Name: debre's review of Slingshot by Mercedes Helnwein
Item: Slingshot
Rating: 2
Author: debre

Mercedes Helnwein

"Wildly real and bursting with all the romance and pain of coming into oneself." - Kirkus (Starred Review) "One of Eight 2021 YA Books To TBR ASAP" -- BookRiot "All the terror and wonder of that first true love, masterfully detailed with true emotional rigor and blinding wit. My fifteen-year-old self wants to scream into a pillow with joy." —David Yoon, New York Times bestselling author of Frankly in Love An exciting debut contemporary young adult novel perfect for fans of Rainbow Rowell and Mary H. K. Choi "I didn’t think it was going to be anything like this when I finally fell in love. I thought it was going to be pretty simple. Like, I’d love someone and they’d love me. I thought that’s the way it worked.” Grace Welles is stuck at a third-tier boarding school in the swamps of Florida, where her method of survival is a strict, self-imposed loneliness. And it works. Her crap attitude keeps people away because without friends, there are fewer to lose. But when she accidentally saves the new kid, Wade Scholfield, from being beaten up, everything about her precariously balanced loner world collapses and, in order to find her footing again, she has no choice but to discover a completely new way to exist. Because with Wade around, school rules are optional, weird is okay, and conversations about wormholes can lead to make-out sessions that disrupt any logical stream of thought. Nothing’s perfect, but that’s not the point. When they're together everything seems uncomplicated in a way that Grace knows is not possible. Except it is. So why does Grace crush Wade’s heart into a million pieces? Acidly funny and compulsive readable, this debut is a story about two people finding each other and then screwing it all up. See also: soulmate, stupidity, sex, friendship, bad poetry, very bad decisions and all the indignities of being in love for the first time.

A Novel

Slingshot

Jeff James

debre

I have received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.


When I first saw this book, I loved the cover! The description and summary were good enough for me, so I decided to give it a try. And, honestly, it was super hard for me to even finish it. If it wasn't an ARC, I would have definitely DNF it. Grace is really, really unlikeable, and part of me kept saying "she's a teenager, it's her phase", but every time she did something that made me annoyed, I couldn't help but dislike her. And I tried to connect with her traumas and problems, but it just didn't work for me. Which, honestly, is a shame. There are a lot of problematic stuff for me as well that made me uncomfortable, like the fact that there's a bunch of teenagers having casual sex at such a young age--and some of them were 18-year-olds having sex with people three years their junior, so, yeah, not a fan of that. 


To be honest, it just felt like a waste of my time, and there are simply other YAs out there that are better written and have better characters for you to be fond of.

Crystal L

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for providing me with an e-arc of this book in exchange for an honest review. 

4/5 Stars! 

Slingshot is an adorably hilarious coming of age tale about Gracie, who is just trying to survive high school (boarding school!). Helnwein does a wonderful job of creating a true-to-life account of what's it's like to be a teenager, the emotions, the drama, and the friendships. Without providing too many spoilers, this book really pulled me back to high school feelings. Everything was a lot; there were so many emotions and everything was the absolute end of the world - Helnwein captures that perfectly. The only reason I don't give this book 5 stars was Gracie's relationship with Wade - at times it felt incredibly manipulative and full of jealousy. Overall it's a good book.

Jessica Williamson

**Editing to add: A lot of reviews criticize the portrayal of Gracie as a 15 y/o because she acts "too old" for her age. I can without a doubt say that my 14 y/o niece will often sit with me and talk about this kind of stuff for HOURS. We have philosophical chats about the goings-on of school and life and the world as a whole. So I think it's more about the individual than the age.**

3 Stars

I'm not really sure what to do with this one. I liked the depth of the characters but they weren't necessarily likeable characters? They were all little shits. Which I'm pretty sure was the point but they often commented on how they were terrible people as if that was an excuse for why they were little shits and I'm just over here like, "okay?".

There wasn't really much plot. Other than typical teenage drama. I'd list it out for you, but that'd pretty much be the entire plot and then there'd be no real reason for you to read the book.

It does hinge a lot on how REAL the love is between Gracie and Wade, but it's from Gracie's POV and she's 15 for most of the book so what does she know about love, really? 

I think this is one of those YA books that is much better suited for its targeted age bracket. You know, I am a true believer that anyone can enjoy YA. I wouldn't read so much of it if I didn't enjoy it. And oftentimes I find that you don't have to be a teen to love the story. This isn't one of those cases. This isn't a negative reflection of the book, just that I'm not its target audience so it didn't hit me.

Now, 15 years old me would have loved this book. She'd have thought it was edgy and cool and taken what it said about love to heart. Two decades later me is like, Bleh. Love. What a stupid concept. I would definitely give this to my niece who is in the target demographic and a reader. So take that into consideration. 

 I did receive an eARC of this book via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. 

Cover 3; characters 3; plot 3; pace 3; writing 3; enjoyment 3.

