Julie Murphy

Ramona Blue

For fans of Rainbow Rowell and Morgan Matson comes this sharp and thought-provoking novel about modern love, family, and the labels that we just can’t seem to escape—from Julie Murphy, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Dumplin’ and Side Effects May Vary. Ramona was only five years old when Hurricane Katrina changed her life forever. Since then, it’s been Ramona and her family against the world. One of only two out lesbians in her small town and standing over six feet tall with unmistakable blue hair, Ramona knows she’s destined for something bigger than the trailer she calls home in Eulogy, Mississippi. But juggling multiple jobs, her flaky mom, and her well-meaning but ineffectual dad forces her to be the responsible adult of the family. Now, with her sister, Hattie, pregnant, her responsibilities weigh more heavily than ever. The return of her childhood friend Freddie brings a welcome distraction. Ramona’s friendship with the former competitive swimmer picks up exactly where it left off, and soon he’s talked her into joining him for laps at the pool. As Ramona falls more in love with swimming, her feelings for Freddie begin to shift as well, and she must decide if knowing who she is is more important than figuring out who she might become.

Alexa M

**3.5/5 stars** loved Ramona’s character

aurora

As a bi(?) girl myself it was so nice to sort of see myself in this wonderful character. I loved Ramona so much & this was an honest and real kind of read.

Jeannette Ordas

This is really a 2.5 star read. While there were interesting characters who had interesting lives, I just wasn't super invested in the story.

jess

Can I just ay that I am so glad that a book like this has come about? Usually, books about bisexuality tend towards a person discovering feelings for people of the same gender. So I was excited to see a book about a girl discovering her bisexuality after identifying as a lesbian - because it does happen. Sexuality can be fluid and labels can change over time, and it's nice to see books reflect it now. I think Ramona Blue does well in regards to respecting both bisexual and lesbian identities, and it's definitely a book I want out there. 

As a character, Ramona didn't stand out to me much, honestly. I did like Freddie. He was actually really cute, and usually male love interests bore me, so I think he was very well-written. One of my favourite things about this book was Ramona's relationship with her sister Hattie, and how protective they are over each other. It was really sweet to see, especially because of Hattie's pregnancy and how iffy of a person Tyler was. 

I did think that this book could have been a bit shorter, because especially towards the end I was getting a bit bored. I really liked how it ended, though. I have seen some people not like how Ramona doesn't commit to calling herself bisexual, or doesn't know how to label herself, but I can understand not wanting to label yourself or not knowing because. Labels are hard. But all in all, I quite enjoyed this book; it was a very refreshing portrayal of bisexuality that isn't seen often, and less of a romance than a story of self-discovery.

Charlotte 

A book with your favourite colour in the title ✔

Amanda Kordeliski

Flavia Louise

4.5 stars
Okay so maybe I'm a little too generous here. But this is the 1000th book I'm marking as read on Goodreads and I've been wanting to read this book for a while and I liked it. So it's getting that rating. :)

Alexa Jade

anderson elizabeth

a cute wholesome book that covers the fluidity/journey of trying to figure out your sexuality, race, poverty, and the love of swimming. i really enjoyed listening to this book and whizzed through it in 2 days

Grace O'Callaghan

This was just the right mix of fluff and hard hitting that I needed. There was talk of race, sexuality and teen pregnancy whilst also being adorable friendship moments and sweet romances.

• Julie Murphy definitely captured that small town vibe. I felt like I was right there in the South with Ramona as she lived her small town life. Some people were closed minded, about Ramona and her friend’s sexualities as well as Ramona’s sister’s pregnancy. It just all felt so close knit and I loved reading about it.

• Ramona was an awesome protagonist. I truly admired her selfless nature, work ethic and her unflinching ability to just be herself. I loved how she grew into a person who puts herself more and realises that she can’t protect and help everyone.

• I also adored all the side characters. Hattie was so wild and protective and I love her for it. Ramona and Hattie are the best kind of sisters. The rest of Ramona’s friends were all also unapologetic in who they were.

• Usually I’m not the biggest fan of the friends to lovers trope but you can’t help but adore Freddie. He’s just so charming to everyone and so loving, he’s just a precious cinnamon roll.

• The way sexuality is depicted was wonderful. There aren’t that many stories that I’ve come across that deal with coming out as something and then realising it’s not quite true. In the beginning Ramona and Grace are together and Ramona definitely knows she’s gay until feelings grow for Freddie. Sometimes sexuality is fluid and a constant evolving thing. Ramona never picks a label for herself other than gay because she’s still figuring out what that makes her.

• If you’re reading this book for plot, you’re not going to get any. There’s teenage pregnancy, swimming and small town life so don’t go looking for a grand adventure in this book. If you love slice of life stories you’ll love this one.

