4 stars. A good college-age story of a guy coming out of the closet. It was a sweet story and I read it in one sitting. I enjoyed the few unusual aspe4 stars. A good college-age story of a guy coming out of the closet. It was a sweet story and I read it in one sitting. I enjoyed the few unusual aspects of this book -- the cross-dressing and the "furriness". Otherwise, though, it wasn't a particularly memorable romance,
Merged review:
4 stars. A good college-age story of a guy coming out of the closet. It was a sweet story and I read it in one sitting. I enjoyed the few unusual aspects of this book -- the cross-dressing and the "furriness". Otherwise, though, it wasn't a particularly memorable romance,...more
This book came to my attention because it's on the Goodreads Choice Awards for 2016 list in the Romance category. In addition, the Goodreads stats of This book came to my attention because it's on the Goodreads Choice Awards for 2016 list in the Romance category. In addition, the Goodreads stats of over 13,000 ratings and an average rating of 4.24 is pretty impressive. So I thought I'd give it a shot.
Let's see what the popular kids like to read....
First, this is definitely a YA romance book. Not because of a lack of sex. There's actually quite a lot of sex in the book, and intensely detailed sex at that. But the book takes place in high school and revolves around the themes of bullying and wanting to be "a popular kid" in a Lifetime movie kind of way. I must admit that it's been long enough since I've been in high school that the theme didn't really grab me. The book felt like "Mean Girls" done as a romance novel.
It was difficult to like the female protagonist, Ryen, who was a mean girl. The author writes in lots of backstory about how Ryen was bullied when she was young and so decided to become a mean girl herself in order to be popular. However, the 'poor me' fell a little flat, and the choices she made were fairly repellent all the same. Also, it's extremely simplistic to say you either have to be a cruel bully yourself or be unpopular. No, that's not really true. Plenty of people skate a middle line in high school, get along quite well with a small group of friends, or are popular without being mean. So I didn't have a lot of sympathy for Ryen.
However, it's the plot of the novel that Ryen, a mean girl, is disliked by the hero, Misha, precisely because she is mean. So I have to give the book some slack in that regard and I grit my teeth a bit through Ryen 1.0. By the end of the book, Ryen finally ditches the cool kids (or rather, she is ditched by them) and she sticks up for the bullied kid. Character growth, man. Gotta love it.
Beyond that issue, however, the book was entertaining. I can see why it would be very popular with a YA audience. Just like a Lifetime movie, all the tropes are here -- the horrible jock who goes through girls like Kleenex, the gay bff, the nasty slutty girl, the bullied kid. The things I particularly liked about the book were not those things, however. I liked the idea of the vandalism--that someone at the school is spray-painting lyrics and what passes for teenaged wisdom around the school. And the romance plotline also held my interest. There was a bit of a hurt/comfort thing going on with Misha, who had a personal tragedy. I liked him much better than Ryen as a character.
I also kept reading because I wanted to see Ryen redeem herself and see the other mean kids get their comeuppance, which the author delivered. Uh, revenge is sweet. Guess I'm just a mean girl at heart.
Note: What the heck was up with Misha's mother? (view spoiler)[I expected there to be more explanation forthcoming about why she'd left them. Also what she'd done didn't fit at all with her character being a responsible school principle and mother who protected Trey. She wouldn't have at least checked in with her kids? Done something when Annie died? It felt like a cop-out that she never explained why. But I suppose it was all about the rug-pull moment in the story. (hide spoiler)]
Merged review:
This book came to my attention because it's on the Goodreads Choice Awards for 2016 list in the Romance category. In addition, the Goodreads stats of over 13,000 ratings and an average rating of 4.24 is pretty impressive. So I thought I'd give it a shot.
Let's see what the popular kids like to read....
First, this is definitely a YA romance book. Not because of a lack of sex. There's actually quite a lot of sex in the book, and intensely detailed sex at that. But the book takes place in high school and revolves around the themes of bullying and wanting to be "a popular kid" in a Lifetime movie kind of way. I must admit that it's been long enough since I've been in high school that the theme didn't really grab me. The book felt like "Mean Girls" done as a romance novel.
It was difficult to like the female protagonist, Ryen, who was a mean girl. The author writes in lots of backstory about how Ryen was bullied when she was young and so decided to become a mean girl herself in order to be popular. However, the 'poor me' fell a little flat, and the choices she made were fairly repellent all the same. Also, it's extremely simplistic to say you either have to be a cruel bully yourself or be unpopular. No, that's not really true. Plenty of people skate a middle line in high school, get along quite well with a small group of friends, or are popular without being mean. So I didn't have a lot of sympathy for Ryen.
However, it's the plot of the novel that Ryen, a mean girl, is disliked by the hero, Misha, precisely because she is mean. So I have to give the book some slack in that regard and I grit my teeth a bit through Ryen 1.0. By the end of the book, Ryen finally ditches the cool kids (or rather, she is ditched by them) and she sticks up for the bullied kid. Character growth, man. Gotta love it.
Beyond that issue, however, the book was entertaining. I can see why it would be very popular with a YA audience. Just like a Lifetime movie, all the tropes are here -- the horrible jock who goes through girls like Kleenex, the gay bff, the nasty slutty girl, the bullied kid. The things I particularly liked about the book were not those things, however. I liked the idea of the vandalism--that someone at the school is spray-painting lyrics and what passes for teenaged wisdom around the school. And the romance plotline also held my interest. There was a bit of a hurt/comfort thing going on with Misha, who had a personal tragedy. I liked him much better than Ryen as a character.
I also kept reading because I wanted to see Ryen redeem herself and see the other mean kids get their comeuppance, which the author delivered. Uh, revenge is sweet. Guess I'm just a mean girl at heart.
Note: What the heck was up with Misha's mother? (view spoiler)[I expected there to be more explanation forthcoming about why she'd left them. Also what she'd done didn't fit at all with her character being a responsible school principle and mother who protected Trey. She wouldn't have at least checked in with her kids? Done something when Annie died? It felt like a cop-out that she never explained why. But I suppose it was all about the rug-pull moment in the story. (hide spoiler)]...more
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