astravars's Reviews (124)

cardan? hand over your gender please, thank you

queer ghost books are officially my favourite genre

this was so adorable and fun
+ the artwork is beautiful!!

the only reason this isn't 5 stars is because i was a little sad the plot moved so fast i would have loved some more of this

i would just like to emphasize how much i like the darkling in this it's odd because i hate him but anyways i hate that one girl screw her

I really don't like the darkling, I did like him in this book.

why does he give me gender envy now :')

rating the pacing is a little difficult because it felt really fast paced but there wasn't that much plot going on (because it's very character driven, which in this case i really loved) so it's hard to say



this was such a comfort read with very cute oblivious gays and amazing found family

and it's childhood best friends to lovers?? which is my favourite romance trope so (only if they're homosexuals though because if they're straight it's just not that same "i'm in love with my best friend but i think they're straight" level of pining)

i'm adding this to my list of favourite/comfort books 



i will however mention that the main conflict is kind of centered around miscommunication so if you can't handle that i'm not sure you'll like it as much, i personally really liked the gay pining and their obliviousness though


you can find my full review on my instagram account (@bibliosaurier) or goodreads!

so adorable

i really liked the audio book narrators

I wanted to like this book, I really did.

I had to read Bend it Like Beckham for english class and I really enjoyed it when I first started reading it. I especially like Jules and I think the topics the book wanted to talk about were handled well. What really bothered me though was the queerbaiting. Now, I don't know if it was intentional so I don't know if it actually was queerbaiting or if it just felt like it for me but either way there was obvious chemistry between Jess and Jules and that combined with the random mention of "she has a crush on that boy" felt really unnecessary and was nothing but annoying. (Plus in the beginning of the book it seemed like there really might be a love story between the two and I as a queer person got my hopes up so when that didn't happen I felt kind of betrayed.)

That alone wouldn't make me rate it 2 stars though so here are some other things I didn't love about the book:
1. The pacing felt a bit off. This might be because the book is so short but the majority of the scenes felt rushed.
2. The characters and the plot both could have been developed a little more in my opinion.

I think adding a few more pages would have made the book a lot better.

there's so much good representation in this. Queer (gay trans boy, sapphic trans girl, lesbian, gay, asexual). Black and Filipino. And experience wise as well! Friendships breaking apart (which i personally relate to, he was cutting pictures please that's so cliche but i did it too aah) and getting back together (though to that i don't personally relate sadly i mean she never apologized to me), toxic friendships, a relationship where one of them comes out as gay,... i loved this so so much, it made me feel so seen.

the main romance is achillean childhood bestfriends to one of them ignoring the other for years to lovers and it's great