A great balanced summer read on sexual fluidity and small town life. I’d recommend if you’re looking for more books featuring a character that is attracted to more than one gender and if you’re looking for sisterly affection.

From Julie Murphy, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Dumplin’ and Side Effects May Vary, comes another fearless heroine, Ramona Blue, in a gorgeously evocative novel about family, friendship, and how sometimes love can be more fluid than you first think. Perfect for fans of Rainbow Rowell and Morgan Matson. Ramona was only five years old when Hurricane Katrina changed her life forever. Since then, it’s been Ramona and her family against the world. Standing over six feet tall with unmistakable blue hair, Ramona is sure of three things: she likes girls, she’s fiercely devoted to her family, and she knows she’s destined for something bigger than the trailer she calls home in Eulogy, Mississippi. But juggling multiple jobs, her flaky mom, and her well-meaning but ineffectual dad forces her to be the adult of the family. Now, with her sister, Hattie, pregnant, responsibility weighs more heavily than ever. The return of her childhood friend Freddie brings a welcome distraction. Ramona’s friendship with the former competitive swimmer picks up exactly where it left off, and soon he’s talked her into joining him for laps at the pool. But as Ramona falls in love with swimming, her feelings for Freddie begin to shift too, which is the last thing she expected. With her growing affection for Freddie making her question her sexual identity, Ramona begins to wonder if perhaps she likes girls and guys or if this new attraction is just a fluke. Either way, Ramona will discover that, for her, life and love are more fluid than they seem.

Chrissy

I went into this book with the knowledge of so many people complaining about this book being harmful by showing that the right man can turn a lesbian straight. So as I listened to this I tried to listen carefully to all the scenes that discuss sexuality and preference. Ramona is very clear about her still being attracted to woman and wondering how she is even attracted to Freddie. So I wonder if those who have read the book can explain to me why they still feel that way and why they didn't like this book.

With that out of the way I really enjoyed this book. The sister relationship played a huge part of this book and I love sister relationship. Unexpected or teen pregnancy are always an automatic intrigue to me and I didn't know that that was going to be in here. Ramona is a strong young woman who cares so much for her family and doesn't take anything for granted. She does all she can to help her father and sister in their living situation. I got frustrated by Hattie and felt like she took Ramona for granted and didn't fully see how much she did for her. I loved Freddie, he was kind and sweet and smart. I know some people may have been bothered by his questions he asked Ramona in the beginning but I personally feel like that was very realistic and honest to how a conversation would have happened. He wanted to understand her better and you cannot get mad at those who don't understand when they ask questions to try to get a better understanding in things you wish they understood. I enjoyed seeing Ramona learn to do things for herself for a change and realizing that she needs to worry about her future. To see someone who did so much for her family that she could barely see a future for herself finally find something she enjoys and can peruse. I loved all the different ways love is portrayed in this book and it was just a really cute story overall. 
It was definitely better than Julie Murphy's prior book.

Khloe Grotting

I loved this audiobook! It was a great story about friends growing up in a small town and was truly amazing!

Candyce Kirk

Jelke Lenaerts

This book took directions I didn’t expect in the begining. This book is so real and painfull sometimes. I loved our cast of characters. Ramona Blue went through so much character developement. My only problem with this book is the ending which felt a bit rushed to me.

Kath Lau

The beginning is quite dragging so you need to be a bit patient. It's also predictable which was okay for me because it's still well-written. I liked seeing the main character grow and continue finding out and learning more about her sexual identity. A reminder that it's okay if you're still figuring out your own sexual identity. This book has teen pregnancy rep as well which I don't read a lot in YA books. I had fun reading this. This was the kind of book I wish I read when I was in high school.

Makayla Reed

This book has been very hyped over the years and I was so glad to finally be reading it, but I am not too sure I got what everyone was buzzing about.

I found Ramona to be so indecisive and quite annoying. She definitely had no clue what was going and none of her logic of why she did things made any sense. It was like she was actively making her life more difficult. Her character wasn't very relatable and almost felt like a character that was just created to be completely flawed with no endearing qualities about her. Her only qualities that were talked about obsessively through the novel was how tall she was, the fact that she was a lesbian but also maybe not and how her whole life should be defined by her sister, Hattie.

Besides Ramona, I found the rest of the cast of characters besides Agnes, Saul and Ramona's father to be absolutely insufferable. they all seemed to have one issue or another and felt like Ramona was the answer to everything even though she had no clue what she wanted in life.

I almost rated this lower but I did read pretty fast through most of this book until it just felt like it just would never end. The last 100 pages were so hard to get through. I did like the writing style but as for the story itself, I found it to be a meh storyline and really wasn't something I would recommend. I thought I would find some Bi rep, but to me as a Bi person, this book played on the stereotype of bi people having to choose a side and then just being confused and in a phase.

If you are looking for a good story with Bi rep, I would go look somewhere else.

