Nic Stone

High school juniors and best friends Courtney and Jupe, and new sophomore Rae, explore their sexuality and their budding attractions for one another.

Odd One Out

Melissa Palmer

Book #64 Read in 2018
Odd One Out by Nic Stone

This is a well written, coming-of-age young adult fiction book. Jupiter and Coop have been friends since they were kids. Jupiter is gay and she makes no bones about it. Cooper happens to be in love with her, even though that is not likely to work out well for him. They become friends with Rae, and the friendship Rae and Coop begin affects Jupiter in surprising ways. Will the friendship survive all of this? High school girls will love this book. Boys might be surprised by it as it is pretty different than her book Dear Martin. I received this book from Amazon Vine in exchange for a honest review.

Flavia Louise

Jelke Lenaerts

TW: homophobia, racism

My first thought upon finishing this book was that this was a HUGE dissapointment. This whole book was just kind of leading up to this one thing and then it just didn't happen. The main reason I kept reading was because I wanted to know more about that thing but yeah ... I also wasn't a big fan of Coop and Jupe, as seperate people. Coop's inner monologue just kind of made me uncomfortable and Jupe just kind of annoyed me with all her complaining about the patriarchy. There were so many, non important thing that weren't even negative, things that she just blamed on the patriarchy and how dare men exist and it was just annoying. There were some real problems she talked about but the message kind of got lost because she got as mad about things that aren't a problem AT ALL. The thing I liked least about this book though is the fact that these characters kept talking about how much they love each other but at the same time their inner monologue constantly goes against the others values and they don't even realise it. The book just made me very uncomfortable and in the end it was just very dissapointing and not worth it. From this, everything sounds so negative but I gave it 3 stars so I still enjoyed my time reading this. There were some moments that I really enjoyed and there were some great discussions.

Abi Baker

jupiter for two thirds of this book: ‘i’m a lesbian’
jupiter when she gets her own pov: ‘yeet i like boys but i’m a lesbian but also maybe not who knows?’

this book was messy, messy, messy. part of me can’t believe it was actually written by a queer woman. three povs in just over three hundred pages made it feel like i never really got to know any of the main characters, never mind the supporting characters. courtney was whiny, rae was confusing and jupiter was selfish. they’re probably all believable as 16-18 year olds but i didn’t like any of them and there were some really harmful ideas on the page here like bi people not being able to be attracted to trans / non-binary people, lesbianism being a phase and bisexual girls dumping girls for guys. it could have been so much better and i don’t get the high praise for it.

From the bestselling author of Dear Martin comes an illuminating exploration of old friendships, new crushes and the path to self-discovery. When it comes to love, attraction and relationships, nothing is simple. Courtney Cooper and Jupiter Sanchez have been best friends and neighbours since they were seven years old. And despite Courtney's best efforts to suppress it, he can't help being hopelessly in love with Jupe. But a relationship with the girl next door isn't in the cards because Jupiter has been out of the closet for almost as long as she's known Courtney. Then Rae Chin moves to town, and Courtney thinks he's finally found a girl he could fall for who isn't Jupiter. The only problem: Jupiter is falling for Rae, too. One story. Three sides. No easy answers. PRAISE FOR DEAR MARTIN: 'A powerful, wrenching, and compulsively readable story that lays bare the history, and the present, of racism in America' John Green, bestselling author of A Fault in Our Stars 'Absolutely incredible, honest, gut-wrenching! A must-read!' Angie Thomas, bestselling author of The Hate U Give 'Painfully timely and deeply moving, this is the novel the next generation should be reading' bestselling author Jodi Picoult 'Justyce's story is earnest, funny, achingly human, and unshakably hopeful. I am forever changed.' Becky Albertalli, author be Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda 'Raw and gripping' Jason Reynolds, bestselling co-author of All American Boys

Kate

A wonderfully, infuriating and messy story.

I don’t know how else to describe this other than messy but in the best way. It portrayed the painfully messy inner workings of being a teen, the messy journey of discovering yourself and the mess that is society and the messages that, no matter how hard you try, you can’t quite escape.

So yeah, it was a mess but a brilliantly written one. It was funny, stressful, lighthearted, heavy and authentic. The characters were equally funny, witty, strong, loveable, messy and freaking infuriating. I kinda wanted to throw this book across the room at a few of their decisions but I’m pretty sure I’ve felt this way at some point or another about every teenager I’ve ever met (and I have no doubt many felt this on multiple occasions towards my teen-self. *I* feel this about my teen-self) but I also wanted to wrap them in bubblewrap and make everything okay. 

I adored the way the three POV’s were structured. I don’t think I’ve ever read a multiple POV book where it dedicated portions of the book to each character, rather than alternating chapters etc. but I loved it. 

All in all, this book sent me on a rollercoaster of loving it, hating it, having no clue what I felt about it, to finally settling on (I think) that kind of being the point, maybe? Life is a total mess, bad decisions are made and nobody’s perfect and people (teens especially) should be allowed to be messy in regards to figuring out who they are and where they fit in the world. So despite not agreeing with pretty much any of the decisions these characters made, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and feel like it will be an incredibly important one for many readers. 

TW: homophobic slur, biphobia, deadnaming

Odd One Out

Reviews