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Zero O'Clock
Sixteen-year-old Geth Montego must carve a new path for herself in a world turned upside down by the COVID pandemic and Black Lives Matter protests.
An insightful, eye-opening, and inventive story. C.J. Farley has penned a novel that sheds an important light on real issues facing young people today.
--Angie Thomas, author of The Hate U Give
Zero O'Clock is a beautiful and timely YA novel that is both heartbreaking and whip smart, a glimpse into the world of virtual friendship, classrooms, and pop stardom.
--Jeanne McWilliams Blasberg, author of The Nine
Thoughtful, provocative, and pounding with the fast-paced beat of a sharp-witted adolescent mind, Zero O'Clock is the story of a Jamaican-American teen girl at the early epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic in New Rochelle, New York. C.J. Farley has created an irresistible heroine in Geth Montego. Simmering with justifiable anger at everything from the cancellation of her senior prom to racial injustices and police brutality, Geth manages to overcome grief, anxiety, and confusion to discover a new sense of herself and her ability to create change.
--Karen Dukess, author of The Last Book Party
Zero O'Clock seems to have a direct line into the mindset of a modern teenager. I enjoyed it immensely!
--Alex Wheatle, author of Cane Warriors
Geth Montego only has three friends. There's her best friend Tovah, who's been acting weird ever since they started applying to the same colleges. Then there's Diego, who she wants to ask to prom, but if she does it could ruin everything. And there's the K-pop band BTS, who she's never seen up close but she's certain she'd be BFFs with every member of the group if she ever met them for real.
Then Geth's small town of New Rochelle, New York, becomes the center of a virus sweeping the world. Schools are closed, jobs are lost, and the only human contact she has is over Zoom. After a confrontation with cops, Geth gets caught up in the Black Lives Matter movement and finds herself having to brave the dangers she's spent months in quarantine trying to avoid.
Geth's friends, family, and hometown are upended by the pandemic and the protests. Geth faces a choice: Is she willing to risk everything to fight for her beliefs? And what exactly does she believe in, anyway?
An insightful, eye-opening, and inventive story. C.J. Farley has penned a novel that sheds an important light on real issues facing young people today.
--Angie Thomas, author of The Hate U Give
Zero O'Clock is a beautiful and timely YA novel that is both heartbreaking and whip smart, a glimpse into the world of virtual friendship, classrooms, and pop stardom.
--Jeanne McWilliams Blasberg, author of The Nine
Thoughtful, provocative, and pounding with the fast-paced beat of a sharp-witted adolescent mind, Zero O'Clock is the story of a Jamaican-American teen girl at the early epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic in New Rochelle, New York. C.J. Farley has created an irresistible heroine in Geth Montego. Simmering with justifiable anger at everything from the cancellation of her senior prom to racial injustices and police brutality, Geth manages to overcome grief, anxiety, and confusion to discover a new sense of herself and her ability to create change.
--Karen Dukess, author of The Last Book Party
Zero O'Clock seems to have a direct line into the mindset of a modern teenager. I enjoyed it immensely!
--Alex Wheatle, author of Cane Warriors
Geth Montego only has three friends. There's her best friend Tovah, who's been acting weird ever since they started applying to the same colleges. Then there's Diego, who she wants to ask to prom, but if she does it could ruin everything. And there's the K-pop band BTS, who she's never seen up close but she's certain she'd be BFFs with every member of the group if she ever met them for real.
Then Geth's small town of New Rochelle, New York, becomes the center of a virus sweeping the world. Schools are closed, jobs are lost, and the only human contact she has is over Zoom. After a confrontation with cops, Geth gets caught up in the Black Lives Matter movement and finds herself having to brave the dangers she's spent months in quarantine trying to avoid.
Geth's friends, family, and hometown are upended by the pandemic and the protests. Geth faces a choice: Is she willing to risk everything to fight for her beliefs? And what exactly does she believe in, anyway?
288 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 7, 2021
13 people are currently reading
798 people want to read
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September 17, 2021
I have received this ARC from Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.
Zero O'Clock seemed like it was going to be an easy book to devour. As someone who isn't necessarily obsessed with a band or singer, it was interesting to read about a person who was obsessed with a group: BTS.
Unfortunately, after meeting Geth it didn't take me long to realize that I'm not a huge fan of her. I didn't like how she looked down against people. Especially ones she didn't even know that well or at all. I did like how her and her friends would do GoT comments here and there but at times it just felt weird for my eyes to read it. Sometimes it worked and other times I got secondhand embarrassment.
Another thing I liked was it's take of living through a pandemic. Especially when it came to her mom, who is a nurse, and would come home crying every day after work. It hurt my heart because that's what my uncle went through and actually went into early retirement so that he didn't have to do that anymore.
In the end, it was an okay book but had potential to be a lot better in my eyes.
