You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
chronicallybookish's Reviews (1.53k)
It was good, but I have a bad feeling that that ending was a miracle cure which would suck & probably lower my rating
Quick Stats
Age Rating: 13+
Over All: 4 stars
Plot: 3/5
Characters: 4/5
Setting: 4/5
Writing: 5/5
Okay. I have so many thoughts on this book, most good, some bad.
But, based on who I am and what my platform is all about, I’m going to start with Miles.
Miles, Tessa’s older brother is disabled. Tessa says that he has Athetoid Cerebral Palsy, an (unspecified) cognitive impairment, OCD, and vision and hearing loss. He wears hearing aids. These disabilities are due to his umbilical cord being wrapped around his neck at birth.
None of my disabilities are the same as Miles’s, nor do I know anyone with these disabilities. I looked for other reviews by disabled readers, especially those with cerebral palsy or a similar cognitive impairment, as those play the most integral part in Miles’s character, but I didn’t find any. So these are my feelings on the matter, but please take them with a grain of salt.
Tessa says her “line” when it comes to her brother is “My brother has disabilities.” She touches on the fact that her family used to use the term special needs but have since changed their language, which, great, but I do think the better term would be “My brother is disabled.” The majority of disabled individuals prefer identity first language and disabled advocates are fighting to reclaim our identities. We are disabled.
I saw multiple poor reviews talking about the way that Tessa treated Miles, how sometimes she seemed almost resentful of him, or embarrassed by him, and how that was awful for the author to write.
I disagree.
We need to acknowledge that it is hard to have siblings who are disabled—obviously not as hard as it is to actually be disabled, but it can still be hard. Tessa often had to come second to Miles, and though she understood why, it still hurts when it happens. She’s trying to balance a life with the responsibilities she has in caring for Miles and in feeling like she can’t put any more stressors on her parents because they already have to be Miles’s caregiver. So yes, sometimes she feels resentful, or embarrassed, or frustrated. She’s allowed to feel that way. Pretty much all expression of those emotions were in her internal monologue. She wasn’t taking it out on Miles or her parents. She was simply feeling what she was feeling, and all of those feelings were really realistic based on her situation.
Her situation that was, mind you, kind of unfair. Sometimes it really felt as if there was too much pressure on Tessa when it came to caring for Miles. She’s 17, she deserves to be able to be a teenager, and caring for her brother should not have taken up as much of her time as it did. Tessa’s parents bring up hiring an aid to relieve some of these responsibilities. Tessa lives across the street from Sam who is absolutely loaded and calls herself “comfortable.” This, coupled with the way that her parents brought up an aid made it obvious that they could afford one.
I truly feel like her parents should have had an aid for Miles the whole time instead of relying on their teenage daughter to care for him when they were busy. It also would have taken a lot of the strain off of them, which they—especially Tessa’s mom—really seemed to need. I didn’t like the way that the offer of an aid—and subsequent adamant refusal by Tessa—was handled.
They were like, we could get someone to help out with Miles, and Tessa got offended that they thought that she saw Miles as a burden (which they didn’t think), and she said that she was totally fine with doing her part to take care of Miles, but she shouldn’t have to. That bothered me. I don’t know.
There are only two instances where Tessa lashes out outwardly due to these feelings.
The first is on the street corner. Tessa suggests that Miles listens to his meditation with headphones, and seems uncomfortable with the scene. And her mom flips at her. Yes, she later apologizes, but Tessa is still portrayed as wrong for what she said, even if her mother was also wrong for her reaction. But I don’t think she is wrong.
Yes, Tessa is in part embarrassed by Miles’s meltdown, but she’s also thinking about having the cops called on him, and how scary and dangerous that is for her and Miles and her mom. She’s concerned about what her neighbors may think because she remembers when Miles previously had the cops called on him, and though that worked out okay, she knows how dangerous it is to be a Black disabled person when the cops have been called on you.
The second is when, after she’s “arrested”, she says, “I’m just doing what normal teenagers do!” (This is paraphrased). I was genuinely confused when her parents got way more mad and she felt all shitty, because I did not immediately take that to mean “I’m a normal teenager and Miles isn’t”. I had to go back and reread it and I was still kind of confused. Honestly, even knowing the context that was said in, I still don’t understand why that was so bad. She did do something that a normal teenager might do. And Miles didn’t have a normal teenage experience, therefore her parents don’t have experience raising a typical teenager. So, that whole seen was weird to me.
So, no. I don’t think the disability rep was perfect, but I felt like it was still good.
Now onto the plot, romance, and other character dynamics.
I liked the characters. I loved Sam, Lenore (I can’t wait to read her book), and Theodore. I related to Tessa’s relationship with writing and her friendship with Caroline. None of the characters were perfect, but they were real.
The plot was a little tropey, but it was tons of fun. I’m not the biggest fan of cheating plots, so at times that made me uncomfortable, but I knew I wasn’t supposed to be rooting for Tessa in those scenes, so it didn’t bother me too much. I thought that there was a lot of depths to the story, and yet it was still fun and sweet.
I did enjoy this book a lot, and I can’t wait to read book 2. Contemporary companion novel series are my favorite.
