This is late because I suck but anyways uhhhhh this book good, go read book and fall in love with these disaster characters. Or like… read my review also please????

anyways wow what is blogging coherently we don’t know her

I received an arc of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This doesn’t in any way affect my opinions.

4 stars

This book is:

A) – Extremely enjoyable
B) – Really cheesy
C) – Frustratingly angsty
D) – Utterly hilarious
E) – Really gay
F) – All of the above

I can already tell some people are going to hate this book. And I can also tell a lot of people are going to love it.

Here’s the thing: this book is cheesy af, has some pretty extreme second hand embarrassment, and I’m fairly certain these characters have never heard of the concept of communicating their feelings. By all logic, this book should have annoyed me. My initial reaction when I finished the book was: 

“Sometimes you read a book, and you go ‘wow this book has a bunch of tropes that I hate and it doesn’t do them in any way out of the ordinary and I can just tell some people are going to hate this book but yet somehow I love it anyways’? 
Yeah that was this book”

And I’d say that remains 100% accurate.

I already pretty much covered what I didn’t like about this book (COMMUNICATION. IS IMPORTANT.), but I also want to touch on a few things that I personally thought were handled well, but think might be slightly controversial, before we dive into what I loved.

One of the main conflicts in the book is that Will pretty much refuses to even be seen talking to Ollie because he’s terrified of people realizing he’s queer, and Ollie is, well, not a huge fan of Will avoiding him. Personally I thought it was handled with sensitivity. Ollie is mad that Will is being a dick, not that Will isn’t ready to be out. That said, there were certainly points in this book where I was dubious of the direction it was taking. I want to clarify, I don’t think it did take that direction, and I don’t think Will was in any way shamed for being closeted, but I think some people will disagree, and it’s good to go into this with some level of awareness.

Now enough of that, onto what I loved about this book.

First and foremost what made this book really stand out to me was the voice.This book is written in a very snarky, sarcastic tone, and it was absolutely delightful. I found myself laughing out loud constantly while reading this book.

I also absolutely adored the characters. Ollie was so charming and precious and I just absolutely adore him. Will was a dickhead on more than a few occasions, but I also found myself completely in love with this soft boy.

The side characters also all had so much life. This was a very well fleshed out cast of characters, with flaws and nuances in every single character we meet. Also I just want to appreciate how freaking CUTE Ollie’s cousins are!!

I also absolutely love the relationships in this book. From romance to friendship to familial relationships, we had so many messy but beautiful relationships, and it warms my heart.

[su_spoiler title=”Trigger Warnings:” icon=”chevron”]homophobia and internalized homophobia, biphobia, fatphobia (all challenged), cancer, and death of a relative[/su_spoiler]

Have you read this book? Is it on your tbr? What classic movies would you love to see queer retellings of?