This book had no right to make me cry, but it did.
Just me sitting at work with my phone in hand tears, running down my face.

This book at it's core is about healing from Childhood Trauma and Grief and healing that inner child with a sweet romance thrown in to boot.

I was really interested in the beginning, but that interest tapers off. The art was gorgeous all the way through though which was unexpectedly nice.

This book is adorably funny, but is limited by the medium, I feel like it's potential would be expanded if this was in a format like a short cartoon rather then a book.

This book was well and truly interesting. The art style was also gorgeous.

But the down fall is pacing, this both has so many ideas crammed into 58 pages, but somehow the middle seems to also drag.
I think what really makes the middle drag is that we are getting more plot ideas dropped, but we fail to get any really juicy tidbits that make it feel like the time was well spent.

Heroine (Miyako Nikaido): "I just need to get by, like always. Like I always have." Next Page "Dangerous Curiosity" Gurl Same!
Chiro-Chan: To CUTE. This boy can and will be the death of me.
Koga-Kun: Rot in Hell.

This manga had no fucking right to go as hard as it did. Like the whole first half of this volume was a really good allegory for Depression.
But also this book head on confronts the importance of calling someone by their name. In this case it is the Heroine's given name. But this narrative could be swapped out for a Dead Name vs Chosen Name.
(Also looking back now I'm sad at the missed opportunity for the Heroine to be Trans)

I Love this Manga, every single page of it! I will be continuing this series.

CW: Attempted Sexual Assault, Blood, Bullying, Car Accident, Death, Drugs/Overdose, Minor Fatphobia, Gaslighting, Gun Violence, Kidnapping, Murder. Mentions of Vomiting. MAJOR Queerphobia.

The Good.
I loved this book, and it goes hard from the initial moment you hit play. This book has the best hook I have ever seen in an Audiobook.
Natalie Naudus' narration is exquisite as always. Still, the choice of explicitly taking on a News Anchor voice for all pieces of reporting the girls run into raises the bar for this production exponentially. It just further pulls you into the emersion of this book.
Further props to Naudus and Meskimen, I usually am a person who listens to books at a sped-up rate of 1.5+ just because that's typically how my brain best processes Audiobooks typically. But I never felt the need to speed up this book, even listening to it in one sitting.

The final chapter gave me such a level of gender affirmation/gender euphoria.

The Meh.
The choice to use "l'appel du vide" in the summary is weird because at no point did this phrase come up.

I have some mixed feelings about this pseudo(?) Incest romance. It still makes me feel a little ew.

We have a long internal monologue from Frankie in the early part of this book regarding how they feel about their gender identity. It felt forced, whereas most of our other interactions regarding Frankie's consideration feel like a more natural glimpse into how thought processes work.

The fact I did not DNF this book is a feat in itself.

This book feels like it could be used as evidence as to why the Manic Pixie Dream Girl is a toxic trope. But lets just pile on some more insensitivity to Mental Illness.

Then we have Dylan, he is the kind of character I think an AI would make after reviewing Nice Guys, Neck Beards, and Not Like Other Girls Subreddits. He is incredibly judgmental to every woman he sees, acts like he is better then everyone else, and has a lot of undealt with anger issues.
This boy desperately needs therapy and some actual (personal) growth.

The choice to fall onto what breaks down to a plot revolving around Trans Panic was honestly disgusting and insensitive when there are laws on the books that allow for that to be a defense. Which is made even worse when Dylan's reaction is then violence.

These are just the two that I can easily find words to describe but this book on a whole was egregious.

I am honestly saddened by the fact I didn't consume this book sooner. Every part of it was gorgeously written, and the who-dun-it had me on the edge of my seat up until the very end.

This is the kind of YA Romance that I consumed at breakneck speed in my youth, but without ALL the flaws of instalov that they are notorious for. While I can definitely say that this wasn't far off from the dreaded aforementioned writing style.

I enjoyed watching Yadriel, come to understand Julian and where he came from. While also growing to respect him as a person. While feeling a bit rushed it felt authentic.

A Note for The Audiobok:
1. Mad respect to Macmillan Audio for casting a Trans person to narrate this book about a Trans person. I hope to see more of this awesomeness in the future.
2. Avi Roque could literally read anything and I'd purchase it. Their voice is immaculate.

Somehow it hadn't clicked for me that YojimBOT, would contain robots. Let alone samurai robots. It kind of blew my mind when I saw it.

Robot Samurai and a cute little boy? I will for sure be reading the next volume of this because it is to cute and interesting not too.

A beautiful story of Grief, Love, and Motherhood.

This was gorgeous from beginning to end, and brought me so much joy, as well as almost to tears at the end.

I had heard about This Phone Booth before in passing. But it is in reality what this booth encapsulates is much more important.then the actual place.

I think there is an amazing message about how grief is universal, even if how we deal with it is different.