e-Audio, 06:18:32
Narrated by: Natalie Naudus
Release Date: June 20, 2023
Published by: OrangeSky Audio
Read from: July 17-19, 2023
Stand-alone
Source: Spotify
TW: Car crash, Toxic Relationships, Dementia, Biphobia, Homophobia, Abandonment, Sexual Assault, Medical Content
For Readers Interested In: Novels in Verse, Romance, LGBTQ+, Coming of Age, Realistic Fiction, YABy the critically praised author of A Million Quiet Revolutions , this YA contemporary sapphic romance told in verse is about a bisexual teen girl who falls in and out of love over the course of one fateful summer.
It’s a few months before senior year and Claire Kemp, a closeted bisexual, is finally starting to admit she might be falling in love with her best friend, Sophia, who she’s known since they were four.
Trying to pay off the fine from the crash that totals Lars, her beloved car, Claire takes a job at the local nursing home up the street from her house. There she meets Lena, an eighty-eight-year-old lesbian woman who tells her stories about what it was like growing up gay in the 1950s and ’60s.
As Claire spends more time with Lena and grows more confident of her identity, another girl, Pen, comes into the picture, and Claire is caught between two loves–one familiar and well-worn, the other new and untested.
*MY THOUGHTS*
I’m always iffy when it comes to novels in verse. I really have to be interested in the premise to give it a shot. And even then it has to be narrated by a bomb narrator (because yes I’m going to listen to it) who I’ve listened to and loved before. And that’s wxactly what happened to this one. It was just weird enough for me to be super interested with a narrator who’s easily one of my top 5.
Ok so boom, the reason I was so into this was because she was writing this ode to her car like Adam Sandler. But the difference was she was writing hers because she had just crashed it. She was apologizing and all the things. It sounded so good! And it was. The story is told through small letters that she writes to Lars, her car. It was like a journal of sorts.
The thing that grabbed me though was the writing style. Usually with novels in verse (and I say this ALOT) I always feel like something important is missing. Like some of the story has to be left out so that the reader can make their own interpretation. (And honestly I feel like it’s also because you can only say so much in a poem before you might as well say it’s a novel in prose) But I didn’t feel this way. I wasn’t kept guessing and it flowed nicely to me. It was emotional but hopeful, and really sweet.
I did feel a way about the characters tho. Like I really liked the old couple, but the MC was on my nerves all the time. Like girl, why are you annoyed at your parents because you wrecked your car and they’re making you pay for it? At this point I was like I’m getting too old for these books lol But as she got more into it, it started to make sense that she wasn’t really mad at that at all. She was scared of other things that were changing and she didn’t know how or why. And the old couple?! Omg they were so cute. This was literally my favorite part of the novel. I made a TikTok about this book and just HAD to add this tidbit to it. I thought this was especially cute because finding older individuals who couldn’t be out when they were younger is so sad. Seeing them finally live their lives and finally find a real love was so heartwarming. She was 80 years old. Like it’s never too late to live your best life and I was so happy for her.
I wasn’t expecting to like this as much as I did and I really went back and forth with the way I wanted to rate this. I don’t usually like books that have an outing in them, but this one was sweet and done by the MC. I didn’t get the sick twist of dread I usually when there’s potential for a public outing and that made me breathe a little easier. There was still some things I didn’t like, but overall I think it was pretty solid.
Overall, I give this