Age Rating: 13+
Over All: 4 stars
Plot: 3/5
Characters: 4/5
Setting: 4/5
Writing: 5/5
Okay. I have so many thoughts on this book, most good, some bad.
But, based on who I am and what my platform is all about, I’m going to start with Miles.
Miles, Tessa’s older brother is disabled. Tessa says that he has Athetoid Cerebral Palsy, an (unspecified) cognitive impairment, OCD, and vision and hearing loss. He wears hearing aids. These disabilities are due to his umbilical cord being wrapped around his neck at birth.
None of my disabilities are the same as Miles’s, nor do I know anyone with these disabilities. I looked for other reviews by disabled readers, especially those with cerebral palsy or a similar cognitive impairment, as those play the most integral part in Miles’s character, but I didn’t find any. So these are my feelings on the matter, but please take them with a grain of salt.
Tessa says her “line” when it comes to her brother is “My brother has disabilities.” She touches on the fact that her family used to use the term special needs but have since changed their language, which, great, but I do think the better term would be “My brother is disabled.” The majority of disabled individuals prefer identity first language and disabled advocates are fighting to reclaim our identities. We are disabled.
I saw multiple poor reviews talking about the way that Tessa treated Miles, how sometimes she seemed almost resentful of him, or embarrassed by him, and how that was awful for the author to write.
I disagree.
We need to acknowledge that it is hard to have siblings who are disabled—obviously not as hard as it is to actually be disabled, but it can still be hard. Tessa often had to come second to Miles, and though she understood why, it still hurts when it happens. She’s trying to balance a life with the responsibilities she has in caring for Miles and in feeling like she can’t put any more stressors on her parents because they already have to be Miles’s caregiver. So yes, sometimes she feels resentful, or embarrassed, or frustrated. She’s allowed to feel that way. Pretty much all expression of those emotions were in her internal monologue. She wasn’t taking it out on Miles or her parents. She was simply feeling what she was feeling, and all of those feelings were really realistic based on her situation.
Her situation that was, mind you, kind of unfair. Sometimes it really felt as if there was too much pressure on Tessa when it came to caring for Miles. She’s 17, she deserves to be able to be a teenager, and caring for her brother should not have taken up as much of her time as it did. Tessa’s parents bring up hiring an aid to relieve some of these responsibilities. Tessa lives across the street from Sam who is absolutely loaded and calls herself “comfortable.” This, coupled with the way that her parents brought up an aid made it obvious that they could afford one.
I truly feel like her parents should have had an aid for Miles the whole time instead of relying on their teenage daughter to care for him when they were busy. It also would have taken a lot of the strain off of them, which they—especially Tessa’s mom—really seemed to need. I didn’t like the way that the offer of an aid—and subsequent adamant refusal by Tessa—was handled.
They were like, we could get someone to help out with Miles, and Tessa got offended that they thought that she saw Miles as a burden (which they didn’t think), and she said that she was totally fine with doing her part to take care of Miles, but she shouldn’t have to. That bothered me. I don’t know.
There are only two instances where Tessa lashes out outwardly due to these feelings.
The first is on the street corner. Tessa suggests that Miles listens to his meditation with headphones, and seems uncomfortable with the scene. And her mom flips at her. Yes, she later apologizes, but Tessa is still portrayed as wrong for what she said, even if her mother was also wrong for her reaction. But I don’t think she is wrong.
Yes, Tessa is in part embarrassed by Miles’s meltdown, but she’s also thinking about having the cops called on him, and how scary and dangerous that is for her and Miles and her mom. She’s concerned about what her neighbors may think because she remembers when Miles previously had the cops called on him, and though that worked out okay, she knows how dangerous it is to be a Black disabled person when the cops have been called on you.
The second is when, after she’s “arrested”, she says, “I’m just doing what normal teenagers do!” (This is paraphrased). I was genuinely confused when her parents got way more mad and she felt all shitty, because I did not immediately take that to mean “I’m a normal teenager and Miles isn’t”. I had to go back and reread it and I was still kind of confused. Honestly, even knowing the context that was said in, I still don’t understand why that was so bad. She did do something that a normal teenager might do. And Miles didn’t have a normal teenage experience, therefore her parents don’t have experience raising a typical teenager. So, that whole seen was weird to me.
So, no. I don’t think the disability rep was perfect, but I felt like it was still good.
Now onto the plot, romance, and other character dynamics.
I liked the characters. I loved Sam, Lenore (I can’t wait to read her book), and Theodore. I related to Tessa’s relationship with writing and her friendship with Caroline. None of the characters were perfect, but they were real.
The plot was a little tropey, but it was tons of fun. I’m not the biggest fan of cheating plots, so at times that made me uncomfortable, but I knew I wasn’t supposed to be rooting for Tessa in those scenes, so it didn’t bother me too much. I thought that there was a lot of depths to the story, and yet it was still fun and sweet.
I did enjoy this book a lot, and I can’t wait to read book 2. Contemporary companion novel series are my favorite.
This was so freaking good I can’t process. I’ll have a full review up closer to pub date but for now:
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaa
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaa