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abinthebooks 's review for:
Verona Comics
by Jennifer Dugan
(ORIGINALLY A 3.5 BROUGHT DOWN TO A 2.5)
*2.5
TRIGGER WARNINGS - DEPRESSION, SUICIDAL THOUGHTS, CAR ACCIDENTS, EMOTIONALLY ABUSVE + PHYSICALLY ABUSIVE PARENTS, ANXIETY, SOCIAL ANXIETY, MANIPULATION, PAST SUICIDE ATTEMPT, UNAVAILABLE PARENTS!
Hi so sorry for writing this at 3:30 IN THE MORNING, but it's my Goodreads and my life to ruin am I right? Anyways, I want to start this review off by saying, I have no idea (still) how to rate this book. If I'm going to rate this critically, it would be probably a 2 star and we'll talk about that in a second. If I'm going to rate this based on how much I related to the characters, we'd be talking about a 5 star. If I rate this based on my enjoyment, this is a 3 star. I've decided to just put it in about the middle, meaning a 3 and a half. Still don't really feel 100% about this rating, but I can't seem to find the right one, so 2.5will have to do. So I'm also going to split this review up in 3 sections. I'll put each section in bold heading, so that way if you want to read a specific part, you can just read through whichever on you want. Without further or do, let's get into it.
This book follows a girl named Jubilee, who's step-mother writes her own comics, and owns a comic book store called Verona Comics. It also follows a boy named Ridley, who's father owns a huge chain of comics. The two meet at a comic Prom? And the later meet again at a ComicCon the very next day, and finally, Ridley moves back in with his father and they meet again.
Retelling(s) - Romeo and Juliet
!!!
CRITICALLY
I think in a critical standpoint, this book is a 1 or 2 star. This book would have been fine, if it wasn't marketed as a cute, YA, Romeo and Juliet retelling. From what I saw of of this book, I got the idea I was getting into a sweet book, and I was entirely wrong. There are so many triggers in this book that I wasn't aware of going in, and it took me by surprised. I was even triggered by some of these, and it made me upset that their aren't any reviews about the triggers, or triggers at the beginning of the book.
Then, I'd like to comment on the amount of telling instead of showing. It was aggravating how much telling their was. Weeks would go by, but it wasn't clear about how much time, and then the characters would say a certain date, and I was utterly confused about the timeline of the whole entire book. And then characters would say at the end of a chapter, "I'm going to do this, or I'm going to do that", and then it would switch to the other characters perspective, which is fine, but we never got to see the character actually doing it. All we got was the next day, or week, and it was ANNOYING!
After, I wanna talk about the shitty friendships. I love books that have great friendships. They often times are some of my favorites, because it shows that books don't have to have romance for it be entertaining. It can honestly be about a small or large group of friends, or even 2 friends and it can still be amazing no romance and all. But every friend in this book is a no from me. I can say I enjoyed Jayla's character the first 50 pages but afterwards, when she was questioning Jubilees judgement every 5 damn seconds, I had enough with her bullshit. I know that she was just trying to be a friend, but but trying to be a friend, she became a shitty friend. Also all of Jubilees other friends were a no from me. They rarely ever came up when they did, they had nothing good to say or do so what was the point of them?
Then, I'd just like to say, that everyone in this book is a TERRIBLE person. I'm gonna give 3, no spoilery examples.
1. Jubilees boyfriends anxiety is spiraling out of control and all she cares about is her music tryout for a prestigious summer program.
2. Ridley manipulated everyone for the first 150 pages
3. Ridleys family are all trash. Not just dad, but the mom and the sister too (see what I did there? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5W2YPKH9XE)
Finally, I'm gonna talk about Ridley and Jubilee's unhealthy relationship. Their relationship is the definition of unhealthy and here's why. Ridley is manipulative, Jubilee is either so obsessed with Ridley that she forgets everything else going on around her, or she's so detached from him that she could care less what he does, and Ridley knows going into the relationship that his anxiety is fucking awful, yet he thinks that maybe Jubilee with fix him??? God I hate that trope.
Now I will talk about the good criticism I have to give. Everyone is queer, which is great in my book, and no one is pressuring anyone to find out their sexuality. I see that a lot in YA fiction, so thankfully it wasn't their. Their is comic books, and where can you go wrong with that, and...well I can't think much else positive critically to say so, here you go for the critical category.
!!!
RELATED?
This category is gonna be pretty short, as well the next one, but I wanted to say, I haven't related to a character as much as I've related to Ridley in a very long time. His inner monologue felt like me, and his thoughts and feelings were so relatable. I was really into his character because of how much I related to him. If their is one thing [a: Jennifer Dugan|17061749|Jennifer Dugan|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1548116553p2/17061749.jpg] got right, it's the depression + anxiety + social anxiety rep. Super good.
!!!!
PERSONAL ENJOYMENT
I enjoyed this book. I thought it was pretty ok though. It wasn't anything spectacular or earthed shattering, or anything like that. I don't know who I'd recommend this book to honestly. Maybe people who like hard hitting contemporary? Which I do, but I don't feel anything after this book is over so maybe not 'hard hitting'. I honestly have no idea. But one thing I know for sure, don't let the pretty cover art fool you into thinking this is a cutsie YA contemporary. It's not; it's more of a hard YA contemporary so if that's what your into it, go for it? Again, I probably wouldn't ever recommend this book to anybody, but if your into these kinds of books, pick it up!
!!!
FINAL THOUGHTS
This was one of my most anticipated reads of 2020, and I'm sad to say I didn't love it. Like at all. I just wish I did, because I was expecting so much more from this. From the beautiful cover to the synopsis I thought I would love is but unfortunately not ):
- Another shit review from yours truly, Abi
* * *
*3.5
I have no idea how to rate this book, but I'm gonna sit it on 3 stars for now, REVIEW TO COME!