Nikki Sojkowski

This book's review is a bit scary for me, as I feel a bit vulnerable when I compare it to my own experiences. I think it's so important that conversations like this have been allowed by the doors this book has opened but it's sensitive to all. Be aware and be kind.



*Reviews and more can be found on my blog Love at First Write*

I was given a copy of this book by HarperTeen in exchange for honest review.



The first half of this book was absolutely great for me. The spaghetti-o’s were cute, Grace was cute, the summer fling was cute. Ramona’s problems with Grace’s confusion and reservations was emotional and powerful. Ramona’s mother was disheartening, but real. Even Hattie’s struggle, which is not relatable to me in the slightest, still felt relatable. It was when the self-declared lesbian kissed a guy that I became super scared about the rest of the novel. I’d heard so many good things about this book, I was really looking forward to it. How could people not warn me about a lesbian finding the guy to “turn her straight”?

As a confused sexuality-fluid female myself, I was super worried about where this twist was going. Is the author going to make this one boy invalidate all of Ramona’s past relationships with girls? I didn’t think I’d make it through a book about that. Maybe Ramona was Bi? Fortunately for me, Julie Murphy emphasized Ramona’s love for this person because of the person and everything they mean to her, not really taking gender into account. This then left me wondering if Ramona was Pansexual or Demisexual. What was super powerful for me was Ramona’s internal struggle with sexuality. Did her love for this guy mean that she liked guys? Or was it just this specific guy? And every time she kissed him, she said she felt like she was betraying her old identity. Death by a thousand cuts to the Ramona who thought she had it all figured out in high school being a lesbian in Mississippi. I can’t count how many times the same thoughts have gone through my head. I’m a cis female, dating a cis male, that is probably seen as a heterosexual relationship to everyone. If it’s not visible does it even count? Does this mean I am queer enough for LGBTQ+ clubs, safe spaces, pride marches etc.? It can feel like people feel like I’m an intruder, which of course makes everything even more confusing. This is what saved the book for me. Ramona doesn’t label her sexuality by the end of the book. She hasn’t figured herself out yet and maybe she never will, but the point is that the pressure to have a label has been removed. And maybe it will help fellow confused queers not feel pressured to label themselves as well.

What brought this book down the stars is how long it took Ramona to be her own person. The whole book is spent following her sister Hattie around, picking up the pieces and trying to keep things together. While I can respect that, every single person in her life tells her that that’s not the destiny that’s set in stone for her. The future is still up to her and she could go to college after graduation if she really worked for it. While money is obviously an issue, it saddened me to watch Ramona counter everyone supporting her, and shut down any possible future that wasn’t staying in Eulogy, working 3 jobs, and living with her sister in the trailer park. In life, you really only need one person supporting you: yourself. Ramona didn’t even have that which made the book really hard to get through for me. I could only end up reading a couple chapters at a time because of this mental block Ramona has.

I thought this book was going to disappoint me, but it ended up pulling through. The ending was comfortingly bittersweet. I can appreciate how Ramona is going to figure out her sexuality, her career, her relationships etc. as she goes along. She’s finally come to accept that the future isn’t set in stone and that she has a life to live- a super important message. Honestly, if Ramona wasn’t her own worst enemy, and if the writing didn’t originally indicate that this guy was going to ‘turn Ramona straight’ as her mother had hoped, it definitely would’ve gotten a better rating. While the payoff was worth it, the author put me through a lot to get there.

Erin 

This book is so beautiful.

I don't mean in a poetic, perfect ending, perfect characters, beautiful setting kind of way. But a kind of way that everything is messy, and nothing works out, and the way in which the world finds a way to be cruel to the people who deserve it the least but somehow, they find ways to make life beautiful and genuine and kind.

Ramona is a lesbian. Of this, she is sure. She has blue hair, is 6'3", has a pregnant sister, a father who works too much and paid too little, a mother who drinks too much and is responsible too little, and a leftover life from Hurricane Katrina that was only supposed to be temporary. But it's not, and she works three jobs in a small Mississippi town to support her family, because she always has to be there for them. She knows the chances of her ever escaping are small, and she seems partially okay with that, if only she didn't feel like even having a dream of bigger things made her feel like she's betraying everyone. 

Ramona is a lesbian. She knows this. But then her childhood friend Freddie moves back to town and she falls into...something. Her main conflict throughout the entire book is her shift in her identity. I know the concept of a lesbian falling for a guy is a bit controversial, but throughout the book as we feel with Ramona as she works through her emotions and feelings, it becomes obvious that she's not throwing one sexuality away for another, but simply altering her idea of love and who she is attracted to. Not once does she think she no longer likes girls. But she also might like boys. More importantly, she likes Freddie. And isn't that enough? Isn't it enough that she has found someone to love, who loves her in return? Why do we need to put a label on it? Why can't she love, without worrying what other people think? 

