Reviews
thank you to penguin teen and razorbill for a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.
i think the first thing i need to mention is the queer rep in this book. i’ve been seeing it mentioned a lot in marketing that it’s got a queer friendship group. and that’s true. but at this point in the book both our main characters seem to identify as cishet. we do have a few lesbian side characters, including the female main character’s parents being in a sapphic relationship, and the male main character’s best friend. we also have an enby side character in a sapphic relationship. so do with that what you will.
do i wish our female main character was on the ace spectrum… yeah. i just personally think it would’ve given bethany a lot more depth into her previous experiences and reactions surrounding sex and sexuality. and in my mind, it would’ve given me essentially an explanation to why she literally burst out crying after hearing her friend had sex (and yes, i know it was portrayed as being apart of her personality. she cries. a lot. but i’m just saying…) but who knows, could it be something, a term, an identity, she just doesn’t know of at this point in the book. maybe.
as for the actual story, it was fine. i think their justifications for fake dating was definitely better than some i’ve seen before, for sure. but it felt as though not much happened in this story but also somehow dragged a bit in sections? it took them like 20% of the book to get to their starting point of their fake dating, fine. but that was after he was already dumped twice and she was already rejected twice. then they fake date for a while. but somehow the ending felt so rushed to me? like, i wanted it to be a bit longer, but also not really. and that, i can’t really explain. but it’s definitely an interesting phenomenon.
also, saylor felt so eager to set them up like a literal day after she’d broken up with him. is that not strange to anyone else?? are the cishets okay??
also also, i know jake’s father made him go through the whole tattoo healing process but as someone with multiple tattoos, his father should not have even let him get one. he’s currently a junior in this story, so was like 16 maybe 17. yeah, that’s illegal in the state of california. legal tattooing age is 18, regardless of parental permission in that state and it’s likely jake was even at least a year or more younger. i know it was just one line. but anyone with tattoos would know that an artist wouldn’t risk that, even if it's their own child. (also also also, why does jake only ever wear his parents’ company merch?)
