Laura Steven

A hilarious, groundbreaking young adult novel for anyone who's ever called themselves a feminist . . . and anyone who hasn't. For fans of Louise O'Neill, Holly Bourne and Amy Schumer. Izzy O'Neill here! Impoverished orphan, aspiring comedian and Slut Extraordinaire, if the gossip sites are anything to go by . . . Izzy never expected to be eighteen and internationally reviled. But when explicit photos involving her, a politician's son and a garden bench are published online, the trolls set out to take her apart. Armed with best friend Ajita and a metric ton of nachos, she tries to laugh it off - but as the daily slut-shaming intensifies, she soon learns the way the world treats teenage girls is not okay. It's the Exact Opposite of Okay. Bitingly funny and shockingly relevant, The Exact Opposite of Okay is a bold, brave and necessary read. For readers of The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas, Doing It by Hannah Witton and Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls by Elena Favilli and Francesca Cavallo. 'Funny, unapologetic and shameless in the best possible way, this is a YA heroine (and book) that you've never seen before' - Louise O'Neill, award-winning author of Asking for It 'This book will make you laugh out loud, nod in agreement, cringe with recognition, and stand up and cheer. I adored it' - Katherine Webber, author of Wing Jones 'I LOVED this book! A really smart, relevant and switched-on exploration of teen sexuality, gender and slut-shaming' - Katherine Woodfine, bestselling author of The Sinclair's Mysteries Laura Steven is an author, journalist and screenwriter from the northernmost town in England. She has an MA in Creative Writing and works at a non-profit organisation supporting women in the creative arts. Her TV pilot, Clickbait, was a finalist in British Comedy's 2016 Sitcom Mission. The Exact Opposite of Okay is her first book for young adults.

The Exact Opposite of Okay

Jasmin 

Candyce Kirk

Finished in one sitting! It's just as good, if not better than the first time around.

Marisa Shibata

Ciska van Bokhorst

Wat een boek. De humor is geweldig. Moet wel erbij zeggen dat ik op een gegeven moment de humor bijna teveel vond. Maar dan slaat het boek om.

Dit boek heeft een duidelijke belangrijke boodschap en hoop dat vele dit zullen lezen.
Eens wat anders dan alle gehypte boeken die vaak de hype niet waard zijn!

Gemma Craig

Hilarious. Despite what the main character goes through, she keeps her sense of humour throughout. She makes some excellent points about promiscuous sex being a massive issue when it comes to girls and slut shaming, but a bragging point for guys. Just fantastic.

Beth Bartholomew

It felt like it was trying to be feminist, and in parts succeeded, but then fell as other hurdles it'd been nice to see approached differently. I also felt like the logic was just thrown out the window and felt frustrated by the plausibility of the events and how they were managed throughout.

Kate

You know you’re going to be in for a treat when a book features a dachshund called Dumbledore and after reading and heavily relating to the line “maybe I’m just being melodramatic. I just really hate getting out of bed” on the third page, I very quickly realised The Exact Opposite of Okay by Laura Steven was not going to disappoint. *spoiler alert: it definitely didn’t disappoint.* The Exact Opposite of Okay was the Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging/Easy A mash up I didn’t know I’d been longing for. 

From the get go, I instantly fell in love with Izzy’s brilliantly quick, sarcastic and self deprecating sense of humour. Humour is something I absolutely adore in books. For me, catching yourself laughing out loud whilst reading at 3am is definitely a good sign and The Exact Opposite of Okay definitely delivered numerous ‘I’m trying to be quiet because it’s 3am’ giggles. 

At its core, The Exact Opposite of Okay is about slut-shaming, revenge porn and the ridiculous double standards between men and women when it comes to their sexuality. It brilliantly and continuously highlights these double standards, for example, at one point two characters send each other explicit photos, which end up becoming public. The girl is chastised, demonised and continuously harassed. The guy? Well, he’s praised, coddled and gets an offer from an Ivy League school. It also tackles male entitlement and the ‘friend-zone’ fantastically. I found myself on countless occasions severely frustrated, wanting to yell ‘she’s just not that into you’ at a specific character and loved that this was acknowledged and the actions of said character weren’t romanticised and were instead called out for what they were, manipulative, entitled and borderline harassment (okay, it totally crossed the boarder and jumped right into harassment.)

Another aspect I absolutely loved was the fact that throughout the book, Izzy is pursuing a career and hobby in comedy and screenwriting. I don’t think I’ve ever come across this in YA main character, let alone a female YA main character. Women in comedy and screenwriting are continuously and unfairly overlooked, so it was refreshing to see it being represented in a YA book. I often find that YA characters (especially female YA characters) tend to have very similar hobbies, so it was really enjoyable to read about a character with a unique passion. Izzy’s passion for comedy also bought up a topic which I adored, in terms of school’s often not encouraging a variety of career paths beyond getting into university/college. 
“Most career counsellors are interested in one thing and one thing only: getting you into college. Schools are rated higher according to the percentage of alumni who get into college education, and thus career guidance is dished out with that in mind. If the Ivy Leagues don’t teach it, it’s not worth doing. And, believe it or not, the Ivy Leagues do not teach comedy. 

From the hilarious and unique but wonderfully open relationship between Izzy and her Grandma, to the heart-warming support Izzy received from her art teacher, to the perfectly imperfect friendship between Izzy and Ajita, the relationships in this book were undeniably fabulous, as was the diverse cast of characters. Izzy and her Grandma are very much struggling in terms of money. Her best friend, Ajita, is Nepali. Mrs Crannon, Izzy’s art teacher, is married to a woman and Carson Manning, a love interest, is black. However, this is pretty much the only aspect of this book I had an issue with. As I said previously, having such a diverse cast of characters was wonderful and created some brilliant conversations regarding race, poverty and sexuality. However, Ajita is publicly outed as liking women against her will and her sexuality is somewhat used as a plot device/twist. Although she wasn’t outed with malicious intent and it was an accident, I don’t believe sexuality should be used as a plot twist. Not being gay myself but having read numerous tweets, reviews, blog posts etc. from people in the LGBTQAIP+ community on the topic, I know that a character being publically outed is a narrative that is potentially triggering and upsetting to read about, so I would advise that this is something you’re wary of when going into this book.

With it’s incredibly comfortable, funny, topical and fast paced writing, I flew through it in no time at all. From beginning to end, The Exact Opposite of Okay had me laughing, furious, heartbroken, frustrated, empowered and ready to take on the ridiculous unfairness of this place we call earth. #BitchesBiteBack

Bitingly funny and shockingly relevant, The Exact Opposite of Okay is a bold, brave, and necessary read for fans of Louise O'Neill and Jennifer Mathieu. Eighteen-year-old Izzy O’Neill knows exactly who she is—a loyal friend, an aspiring comedian, and a person who believes that milk shakes and Reese’s peanut butter cups are major food groups. But after she’s caught in a compromising position with the son of a politician, it seems like everyone around her is eager to give her a new label: slut. Izzy is certain that the whole thing will blow over and she can get back to worrying about how she doesn’t reciprocate her best friend Danny’s feelings for her and wondering how she is ever going to find a way out of their small town. Only it doesn’t. And while she’s used to laughing her way out of any situation, as she finds herself first the center of high school gossip and then in the middle of a national scandal, it's hard even for her to find humor in the situation. Izzy may be determined not to let anyone else define who she is, but that proves easier said than done when it seems like everyone has something to say about her.

The Exact Opposite of Okay

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