Skip to main content

Click "Archive" or "Labels" in the sidebar to browse reviews, or use the search bar to look for a specific title.


Review: This One Summer

This One SummerThis One Summer by Mariko Tamaki
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The last words on the second-last page of the book:
Maybe I will have massive boobs.

Me: Lol what if this is the last sentence and it’s about boobs.
Me: *flips the page*
Boobs would be cool.

The absolute madlads did it. They made the last *two* sentences about boobs.

Anyway, hi, hello, welcome to this review, lol. I haven’t written a review in a hot minute because of school, but I read this for school and have some things I wanna say so here I am!!!

This One Summer is… about… one summer. A super duper regular-on-all-accounts summer. Like, so insanely regular that that’s what I thought the point was: to make the most normal contemporary book possible about what being a kid on a beach in summer is like. And I thought it succeeded with flying colours at this. It was even borderline boring at parts, but then I would remember what I was reading and would think, “... actually--yeah, that’s about right,” and continued on.

Then I finished reading (and you read about what that was like in the beginning of the review), and proceeded to read the synopsis on the book flap to see how this book was marketed. Mind you, I only read this because it’s required by my Comics class; I wouldn’t have ever read it otherwise because I’ve only heard mediocre things about it.

Anyway, so I find out that this book seems to be marketed as insanely way more intense than it actually is. Talkin’ about tragedy, and secrets, and heartache… like, no? I mean, like, but--no. Like--nah, no. You know? No. I mean… yeah, no.

It’s just that... there is some stuff that happens in the background, but because I witnessed them through the perspective of indifferent little kids it also made me feel indifferent as a reader. Like, everything else was always so normal and casual that anything potentially “tragic” also felt normal and casual. Far off, away, and ultimately inconsequential. So if you’re hoping for anything intense then you’re going to be insanely bored, lmao.

The main characters are two tween girls, which means that puberty-talk came up a lot, which is a literal staple whenever you’re reading anything about tweens... But which honestly just makes me feel really uncomfortable--but yenno that’s just me. Maybe because I never had these weird conversations with anyone when I was a tween... (Do people actually talk like this at that age???) I always thought that it was weird but maybe I’m the weird one.

This felt soooooo normal that I don’t even know what to think about it, nevermind rate it. Three stars I guess?


Please consider giving this review a "Like" if you've made it this far, it helps me out a lot! And follow me if you want more!


View all my reviews
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular Posts

Review: Lulu Is a Rhinoceros

Lulu Is a Rhinoceros by Jason Flom My rating: 3 of 5 stars The second I saw the cover of this book and read the synopsis I immediately thought that this was going to be a book that uses animals to create an allegory about transsexuality, as another installment in the growing genre of kid’s LGBTQA+ books. The whole "that's what she sees when she looks in the mirror" business felt really on the nose, and I feel like the authors purposefully used this wording in order to generate buzz around this book. In actuality, this felt like any other normal kids book. You have a character who feels misunderstood by their peers, and so they go on a "journey" to find and/or prove themselves and eventually end up finding peace with who they are and/or a group who accepts them. To me, the story was told in a way that presented Lulu like any other silly character in a children's book that had a silly problem stemming from their silly misco...
Post a Comment
Read more

Review: 寄宿学校のジュリエット（３）

寄宿学校のジュリエット（３） by 金田陽介 My rating: 5 of 5 stars Brb, crying. Not actually, though. Like, I didn’t shed any actual tears or even get close to it, it’s just that this series… is so good . The romance between Romeo and Juliet is still weirdly innocent, but the actual story is so engrossing and entertaining. It also seems like almost literally every single character is complex and interesting and multi-layered. (Only the background characters like Maru’s lackeys are undeveloped, but honestly they really don’t need any development anyway.) The relationships between characters keep getting more and more complex, and the situations that the characters have to deal with are also super juicy. This is such an addicting series. My initial problem with Romeo and Juliet’s relationship was that it seemed pretty unhealthy and one-sided to me. Later, I found it very weird how sexually immature they both are, and how un-intimate their relationship is. What is interest...
Post a Comment
Read more

Review: The Show Must Go On

The Show Must Go On by Kate Karyus Quinn My rating: 4 of 5 stars Because lucky me, even though I am 100 percent talking out of my ass, it turns out my ass is a secret genius. Wow. The Show Must Go On was surprisingly great. And by “great” I mean that this is very likely the best romance I’ve ever experienced (including books, movies, tv, etc.). It was also filled to the brim with funny lines like the one above, so for the first time in my life I found myself constantly laughing-out-loud while reading a book. But… then the ending happened… and it left me feeling insanely disappointed, which is what knocked a whole star off of my rating. Will actually walks over to [the bookshelf], like he's unable to resist the siren call of literature. Obviously, despite losing the glasses, his nerd instincts are still strong. First and foremost, since it doesn’t look like there are any reviews by people who have ever read Quinn before, I just want to st...
Post a Comment
Read more