DNF @ 51%

There are some extremely important benefits to this book. It features an Indian protagonist who is incredibly feminist and her views on the world and the patriarchy are so refreshing, and sweet, and really lovely. I loved the passion she felt for her filmmaking and the fact that she wanted to become a filmmaker so that she could change the world.

I also really loved Sahil for his geekiness and his full support of her vision. Whenever she goes on rants about the patriarchy, he doesn't even miss a beat, and I loved that, too, as I'm always saying that YA contemporary stories need more feminist guys!

All of the good stuff aside, I personally could not get into this book. The first 15-20% was adorable - I laughed out loud multiple times, smiled from ear to ear, and it gave me all the warm fuzzies. Once it hit about the 20% mark, though, Twinkle became a little bit unbearable. Unfortunately, this is a complaint I have heard many times about Sandhya Menon's debut novel's protagonist, too, but I haven't read that one and can't comment on the comparisons.

Twinkle becomes really self-centered regarding not only her filmmaking (such as getting into multiple arguments with Sahil over minor things like props, totally belittling his opinions as he's "just the producer", and then never apologizing for it even though she admits to herself that she was being unfair), but also her relationship with Sahil. It's brutally obvious from the beginning that he has feelings for her, and even when she recognizes them and starts to reciprocate, she drags him along and treats him pretty poorly, all because his twin brother (who hardly knows she exists) is a "popular kid" and she wants to get in with the popular group.

Between her attitude, and the fact that the plot itself was really bland outside of her exchanges with Sahil or her grandmother (the only likable characters in the book, truly), I finally had to call it a day on this one at 51%. I'm still giving it 3 stars because, like I said, it has some very important values to offer, but all in all, it was definitely not for me.

One last thing: the writing and dialogue are both extremely "young". Twinkle is supposed to be 16, surrounded by 17-year-olds, as far as I understand, but I constantly found myself thinking these teens (aside from Sahil) act like they're more in the 13-14 range. That said, I did not take any points off because I don't agree with down-rating a YA book for featuring teens that act "young" (after all, teens are young people!), but if you don't like that writing style, I'd pass on this one.

Thank you so much to Simon Pulse for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

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