchinson book but this one deserves all the stars! the relationships in this book are absolutely stellar, the best of which is obviously dino and july's, which is a good thing bc this is very much the kind of story that hinges on the strength of their relationship.
their friendship and subsequent breakup felt so realistic, it wasn't forced or pointless and both dino and july had such distinct personalities that it just worked. i normally don't love dual povs but this one is a rulebreaker for me, they both had such strong voices and each switching chapter offered some kind of valuable insight that was worth it.
the writing was quirky, the dead not staying dead was fun and handled with good comedic timing. the world felt so fleshed out and realistic despite the temporary zombie status of some, and you know i love a good coming of age allegory. i love grief stories as well and this felt so fresh and different, i love how it was weird and kinda out of focus but still grounded in real feelings and emotions. at the end of the day it's just a story about two friends getting closure in death by telling them they love each other, yknow?

3.5 stars

this was fun to read and get carried away in the atmosphere, but the ending doesn't pack a very hard punch, it felt a little obvious. i enjoyed the characterisations of mira and the others, i thought her motivations were believable and sympathetic. potential spoiler, i feel like the asides from the antagonist were an interesting way to lay red herrings and clues for the reader but i feel like it also gave it away in the end.

3.5 stars

this was fun, but less haunting than i expected after the haunting of hill house and bly manor (to be fair, i've only seen the netflix adaptations). jackson has a fantastic way of setting the scene and creating an atmosphere, and i loved merricat's unreliable narration. this is a lovely little story about two strange sisters bonded together thru feelings of otherness and love, and it really is a lot more wholesome than i thought it would be. i enjoyed the writing and the story; i understand why jackson didn't really explicitly tell the readers why merricat killed their family (although i understand the movie makes it explicitly about abuse) and that's fine, it just caught me off guard a bit, even though the entire time i had been waiting for the other shoe to drop. all in all, i had a good time with this book and story, i'm just not raving about it.

a delight as always

3.5 stars

WOW ruth ware is fantastic at setting an atmosphere. this was suspenseful thriller that kept me on my toes, it felt like being gaslit for the whole book and i had a good time with it. lo's voice is so strong and distinct, she's such a well developed and flawed character and it was such a delight to be in her head. i thought the depiction of the anxiety served to heighten the paranoia so much, it made the story seem that much more claustrophobic. i didn't expect the twist/explanation either, definitely deserving of the agatha christie comparison