Nikki van Zoom

The cover was what caught my attention first, but the story really won me over. If you like John Green, Rainbow Rowell and Sally Rooney....this book is for you! This isn't the picture perfect sweet romance story, it's much more realistic. I did feel that the story fell a bit flat at times, and I had a difficult time finding the main character Gracie likeable. She's pretty rude and melodramatic. Wade is definitely what saves this book and makes it an enjoyable read. He's a bit cheesy but soooo sweet, kind, loveable and deserves the world!

 Thank you to NetGalley and the author for kindly providing me with an eArc, in return for an honest review.

Samantha Bass

I'm just going to be blunt and honest: this book is a trainwreck. I have no idea where the author was going with this book and what she was trying to do, but it did not land well. Just ... yikes. 

The first chapter, the very first chapter, is a 15 year old girl, Grace, talking about how she's in love with her biology teacher and that she thinks he loves her back. Until he introduces his fiance to her and she gets her heartbroken. 

Okay, wtf. Listen, I get it, crushes on teachers isn't a completely taboo thing, so long as the crush is 100% with reality and there's no further thoughts or actions taken on it. (Aka, the person can acknowledge having a crush on a teacher is not ok and they can move past any feelings and take no further claim or action.) But this, this was disturbing. The fact that Grace is obsessed with her teacher and acts as though they are truly in a relationship is so disgusting. And a little later on in the book we have another high school student encouraging her to go after him and make him know that she wants him. EW. Even as satire, this is still a terrible message to teenagers and children, and honestly this wasn't written like satire. There was no hidden joke between the author and the reader, this was pure encouragement and that's what seriously prompted me to put this book down. 

And don't get me started on the bullying. Our main character is definitely an anti-hero - she's crass and rude, only going so far as to care for herself, and thinks that everyone is either a bitch, an asshole, or a loser. As a certified bitch my freshman year in high school, I could kind of relate to this girls thinking in terms of her not caring about making friends or wanting to do her own thing, but the fact that she condones bullying and actively uses it as her "protection" from other students, is downright shameful. And when Wade steps into the picture, she's quit to brush him aside and put him down after he was nothing but nice and genuine with her. 

This book shows the ugly side of high school and then says "this is totally fine and normal, there's nothing that needs to be changed here". The fact that the author is condoning this behaviour made me so uncomfortable and based on the reviews, it doesn't get better. Grace never learns her lessons, she never has a realization on how she treats people, and it's messed up. 

Throw in the fact that Grace actively bullies her roommate, by loudly making fun of her interests, like her love for showtunes, is so wrong. And there's even a scene where she steals her roommates headphones and then gets mad at her when her roommate asks for them back. And Grace does the same thing towards her mother. She is rude and mean to her mom unnecessarily and it shows that Grace's bitterness is the only personality trait she seems to have. It's like she was trying to make Grace this "I'm too cool" kind of person, but she ended up coming across like a bitch. 

I don't know what the author was going for, but this book was an absolute train wreck. Read at your own risk.

ashley larsen

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5 stars.
this book was an emotional roller coaster. the main character is can be very blunt sometimes and they say things that are exactly as they are. tbh the first part of this book kinda make me uncomfortable. but otherwise this book had me tearing up. i love gracie and wade. gracie doesn’t seem to care about what people think of her. and wade is the kindest character i’ve ever met i love him sooo much. i just want to wrap him up in a warm blanket and keep him safe forever.

The Nature of Pages

I really, really wanted to like this book. It had all the elements that I usually love – boarding school setting, a good love interest that genuinely felt three dimensional, and a strong MC narrator. I had hopes for this book going in, and was pretty disappointed in what I found.

First off, we’re introduced to the MC and narrator, Gracie. It’s immediately established from page 1 that this fifteen/sixteen year old girl (I was stunned to find out later she’s only 15 at the beginning) is “in love” with her biology teacher. The voice seemed immature and condescending to all the other students, calling them a “raging hormonal bloodbath that was the majority of life at school”. Now, I’ve never been to a boarding school, but I was recently a teenager, and I definitely wouldn’t call it that. Another time she says she considers the students “juvenile and moronic in their pursuit of amusement,” which sounds especially harsher when you realize she’s simply talking about the dormitory common room crowded with students. Gracie seemed to take the “I’m not like other girls” trope to the extremes. She trashes on girls who eat more than salads and talks about “always eating the wrong meal.” Basically, it felt like reading some giant high school stereotype.

We’re supposed to root for her and the love interest, but I just could not get behind her decisions. I won’t spoil anything, but the choices she makes had me so annoyed I almost felt that the love interest deserved someone more respectful of his time.

NOW, this being said, I did read the entire book because the love interest, Wade, was written very well. He had a tragic backstory that slowly revealed and seemed like a genuine person that I was rooting for more than the actual MC. I loved his character and needed to find out what happened in the end.

Overall, I feel like the synopsis of this story was a tad misleading. Some of the events mentioned are glossed over, and a big part of the synopsis only happens at the very end. I was let down by the ending and felt slightly betrayed in where it had been leading to. The witty banter and Wade’s character were the key points of this novel, thus my 1 star.

Jeff James &
Slingshot by Mercedes Helnwein

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