Zero O'Clock seemed like it was going to be an easy book to devour. As someone who isn't necessarily obsessed with a band or singer, it was interesting to read about a person who was obsessed with a group: BTS.
Unfortunately, after meeting Geth it didn't take me long to realize that I'm not a huge fan of her. I didn't like how she looked down against people. Especially ones she didn't even know that well or at all. I did like how her and her friends would do GoT comments here and there but at times it just felt weird for my eyes to read it. Sometimes it worked and other times I got secondhand embarrassment.
Another thing I liked was it's take of living through a pandemic. Especially when it came to her mom, who is a nurse, and would come home crying every day after work. It hurt my heart because that's what my uncle went through and actually went into early retirement so that he didn't have to do that anymore.
In the end, it was an okay book but had potential to be a lot better in my eyes.
June 24, 2021
DISCLAIMER: I received an eARC of Zero O'Clock from the publisher via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.
The year 2020 was a veritable cornucopia of chaos and disarray, and you would be hard pressed to find someone in America who remained unaffected by the COVID-19 pandemic. As such it was a matter of time until we started seeing books that used the pandemic as a backdrop, with books such as Phoebe Unfired by Amalie Jahn leading the pack. A comparison beyond superficial cannot be made at this time, as I have yet to read Jahn's offering. Farley's first foray into the YA genre, Zero O'Clock , is an effort set to hit shelves in September. This review is being written in real-time as I read the provided eARC so that the thoughts are fresh as I read.
Presently, I am two chapters into this novel, and I have to say, I'm far from impressed. Farley writes the teenage protagonist Geth in a manner that seems almost derogatory. In the very brief time I have gotten to know her, she has looked down on people who read newspapers, cites people in their mid-fifties as 'old and don't realize that they're old', and prattled on incessantly about Korean pop group BTS. While I am neurodivergent, I don't constantly compare every single medium and art form to the very specific one that happens to be my special interest. Repeated references in the beginning of the book call to mind Pixar's Onward, but have yet to mention it by name, yet repeatedly call up images of HBO's Game of Thrones and its assorted cast, usually in disparaging fashion to refer to then-President Trump and his ilk. This is a sentiment I don't necessarily disagree with, but the fact that GoT seems to be the go-to for Geth and her friends to take potshots with reads awkwardly. A more apt comparison for someone in that age range and time would almost certainly be a Marvel character - especially given that by 2019 most of the viewership had disavowed Game of Thrones after its disastrous series finale.
Reading through this book is a chore I haven't felt since I read Shatter Me. It is an absolute slog to get through and I am surprised it ever got published. Geth is an extremely unlikable character and the narrative voice is all wrong. Her holier-than-thou attitude is incredibly grating and makes for someone I don't want to see thrive. There have been times reading this book (at present I have a little less than a hundred pages left) where I have wondered if the protagonist is really an eighteen-year-old woman. I don't expect eloquence, but I do expect something other than an aged-up Junie B. Jones.
I cannot bring myself to care for this protagonist at ALL, which is a first for a YA book. I can only barely care for the supporting cast. Every conversation in this book feels stilted and scripted and boring, and it reminds me of a Family Guy cutaway - something that tries to sound much more intelligent than it is, while looking down on the viewers who might not understand all the references. Geth references 401(k)s herself, but then disparages landlines and newspapers as being things that are for old people.
Looking into the author's history, he appears to have a fair few middle-grade books under his belt. This is not surprising - this book absolutely reads lile lower-middle-grade fiction. I've read more adult concepts in Diary of a Wimpy Kid. The overuse of Generation Z slang is incredibly over the top and unncessary, and recalls the street talk spoken in Disney's American Dragon: Jake Long. If an ARC had not been provided to me, I would have absolutely thrown this into the DNF pile - which is something I never do. I am getting closer and closer to the end, and I can safely say that I will not be purchasing this book unless it really wows me in the next few pages.
There is no payoff to this book, no buildup. I get that it's essentially Geth narrating her day-to-day life, but it's so flat and boring and unimaginative. Every word of this book seems phoned in, the author seems disinterested in his words.
There are absolutely no stakes in this book. It's boring, and it's just Geth going through the motions. I'm not saying there has to be a huge, long, drawn out conflict. Going further into the book, Farley has slapped in some sort of Ready Player One element, which is incredibly odd and doesn't fit tonally at all. It really feels like he's writing whatever ideas come to his head with no sense of coherency.
There's a scene in an episode of King of the Hill where Bobby tries to act cool to impress a girl, and excessively uses incredibly dated slang. That's exactly what happens in this book, which is turning out to be a mishmash of Tumblr posts. Like its holier-than-thou protagonist, Zero O'Clock insists upon itself and tries to pass itself off as something greater than what it is.
