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citrus_seasalt 's review for:
Friday I'm in Love
by Camryn Garrett
3.5 stars, because I had to take .5 stars off for the public musical declaration of love I’M SORRY!! (even if it isn’t in the usual confession format)
But this was a very enjoyable read! To be honest, although this is a romance book, the non-romantic relationships (platonic and familial) stood out to me most? I liked how the intersection of faith and economic status, as well as the stresses of living in poverty, were handled regarding Mahalia and her mother. Mahalia’s mom relying on religion while Mahalia herself doesn’t believe in it for the exact reasons her mother *does* creates a bit of a rift between them. (+ sometimes Mahalia’s relationship with religion—Christianity specifically—would be discussed in relation to her queerness. There were a couple of interesting discussions there, which works for the younger YA target audience.) Their relationship wasn’t perfect, obviously, but it felt realistically complex, and I’m glad that Mahalia’s mom was supportive in the end of the story. And Naomi and Mahalia’s friendship shined in the drafts for the playlist made for Siobhan, I loved the little notes added after each song, really creative way to build onto their dynamic!! (Easily one of my favorite parts of the book.)
The one peeve I have re: Mahalia’s familial relationships though is I wish a bit more time was spent fleshing out her dad? There were a lot of unresolved issues there.
Siobhan and Mahalia’s relationship progression is a little…iffy for me? A lot of it still happens when Siobhan’s in a romantic relationship with Danny. Although she isn’t out at school(and Danny’s a terrible person), I still don’t totally vibe with that??? But at least(thank goodness) they didn’t do anything serious until Siobhan broke things off. And also, this book is *very* cheesy, which I didn’t mind most of the time but I understand not everyone will like, and even for me it sometimes felt a little overly sweet. lol. (But when there wasn’t the weird issue with Danny, they had some pretty cute moments together!! Standard YA romance book fare, sure, but still. And they cracked a couple of self-aware jokes about that.)
But hey, sometimes it felt nice to pause the book and realize that I was honest-to-god reading a light queer rom-com. I’ll admit, I take a lot of LGBTQ rep for granted after reading so many queer books. I think my middle school self would’ve appreciated something like this for sure. (Especially because the same 5 books would get recommended to me whenever I asked for queer characters.)
But this was a very enjoyable read! To be honest, although this is a romance book, the non-romantic relationships (platonic and familial) stood out to me most? I liked how the intersection of faith and economic status, as well as the stresses of living in poverty, were handled regarding Mahalia and her mother. Mahalia’s mom relying on religion while Mahalia herself doesn’t believe in it for the exact reasons her mother *does* creates a bit of a rift between them. (+ sometimes Mahalia’s relationship with religion—Christianity specifically—would be discussed in relation to her queerness. There were a couple of interesting discussions there, which works for the younger YA target audience.) Their relationship wasn’t perfect, obviously, but it felt realistically complex, and I’m glad that Mahalia’s mom was supportive in the end of the story. And Naomi and Mahalia’s friendship shined in the drafts for the playlist made for Siobhan, I loved the little notes added after each song, really creative way to build onto their dynamic!! (Easily one of my favorite parts of the book.)
The one peeve I have re: Mahalia’s familial relationships though is I wish a bit more time was spent fleshing out her dad? There were a lot of unresolved issues there.
Siobhan and Mahalia’s relationship progression is a little…iffy for me? A lot of it still happens when Siobhan’s in a romantic relationship with Danny. Although she isn’t out at school(and Danny’s a terrible person), I still don’t totally vibe with that??? But at least(thank goodness) they didn’t do anything serious until Siobhan broke things off. And also, this book is *very* cheesy, which I didn’t mind most of the time but I understand not everyone will like, and even for me it sometimes felt a little overly sweet. lol. (But when there wasn’t the weird issue with Danny, they had some pretty cute moments together!! Standard YA romance book fare, sure, but still. And they cracked a couple of self-aware jokes about that.)
But hey, sometimes it felt nice to pause the book and realize that I was honest-to-god reading a light queer rom-com. I’ll admit, I take a lot of LGBTQ rep for granted after reading so many queer books. I think my middle school self would’ve appreciated something like this for sure. (Especially because the same 5 books would get recommended to me whenever I asked for queer characters.)