This was not the best choice for my first delve into Rainbow Rowell. sigh.

starting with the positives - second half of the book, great! Engaging and some great characterization. I loved the family aspects and the relationships between Penny, Simon and Baz.
Baz in general was great, Penny was endearing in a 'little-to-close-to-Hermione' way and the side characters that were given some depth also added some great colour.
Cons -
AGATHA. What a pointless, unnecessary character. Not only did she add NOTHING to the story, she was annoying!! Honestly, remove her from the story and nothing would have changed.
The set up- Did anyone else feel like the first half of this book, laying out the world, introducing the magical system, relationship backstories, etc was just really rushed and 'told, not shown'? I felt as though it was almost like a rushed info dump to get the reader to the level of background knowledge needed to tell the actual intended story. I would have much preferred a series that lead the reader into the luves of these characters, instead of drop kicking us into the final year of their schooling and trying to play catch-up.

This could have just been SO GOOD. Queer magic... so here for that! But it was just... meh :(
*frustrated groan*