After finishing the book, I have come to the conclusion that it is nothing more than an offering of highlightable quotes meant to be displayed on superficial aesthetic boards and edgy Tumblr blogs. Farley has not so much created a story as he has a mishmash of tropes and cliches and buzzwords.
I was slightly pleased to find the beginnings of an emotional connection....four-fifths through the book. On the whole, this book has done nothing to convince me to read the rest of Farley's current catalog, nor does it particularly inspire me to seek out future works of his.
The year 2020 was a veritable cornucopia of chaos and disarray, and you would be hard pressed to find someone in America who remained unaffected by the COVID-19 pandemic. As such it was a matter of time until we started seeing books that used the pandemic as a backdrop, with books such as Phoebe Unfired by Amalie Jahn leading the pack. A comparison beyond superficial cannot be made at this time, as I have yet to read Jahn's offering. Farley's first foray into the YA genre, Zero O'Clock , is an effort set to hit shelves in September. This review is being written in real-time as I read the provided eARC so that the thoughts are fresh as I read.
Presently, I am two chapters into this novel, and I have to say, I'm far from impressed. Farley writes the teenage protagonist Geth in a manner that seems almost derogatory. In the very brief time I have gotten to know her, she has looked down on people who read newspapers, cites people in their mid-fifties as 'old and don't realize that they're old', and prattled on incessantly about Korean pop group BTS. While I am neurodivergent, I don't constantly compare every single medium and art form to the very specific one that happens to be my special interest. Repeated references in the beginning of the book call to mind Pixar's Onward, but have yet to mention it by name, yet repeatedly call up images of HBO's Game of Thrones and its assorted cast, usually in disparaging fashion to refer to then-President Trump and his ilk. This is a sentiment I don't necessarily disagree with, but the fact that GoT seems to be the go-to for Geth and her friends to take potshots with reads awkwardly. A more apt comparison for someone in that age range and time would almost certainly be a Marvel character - especially given that by 2019 most of the viewership had disavowed Game of Thrones after its disastrous series finale.
Reading through this book is a chore I haven't felt since I read Shatter Me. It is an absolute slog to get through and I am surprised it ever got published. Geth is an extremely unlikable character and the narrative voice is all wrong. Her holier-than-thou attitude is incredibly grating and makes for someone I don't want to see thrive. There have been times reading this book (at present I have a little less than a hundred pages left) where I have wondered if the protagonist is really an eighteen-year-old woman. I don't expect eloquence, but I do expect something other than an aged-up Junie B. Jones.
I cannot bring myself to care for this protagonist at ALL, which is a first for a YA book. I can only barely care for the supporting cast. Every conversation in this book feels stilted and scripted and boring, and it reminds me of a Family Guy cutaway - something that tries to sound much more intelligent than it is, while looking down on the viewers who might not understand all the references. Geth references 401(k)s herself, but then disparages landlines and newspapers as being things that are for old people.
Looking into the author's history, he appears to have a fair few middle-grade books under his belt. This is not surprising - this book absolutely reads lile lower-middle-grade fiction. I've read more adult concepts in Diary of a Wimpy Kid. The overuse of Generation Z slang is incredibly over the top and unncessary, and recalls the street talk spoken in Disney's American Dragon: Jake Long. If an ARC had not been provided to me, I would have absolutely thrown this into the DNF pile - which is something I never do. I am getting closer and closer to the end, and I can safely say that I will not be purchasing this book unless it really wows me in the next few pages.
There is no payoff to this book, no buildup. I get that it's essentially Geth narrating her day-to-day life, but it's so flat and boring and unimaginative. Every word of this book seems phoned in, the author seems disinterested in his words.
There are absolutely no stakes in this book. It's boring, and it's just Geth going through the motions. I'm not saying there has to be a huge, long, drawn out conflict. Going further into the book, Farley has slapped in some sort of Ready Player One element, which is incredibly odd and doesn't fit tonally at all. It really feels like he's writing whatever ideas come to his head with no sense of coherency.
There's a scene in an episode of King of the Hill where Bobby tries to act cool to impress a girl, and excessively uses incredibly dated slang. That's exactly what happens in this book, which is turning out to be a mishmash of Tumblr posts. Like its holier-than-thou protagonist, Zero O'Clock insists upon itself and tries to pass itself off as something greater than what it is.
After finishing the book, I have come to the conclusion that it is nothing more than an offering of highlightable quotes meant to be displayed on superficial aesthetic boards and edgy Tumblr blogs. Farley has not so much created a story as he has a mishmash of tropes and cliches and buzzwords.
I was slightly pleased to find the beginnings of an emotional connection....four-fifths through the book. On the whole, this book has done nothing to convince me to read the rest of Farley's current catalog, nor does it particularly inspire me to seek out future works of his.
