Name: Kind of Sort of Fine
ISBN: 9781534482982

Spencer Hall

Told from two viewpoints, high school seniors Haley, who had a public breakdown, and shy Lewis, long-time member of the TV Production class, find that filming documentaries about their classmates' hidden talents reveals their own aspirations.

Kind of Sort of Fine

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Paige Green

Disclaimer: I received the arc for this book from the publisher. Thanks! All opinions are my own.

Book: Kind of Sort of Fine

Author: Spencer Hall

Book Series: Standalone

Diversity: One Black side character, Main Character with Anxiety, Main Character that is overweight and dieting

Rating: 5/5

Recommended For...: ya readers, soon to be high school graduates, contemporary

Genre: YA Contemporary

Publication Date: June 22, 2021

Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers

Pages: 283

Recommended Age: 14+ (Dieting/Food, Weight, and Exercise related content, Bullying, Alcohol consumption, Language, Anxiety and Panic Attack)

Explanation of CWs: Dieting, exercise, and weight are heavily discussed as apart of Lewis' story. Alcohol is consumed and one character gets drunk. There's a few curse words in the book. There's also heavy bullying by a side character on the main characters. There is also a main character and her mental health is discussed as well as a panic attack shown in the book.

Synopsis: Senior year of high school is full of changes.

For Hayley Mills, these changes aren’t exactly welcome. All she wants is for everyone to forget about her very public breakdown and remember her as the overachiever she once was—and who she’s determined to be again. But it’s difficult to be seen as a go-getter when she’s forced into TV Production class with all the slackers like Lewis Holbrook.

For Lewis, though, this is going to be his year. After a summer spent binging 80s movies, he’s ready to upgrade from the role of self-described fat, funny sidekick to leading man of his own life—including getting the girl. The only thing standing in his way is, well, himself.

When the two are partnered up in class, neither is particularly thrilled. But then they start making mini documentaries about their classmates’ hidden talents, and suddenly Hayley is getting attention for something other than her breakdown, and Lewis isn’t just a background character anymore. It seems like they’re both finally getting what they want—except what happens when who you’ve become isn’t who you really are?

Review: I really liked this book. It's your classic "it's my last year of high school and I gotta make it memorable" book but the characters are what makes this book. I really loved Hayley and I loved her story. I especially loved seeing her development and growth as a person and I think, especially if you have had stress or anxiety, you'll see yourself in her character. I also thought the plot was well done and the world building was great. I also really loved all of the 80s references.

The only things that I didn't entirely love is that I didn't really connect with Lewis or Cal that much. While I think they're well written for high school boys, the immature jokes about Hayley and about women's bodies in general made me uncomfortable. I also felt that the book needed trigger warnings for the dieting and exercise Lewis does. It's very present in the novel and there's a lot of comments about his weight as well that I feel might trigger some readers, especially those who suffer from eating disorders.

Verdict: It was a great book and if you like the trope definitely give it a go.

Belle Ellrich

*I WAS PROVIDED A PHYSICAL GALLEY BY THE PUBLISHER FOR THE PURPOSE OF A BLOG TOUR. THIS DOES NOT AFFECT MY OPINION*

As someone who just graduated high school, I was excited to see a book coming out featuring the crazy-ness that is senior year. While there were ups and downs between my opinions on the characters and the story itself, I think that Spencer Hall did perfectly capture the feelings of loss, unknowing to what’s next, and the overwhelming sense of pressure.

Before reading this book, I checked out a few opinions from other reviewers, and I saw a few say they were mixed on which character they liked more. Personally, I liked Hayley’s point of view much better than I did Lewis’s. With Hayley, we get anxiety representation for those of us who’ve been longing to see the uglier, lesser-known sides of having an anxiety disorder. Hayley shut down entirely, causing her to back up traffic into her school and a world of mockery, not-so-subtle bullying from her peers, and the pressure to fix things to form. While she was far from being innocent and perfect throughout the book, I feel like Hall gave her character that coming-of-age growth we often miss out on in teen books.

However, with Lewis’s point of view, there was so much negativity. I won’t comment on how well-done the fat representation from his character was because I’m not a person that fits that representation, but I will say that I honestly got nothing but negative outlooks from Lewis on his appearance. For a lot of this book, Lewis is attempting to lose weight so that he can win over his friend Rebecca into dating him, but any time it was brought up, it was like Lewis consistently shamed himself for being fat, even when people around him told him that he shouldn’t focus on his weight when people were more concerned about who he was as a person.

And honestly, don’t even get me started on his and his friend Cal’s personalities. I wasn’t a big fan of how they both treated Hayley. At the beginning of the book especially, and even halfway through. While Lewis did apologize for some of the things he’d said or done, Cal never did, and he got away scot-free from it. I don’t like seeing that in books when a character with a mental illness is treated badly, because that makes it seem like it’s perfectly okay to do when it’s really not.

As for the plot of this story, I felt it was, to put in a pun, kind-of-sort-of-fine. While it was a pretty good read, there wasn’t really much to remember it by, other than maybe a handful of scenes. I felt like this book dragged on more in parts than it did to give us something memorable.

Overall, I did like this book. While it definitely wasn’t a favorite, it was one I did kind of enjoy. For that, I rate this book 3.25 stars

Kind of Sort of Fine

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