*2.5
TRIGGER WARNINGS - DEPRESSION, SUICIDAL THOUGHTS, CAR ACCIDENTS, EMOTIONALLY ABUSVE + PHYSICALLY ABUSIVE PARENTS, ANXIETY, SOCIAL ANXIETY, MANIPULATION, PAST SUICIDE ATTEMPT, UNAVAILABLE PARENTS!
Hi so sorry for writing this at 3:30 IN THE MORNING, but it's my Goodreads and my life to ruin am I right? Anyways, I want to start this review off by saying, I have no idea (still) how to rate this book. If I'm going to rate this critically, it would be probably a 2 star and we'll talk about that in a second. If I'm going to rate this based on how much I related to the characters, we'd be talking about a 5 star. If I rate this based on my enjoyment, this is a 3 star. I've decided to just put it in about the middle, meaning a 3 and a half. Still don't really feel 100% about this rating, but I can't seem to find the right one, so 2.5will have to do. So I'm also going to split this review up in 3 sections. I'll put each section in bold heading, so that way if you want to read a specific part, you can just read through whichever on you want. Without further or do, let's get into it.
This book follows a girl named Jubilee, who's step-mother writes her own comics, and owns a comic book store called Verona Comics. It also follows a boy named Ridley, who's father owns a huge chain of comics. The two meet at a comic Prom? And the later meet again at a ComicCon the very next day, and finally, Ridley moves back in with his father and they meet again.
Retelling(s) - Romeo and Juliet
!!!
CRITICALLY
I think in a critical standpoint, this book is a 1 or 2 star. This book would have been fine, if it wasn't marketed as a cute, YA, Romeo and Juliet retelling. From what I saw of of this book, I got the idea I was getting into a sweet book, and I was entirely wrong. There are so many triggers in this book that I wasn't aware of going in, and it took me by surprised. I was even triggered by some of these, and it made me upset that their aren't any reviews about the triggers, or triggers at the beginning of the book.
Then, I'd like to comment on the amount of telling instead of showing. It was aggravating how much telling their was. Weeks would go by, but it wasn't clear about how much time, and then the characters would say a certain date, and I was utterly confused about the timeline of the whole entire book. And then characters would say at the end of a chapter, "I'm going to do this, or I'm going to do that", and then it would switch to the other characters perspective, which is fine, but we never got to see the character actually doing it. All we got was the next day, or week, and it was ANNOYING!
After, I wanna talk about the shitty friendships. I love books that have great friendships. They often times are some of my favorites, because it shows that books don't have to have romance for it be entertaining. It can honestly be about a small or large group of friends, or even 2 friends and it can still be amazing no romance and all. But every friend in this book is a no from me. I can say I enjoyed Jayla's character the first 50 pages but afterwards, when she was questioning Jubilees judgement every 5 damn seconds, I had enough with her bullshit. I know that she was just trying to be a friend, but but trying to be a friend, she became a shitty friend. Also all of Jubilees other friends were a no from me. They rarely ever came up when they did, they had nothing good to say or do so what was the point of them?
Then, I'd just like to say, that everyone in this book is a TERRIBLE person. I'm gonna give 3, no spoilery examples.
1. Jubilees boyfriends anxiety is spiraling out of control and all she cares about is her music tryout for a prestigious summer program.
2. Ridley manipulated everyone for the first 150 pages
3. Ridleys family are all trash. Not just dad, but the mom and the sister too (see what I did there? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5W2YPKH9XE)
Finally, I'm gonna talk about Ridley and Jubilee's unhealthy relationship. Their relationship is the definition of unhealthy and here's why. Ridley is manipulative, Jubilee is either so obsessed with Ridley that she forgets everything else going on around her, or she's so detached from him that she could care less what he does, and Ridley knows going into the relationship that his anxiety is fucking awful, yet he thinks that maybe Jubilee with fix him??? God I hate that trope.
Now I will talk about the good criticism I have to give. Everyone is queer, which is great in my book, and no one is pressuring anyone to find out their sexuality. I see that a lot in YA fiction, so thankfully it wasn't their. Their is comic books, and where can you go wrong with that, and...well I can't think much else positive critically to say so, here you go for the critical category.
!!!
RELATED?
This category is gonna be pretty short, as well the next one, but I wanted to say, I haven't related to a character as much as I've related to Ridley in a very long time. His inner monologue felt like me, and his thoughts and feelings were so relatable. I was really into his character because of how much I related to him. If their is one thing [a: Jennifer Dugan|17061749|Jennifer Dugan|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1548116553p2/17061749.jpg] got right, it's the depression + anxiety + social anxiety rep. Super good.
!!!!
PERSONAL ENJOYMENT
I enjoyed this book. I thought it was pretty ok though. It wasn't anything spectacular or earthed shattering, or anything like that. I don't know who I'd recommend this book to honestly. Maybe people who like hard hitting contemporary? Which I do, but I don't feel anything after this book is over so maybe not 'hard hitting'. I honestly have no idea. But one thing I know for sure, don't let the pretty cover art fool you into thinking this is a cutsie YA contemporary. It's not; it's more of a hard YA contemporary so if that's what your into it, go for it? Again, I probably wouldn't ever recommend this book to anybody, but if your into these kinds of books, pick it up!
!!!
FINAL THOUGHTS
This was one of my most anticipated reads of 2020, and I'm sad to say I didn't love it. Like at all. I just wish I did, because I was expecting so much more from this. From the beautiful cover to the synopsis I thought I would love is but unfortunately not ):
- Another shit review from yours truly, Abi
* * *
*3.5
I have no idea how to rate this book, but I'm gonna sit it on 3 stars for now, REVIEW TO COME!