The reason I love this book so much is because so much goes on. And yet nothing goes on. It's about normal life. There's no big plot, no climax, just a year in the life of a girl, her friends, and her family, as she goes through her final year of school and struggles with decisions about her future. It actually reminds me of the movie Juno because of that. We don't get to see everything she does all the time, but an update on her life every month or so. The progression of time is a big theme here. We don't get to see all the intimate moments between Ramona and Freddie. We get to see some, but then life goes on when we aren't there, and I love that about this book. We don't have to see Ramona pining over Grace for two months, just snippets. And that is a major strength of this book, that it doesn't just tell a story, it tells a life. It tells the good and the bad, the exciting and the not, the highs and the lows. But it doesn't tell all of it. 

I especially love the characters and how they are not perfect, how they do not make great decisions all the time, and how their relationships with others go up and down. I love Ramona the most, because we spend the entire time in her head, feeling her emotions and watching her moments of loyalty and contradiction. But I also love Hattie, and I love Hattie because she is messy. She doesn't know what she is doing, she doesn't quite realise what she has gotten into, she makes mistakes and puts faith in people she shouldn't. But she also puts faith in people she should - like Ramona. I adore their relationship, because it's messy and not perfect and they get mad at each other a lot. But they also love each other and rely on each other. I love Freddie and Agnes, and I love Ruthie and Saul. They're all a perfect hodgepodge of characters that have a special kind of dynamic that could never be broken. I love Eulogy and what it is supposed to represent - yes, it is clearly supposed to symbolise how Ramona feels trapped and contained in the town (I made the funeral eulogy connection way later than I ought to have done). But it's also a destination - a place of endless summer, where people do return, like Agnes. It's not a be-all, end-all place. I love that while Ramona finally decides to take the plunge and follow a different path and leave for college at the end, she will always come back to Eulogy and it will always be home. Her family and friends will always be there, and I think that's beautiful how much it means to her, how much she loves it, even if it felt like she would never leave.

I do think this has great potential to be made into a really good movie. Not one of those romantic comedies that is all about a romance, and not even a big budget film by a major studio. I'm thinking something like Juno, or Little Miss Sunshine, something that is about growth and relationships and messiness and imperfectness and mistakes. There's no build to a climax because there is no climax, not really. There are a thousand little events instead that are all important, and all worthy of being written about. You might say that Hattie finally having her baby is the climax because it's the one thing we've been building towards the whole book, but it isn't, not really. It's more like a conclusion that ties the whole story together.

Anyway, I really love this book and I think it's a really important one that focuses on the relationships between the characters and how they ebb and flow and are messy and imperfect. Yes it's about a girl who is confused about her sexuality, and yes that's an important part of the book, but that's all it is, a part. There is so much more that this book touches on that it would be unfair to focus on anything specific. I highly recommend it.

Kate

I loved this book. I loved it so very, very much. 

From the first page onwards, I instantly warmed to each and every character. Ramona was wonderful and I've totally fallen for Freddie. There wasn't a character in this book that now doesn't have a little piece of my heart, they were all so gorgeously written and so human. I also very much appreciated that Ramona was so tall, I was extremely tall for my age at one point (although I'm a total shortie now 😅) and I know I would have appreciated this aspect of her character hugely then, as I don't think it's something I've ever really come across before in YA. 
I loved the representation in this, not only with Ramona's coming to terms with her sexuality but also the representation multiple sexualities and races of each of the characters and growing up poor. It was so refreshing to read and I thought the fact that there was no ambiguity surrounding race, due to everyone's race is stated the moment we're introduced to them, was brilliantly refreshing. I especially appreciated a conversation between Freddie and Ramona, on race on page 155, in which Freddie explains to Ramona why he can't afford to risk breaking the law.

I know a lot of people were initially worried about the representation of Ramona's sexuality before this was released. I can't personally say whether or not it was harmful but after reading multiple #ownvoices reviews, I was relieved to see how much it has meant to and been praised by so many #ownvoices bi reviewers, so I would definitely recommend searching for and giving those a read! 

The other aspect of this I utterly adored was Julie Murphy's writing style. After having read and being a little disappointed by 'Dumplin' earlier this year, I was a little apprehensive going into this. I was worried that I wouldn't get on with Murphy's writing style again but I couldn't have been more wrong. It was easy to read, flowed beautifully and pulled at all of my heart strings. I just wanted more and more. I could have easily read on for another 100 pages (and that's not just because I want more Ramona and Freddie.... although I totally want more Ramona and Freddie please.) 

Honestly, there wasn't a single aspect of this book I didn't adore. I flew through it and had my heart pumped full of love and heartbreak throughout. Ramona Blue was honest, emotional, brilliantly diverse and an absolute joy to read and one I'd recommend to anyone. One of my favourite contemporary reads of 2017.