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desiree930 's review for:
Zenn Diagram
by Wendy Brant
Things I liked:
The meeting of the two main characters and the progression of their friendship and romance wasn't insta-lovey at all. Maybe insta-crush on Eva's part, but definitely not love at first sight.
Eva's devotion to her family, especially her siblings.
Charlotte and Eva's friendship and the fact that even though they had a small falling out it didn't last the entire book.
The use of curse words and actual intimate scenes! This may sound like a strange thing to 'like', but I used to be a teenager (oh, so many years ago) and I remember how we spoke and acted. Most YA contemporaries are so chaste and mild that they just don't ring true.
I'm not in any way, shape, or form a math nerd, but I did appreciate that Eva was. It was cute to read about.
Things I didn't like:
There is some mild slut shaming in this book that is a little annoying. It's not really directed at any one character, and is usually used for the sake of an off-the-cuff attempt at humor, but making a joke about your baby sister someday being a slutty stripper is a little much.
There are a few trope-y things that happen in this book, but not to the extent that I hated it...it just didn't feel necessarily like the most original thing ever.
Pacing in the first half. There is one big plot point that I as a reader figured out pretty much right off the bat that our main character didn't figure out for about half the book, and there were scenes that felt slightly repetitive because I just wanted her to figure it out already!
There is a reveal about 3/4 of the way through the book that was surprising, but also pretty unbelievable. As readers we are already accepting this world where our main character has some sort of psychic abilities, but the reveal pushes us to also accept several crazy coincidences as being destiny.
The ending felt a little abrupt to me, as if the author wasn't quite sure how to wrap everything up.
I believe this is a debut novel, and it was interesting enough that I would definitely pick up a future book by her.
The meeting of the two main characters and the progression of their friendship and romance wasn't insta-lovey at all. Maybe insta-crush on Eva's part, but definitely not love at first sight.
Eva's devotion to her family, especially her siblings.
Charlotte and Eva's friendship and the fact that even though they had a small falling out it didn't last the entire book.
The use of curse words and actual intimate scenes! This may sound like a strange thing to 'like', but I used to be a teenager (oh, so many years ago) and I remember how we spoke and acted. Most YA contemporaries are so chaste and mild that they just don't ring true.
I'm not in any way, shape, or form a math nerd, but I did appreciate that Eva was. It was cute to read about.
Things I didn't like:
There is some mild slut shaming in this book that is a little annoying. It's not really directed at any one character, and is usually used for the sake of an off-the-cuff attempt at humor, but making a joke about your baby sister someday being a slutty stripper is a little much.
There are a few trope-y things that happen in this book, but not to the extent that I hated it...it just didn't feel necessarily like the most original thing ever.
Pacing in the first half. There is one big plot point that I as a reader figured out pretty much right off the bat that our main character didn't figure out for about half the book, and there were scenes that felt slightly repetitive because I just wanted her to figure it out already!
There is a reveal about 3/4 of the way through the book that was surprising, but also pretty unbelievable. As readers we are already accepting this world where our main character has some sort of psychic abilities, but the reveal pushes us to also accept several crazy coincidences as being destiny.
The ending felt a little abrupt to me, as if the author wasn't quite sure how to wrap everything up.
I believe this is a debut novel, and it was interesting enough that I would definitely pick up a future book by her.