severely disappointed😔 rtc
Came here for a good school rivals to lovers and ended up loosing a piece of my sanity that ill never earn back.
For some quick pros: it was fun? It was definitely easy to read, some of the banter was cool.
Now my list of cons:
1. Pacing:
Since the plot follows 4 school trip days of 4 different years, freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior.
But the thing is there’s no consistent plot. At all.
Every year goes like this:
I hate him, he’s annoying, oh wait we made out again, are we dating? miscommunication, i hate him
The pacing gives us virtually no time for context or to see the plot in action. In addition to never seeing the real plot point, the only thing were going off of is Lulu’s perspective of what happened. Which led to lots of annoying miscommunication.
2. Characters in their entirety:
They’re all unmemorable, especially Lulu. I had to look up her name because i forgot it in a week.
See, Lulu loves miscommunication, everything she does ends up with her or the others exiting the conversation with the wrong idea.
She can’t ever decide what she wants, and ends up hurting people in the crossfire. She breaks up with Alex, and then decides she loves him again; putting Alex through emotional suffering. She then decides she doesn’t love him and dates another guy. A nice guy, a great boyfriend and person in general. She then decides that she actually does love Alex and breaks up with her former nice boyfriend, hurting him. She lies about being accepted to a college in Rhodesia Island, hurting Alex and everyone in her life. It’s all mess, and not an ”omg this is interesting drama” way, just. No this is so annoying stop it kind of way.
Alex is the same, unmemorable. Alex makes some questionable moves, whether its continuously asking when they’ll have sex or going on trips with other girls without telling his girlfriend. He is in no way an awe inspiring YA love interest. He also hurts some girls that he was talking to, but then suddenly drops them for Lulu. Yeah, he’s not the best guy.
Also his outfit descriptions are really lame. He wears backwards hats a lot, yknow that aesthetic. Not a major fan, if you’re going to put all this effort in describing all their fits maybe make them cool.
3. Insensitive approach to veganism:
Lulu is vegan, and that’s thoughtfully shoved down my esophagus every 10 pages so i don’t forget. Don’t get me wrong! Vegans are great, if that’s what you want or like the sure! But when it comes to Lulu, she reprimands every single person who isn’t vegan. nothing wrong with standing up for the environment, but to an extend, animals were made for humans to eat. And being vegan or vegetarian is a personal choice for your own benefit. Lulu scoffs and snaps at anyone eating a hotdog on field trips, either in her head or to their face. It’s severely annoying and honestly blind. besides the fact that these are Highschool boys at amusement parks, not everyone can be vegan! Existing or pre-existing EDs, allergies, or mental/physical needs can make it very very hard to be vegan/vegetarian. So the fact that Lulu hates on strangers/friends for eating meat or dairy is super lame.
4. It reads like a fanfic:
And not like a novella, just. Like a fanfic. Besides the commonly used miscommunication trope, it reads like it came straight from wattpad. There’s unlikely, weird mishaps like her bikini top flying off that doesn’t happen very often in the real world, Alex is hit by a bus, the whole ”how will i get into my dream college if i can’t get that sports scholarship anymore!” trope, everyone conveniently ends up with a partner, and the writing is by no means eloquent.
For their senior trip they go to London, and meet up with another group from and Italian Academy. During their entire time together they are only referred to as ”The Italians” not _____ Academy or even by their names. Just ”The Italians are following behind us, the Italians nod in approval, the Italians laugh at our joke,” etc. it just left a very icky feeling in my stomach. If you’re Italian and don’t find it weird or aren’t offended, then it’s nothing, but i personality thought it was disrespectful.
All of the side characters are randomly coupled up. Even if they barely met or don’t even seem like each other’s type, it was just for the sake of it. There’s nothing wrong with being single? One side character was immediately coupled with the “head Italian” and they met a maximum of 4 days ago. Apparently no one is allowed to be single and free in this universe.
it’s basically a shrine for JK Rowling. its like the author wants to be paid for this free advertising! She sure loves to hype up a unapologetic racist:)
”She’s wearing a T-shirt that says Muggle.”
“‘This is absurd, no one’s even asked her what her Hogwarts house is.’
‘It’s obvious she’s a Gryffindoor, like you.’”
Just two examples of the MANY. Some of them blatantly praise her.
Overall, it was just sad. And not even in a heartbreaking omg this is so sad but good way, no just this is hurting my soul its so cringey. A very unpleasant read. If this is the YA standard maybe by short story from 8th grade isnt that bad