I’ve read several contemporary books in the past month and a half or so that I don’t really have enough thoughts about to write full reviews of, but still want to talk about, so here they are!
Girls of July, by Alex Flinn
This book follows four girls who end up living together in an isolated cabin for a month with one of the girl’s grandmother. I really enjoyed this book! I didn’t really like Meredith, and wasn’t terribly invested in her relationship or what passed as her character arc, but I loved all of the other characters. Spider and Britta’s friendship was definitely my favorite part of the book, though I will admit that I shipped them a lot and was very disappointed that they didn’t get together at the end. Maybe if there was a sequel then that would happen, because it really did feel like the author was setting up for it, but I was disappointed in that aspect of the book. Kate’s arc was also interesting, though I was somewhat less invested in it. I really enjoyed the writing style, and I did enjoy reading each character’s perspectives, though I was definitely more invested in some characters than others (coughMeredithcoughcough). Nevertheless, I give this book 5/5 stars.
We Were Liars, by E. Lockhart
Normally I’m really good at predicting whether or not I’ll enjoy a book, which means that I have very few lowly rated reads. Unfortunately this was one of them. I really thought I was going to enjoy it, but because most of the idea of the book is finding out what it was actually about alongside the main character, and because everybody told me it was best to go into it relatively blind, I was not prepared for the various plot twists, and I hated all of them. I won’t deny that it is an expertly crafted and very clever plot, it just really was not for me. That was my main issue with it, though I also found most of the characters very flat and didn’t really care about the main relationship at all. If you haven’t read it, I will say that there is a level of borderline-violence and horror that I wouldn’t enjoy in any circumstance, but especially not in a book where I was completely not expecting it. I’d give this 2/5 stars.
My Life with the Walter Boys, by Ali Novak
My Life with the Walter Boys follows Jackie, whose parents and sister died in a car accident so she has to move across the country to live with her mother’s best friend and her eleven sons and one daughter who is basically treated as a son. This was a really fun book to read, if a little predictable. It did touch on some more serious subjects, like Jackie not really knowing how to cope with the deaths of her family, but it was very much a YA romance book in all of its tropes, most notably the very predictable love triangle where you knew who she would end up with in the end. Despite the predictability, I really enjoyed Jackie’s relationships with all of the kids not involved in the love triangle as she tried to figure out how she could fit into this family. It is because of those family aspects that I really enjoyed and aren’t usually found in YA books that I give this book 4/5 stars.
The Life and (Medieval) Times of Kit Sweetly, by Jamie Pacton
This book follows Kit Sweetly, who works as a serving wench at a medieval-themed restaurant, but wants to work as a knight like her brother. There were parts of this book that I really enjoyed, and others that I didn’t, though the enjoyable parts far outweighed the unenjoyable parts for me. I really enjoyed the plot of the book, as well as all of the side plots with Kit’s father and college and such. The vast majority of characters and relationships in this book felt fully fleshed out and real. I loved Kit, and especially enjoyed her relationships with her brother and her love interest. A lot of the Game of Thrones references went over my head, but I did like a lot of the historical references, even if a few were a little inaccurate. My only real issue with the book was that a lot of the “problem” of the book is the one that seems so common in contemporary YA where it could have been resolved by the protagonist simply coming clean with their teammates from the start rather than hiding a secret from them until it is inevitably revealed by a third party. That sort of misunderstanding is the sort of thing that has led me to DNF books before, though thankfully it wasn’t that bad this time. It was still an irritating plot device that knocked a star off of this book for me. I give it 4/5 stars.
Yes No Maybe So, by Becky Albertalli and Aisha Saeed
This book follows Jamie Goldberg and Maya Rehman, whose parents make them canvas together for the local state senate election. I loved this book, despite not usually loving Becky Albertalli books. I did like What If It’s Us though, so maybe it’s just her solo books that I’m not a huge fan of. Anyway, I did really enjoy this book as well. Jamie is Jewish, and he had been volunteering for the campaign because his cousin was the local head of it or something. He says that he is very shy and awkward, though, in the vein of much contemporary YA, the supposedly awkward protagonist isn’t actually that socially inept and “learns” to be more confident by the end of the book. Maya is Muslim and her parents are getting divorced during the book, as well as having a best friend who is moving away, and she’s really what made the book for me. I enjoyed her chapters way more than Jamie’s. I also shipped the two of them a lot, which isn’t terribly common for me in contemporary books, so that was a huge thing in this book’s favor. This is a really important book about political engagement, navigating cross-cultural relationships, and how anybody can cause change. I think everybody should read this, especially Americans ahead of the 2020 election. I give this book 5/5 stars.
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