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popthebutterfly 's review for:
We Made It All Up
by Margot Harrison
Disclaimer: I received this e-arc and arc from the publisher. Thanks! All opinions are my own.
Book: We Made It All Up
Author: Margot Harrison
Book Series: Standalone
Rating: 3/5
Diversity: m/m romance… kinda?
Recommended For...: young adult readers, thriller, mystery, murder mystery
Publication Date: July 12, 2022
Genre: YA Thriller Mystery
Age Relevance: 16+ (romance, cursing, abelism, underage alcohol consumption, sexual content, bullying, death, parental death, child abuse, child sexual abuse, gore, fetishization, homophobia, suicide, sexual assault)
Explanation of Above: There is some romance in the book. There is a lot of cursing and some mentions and showings of underage alcohol consumption. There is some slight abelism mentioned, child abuse mentioned vaguely, child sexual assault mentioned vaguely, slight homophobia, and one mention of suicide. There is a very brief scene of sexual assault mentioned. There is some bullying shown in the book and death and parental death are mentioned. There is some blood gore shown in the book. Finally, there is a LOT of fanfic about these two boys and it leans into fetishization of the characters as them being in a gay relationship with each other but with the MC and another girl constantly wanting them to get together/seeing them as a sexual object/using their stories about them to write about their own personal trauma and personifying it onto them.
Publisher: Little Brown Books for Young Readers
Pages: 370
Synopsis: Celeste is the talk of the town when she moves to Montana from Montreal, but the only friend she makes is Vivvy, the heir to the town’s name and a social pariah. Inspired by a passion-fueled school incident, they begin writing a love-story fan fic between the popular guy and the school stoner, one that gradually reveals Celeste’s past. While their bond makes Celeste feel safe and alive again, Vivvy keeps prodding Celeste to turn fantasy into reality. When they finally try, one drunken night on a dark mountainside, Celeste is the one who ends up kissing golden boy Joss. And Joss ends up dead.
Celeste doesn’t remember the end of that night and can’t be sure she didn’t deliver the killing blow. Could she still be that scared of getting close to a boy? Secrets are hard to keep in a small town, and even Vivvy seems to suspect her. Exploring the winding passages of the cave where Joss died, Celeste learns he had his own dark secrets, as does Vivvy. The town isn’t as innocent as it appears.
Review: This was an ok but strange book. For the most part I thought the book had an ok plot line and the story would have been great if a few things had changed in my opinion. I liked the creepy atmosphere of the book and I thought that the book did well to show how obsession can lead to some bad things.
However, this book was an absolute train wreck. The book is told in this back and forth style and it gets so confusing so quickly. It would have been better if a few chapters were in the past then one or two in the future, but constantly switching was awful. The book is also really hard to get into, but it’s also really hard to get back into. I left the book for a couple of days and when I came back, I couldn’t figure out what was going on for the life of me. The story didn’t stick with me and even with all of my notes I was completely at a loss as to what was happening and who people were. It’s an easily forgettable book in that regard. The book also made me feel extremely uncomfortable. I didn’t like the fetishization culture that was happening in the book and the book didn’t really resolve that issue in my opinion. The way the MC was writing about these two boys and then fetishizing them in public was awful and for it to be unresolved really made me not like the author. There’s a huge problem with fetishization in the book community and I just think that it could have been better done as a cautionary tale.
Verdict: Overall, I didn’t like it. I think that there are some salvageable aspects and this book could be something great, but it was not put together in my arc so I don’t have hope for it in the final version. It’s definitely not for me, but it could be for you!
Book: We Made It All Up
Author: Margot Harrison
Book Series: Standalone
Rating: 3/5
Diversity: m/m romance… kinda?
Recommended For...: young adult readers, thriller, mystery, murder mystery
Publication Date: July 12, 2022
Genre: YA Thriller Mystery
Age Relevance: 16+ (romance, cursing, abelism, underage alcohol consumption, sexual content, bullying, death, parental death, child abuse, child sexual abuse, gore, fetishization, homophobia, suicide, sexual assault)
Explanation of Above: There is some romance in the book. There is a lot of cursing and some mentions and showings of underage alcohol consumption. There is some slight abelism mentioned, child abuse mentioned vaguely, child sexual assault mentioned vaguely, slight homophobia, and one mention of suicide. There is a very brief scene of sexual assault mentioned. There is some bullying shown in the book and death and parental death are mentioned. There is some blood gore shown in the book. Finally, there is a LOT of fanfic about these two boys and it leans into fetishization of the characters as them being in a gay relationship with each other but with the MC and another girl constantly wanting them to get together/seeing them as a sexual object/using their stories about them to write about their own personal trauma and personifying it onto them.
Publisher: Little Brown Books for Young Readers
Pages: 370
Synopsis: Celeste is the talk of the town when she moves to Montana from Montreal, but the only friend she makes is Vivvy, the heir to the town’s name and a social pariah. Inspired by a passion-fueled school incident, they begin writing a love-story fan fic between the popular guy and the school stoner, one that gradually reveals Celeste’s past. While their bond makes Celeste feel safe and alive again, Vivvy keeps prodding Celeste to turn fantasy into reality. When they finally try, one drunken night on a dark mountainside, Celeste is the one who ends up kissing golden boy Joss. And Joss ends up dead.
Celeste doesn’t remember the end of that night and can’t be sure she didn’t deliver the killing blow. Could she still be that scared of getting close to a boy? Secrets are hard to keep in a small town, and even Vivvy seems to suspect her. Exploring the winding passages of the cave where Joss died, Celeste learns he had his own dark secrets, as does Vivvy. The town isn’t as innocent as it appears.
Review: This was an ok but strange book. For the most part I thought the book had an ok plot line and the story would have been great if a few things had changed in my opinion. I liked the creepy atmosphere of the book and I thought that the book did well to show how obsession can lead to some bad things.
However, this book was an absolute train wreck. The book is told in this back and forth style and it gets so confusing so quickly. It would have been better if a few chapters were in the past then one or two in the future, but constantly switching was awful. The book is also really hard to get into, but it’s also really hard to get back into. I left the book for a couple of days and when I came back, I couldn’t figure out what was going on for the life of me. The story didn’t stick with me and even with all of my notes I was completely at a loss as to what was happening and who people were. It’s an easily forgettable book in that regard. The book also made me feel extremely uncomfortable. I didn’t like the fetishization culture that was happening in the book and the book didn’t really resolve that issue in my opinion. The way the MC was writing about these two boys and then fetishizing them in public was awful and for it to be unresolved really made me not like the author. There’s a huge problem with fetishization in the book community and I just think that it could have been better done as a cautionary tale.
Verdict: Overall, I didn’t like it. I think that there are some salvageable aspects and this book could be something great, but it was not put together in my arc so I don’t have hope for it in the final version. It’s definitely not for me, but it could be for you!