Want to read
August 11, 2021this title made me think of the BTS song . . . and then to find out the main character is obsessed with BTS?? guess I really gotta read this one now
December 11, 2021
Zero O’Clock is the story of Geth, a Black high school senior in New Rochelle, and her friends and family all navigating the COVID crisis, the alienation, and fear, and the summer’s uprising after the murder of George Floyd. Get is smart, though not as smart as her best friend Tovah, who has been preparing her valedictory speech for years. They are also good friends with Diego, the star quarterback who recently started going to their school and became friends with them after seeking out tutoring in Mandarin class from Geth.
Geth’s mother is a nurse. Keith is her mom’s live-in boyfriend, a freelance journalist whose career has stalled. Geth is unhappy with the relationship. She’s a levelheaded teen who struggles with OCD compulsions that make her take longer to do things, but she still gets them done. She’s a fan of BTS and the way she talks about them makes me want to tune in.
Navigating Zoom classes, protest marches, and COVID, Deth remains a force and in the end a force who found her voice.
I loved Zero O’Clock. I really fell in love with the characters. There were some “learning moments” for white characters who suddenly recognized their privilege, for example, fighting with a cop when Geth, a Black teen, was present and likely to bear the brunt of police reaction. But Geth is learning, too. I liked how the story of her father unrolls in small increments over the course of the book because, for Geth, it’s too much to talk about. There is just so much that feels authentic and immediate. I also love how current it feels, some of these conversations are happening right now on Twitter. It is a Young Adult book, so it is very easy reading. I am definitely not its target audience, but I loved it anyway.
I received an ARC of Zero O’Clock from the publisher through LibraryThing.
Zero O’Clock at Akashic Books
C. J. Farley author site
https://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpre...
Geth’s mother is a nurse. Keith is her mom’s live-in boyfriend, a freelance journalist whose career has stalled. Geth is unhappy with the relationship. She’s a levelheaded teen who struggles with OCD compulsions that make her take longer to do things, but she still gets them done. She’s a fan of BTS and the way she talks about them makes me want to tune in.
Navigating Zoom classes, protest marches, and COVID, Deth remains a force and in the end a force who found her voice.
I loved Zero O’Clock. I really fell in love with the characters. There were some “learning moments” for white characters who suddenly recognized their privilege, for example, fighting with a cop when Geth, a Black teen, was present and likely to bear the brunt of police reaction. But Geth is learning, too. I liked how the story of her father unrolls in small increments over the course of the book because, for Geth, it’s too much to talk about. There is just so much that feels authentic and immediate. I also love how current it feels, some of these conversations are happening right now on Twitter. It is a Young Adult book, so it is very easy reading. I am definitely not its target audience, but I loved it anyway.
I received an ARC of Zero O’Clock from the publisher through LibraryThing.
Zero O’Clock at Akashic Books
C. J. Farley author site
https://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpre...
May 13, 2021
Thanks to the publisher for providing an eARC of Zero O'Clock in exchange for an honest review.
Zero O'Clock follows Black high school senior Geth through the first few months of COVID-19 and related political movements in the USA. My biggest praise is probably how believable it was that this was an actually teenager talking. I had to check a few chapters in to make sure this wasn't a non-fictional auto-biographical account. That being said, fiction passing as auto-biographic isn't always a good thing. That very genuine "Geth wrote this" feeling comes at the cost of a lot of very, very blunt, boring narration. I think this will be a good way to look back on how the pandemic affected people, but beyond its current thematic significance, I don't think it has a lot of literary merit.
Zero O'Clock follows Black high school senior Geth through the first few months of COVID-19 and related political movements in the USA. My biggest praise is probably how believable it was that this was an actually teenager talking. I had to check a few chapters in to make sure this wasn't a non-fictional auto-biographical account. That being said, fiction passing as auto-biographic isn't always a good thing. That very genuine "Geth wrote this" feeling comes at the cost of a lot of very, very blunt, boring narration. I think this will be a good way to look back on how the pandemic affected people, but beyond its current thematic significance, I don't think it has a lot of literary merit.
March 23, 2022
It is March 2020 and the world has turned upside down because of the pandemic. Everyone's in masks, there are protests everywhere, and Geth Montego has to figure out her life in the midst of all of this.
I have many, many issues with this book, but my main gripe is the writing. From the onset, Geth is incredibly unlikeable. Her constant holier-than-thou attitude and general nastiness are incredibly grating. Her constant references to Game of Thrones alienate those who don't watch it, and her BTS references seem very shoehorned into the story. It so contrived. I'm ARMY, but the way she talks about BTS is just so irritating in a way that might even get readers to not want to listen to their songs. She also reminds me of those young "ARMY" on stan Twitter who make fun of older fans for liking BTS.
There was an unshaven guy in a Rangers jersey who must have been forty, which is way too old to be wearing professional sports insignias unless you’re on the team or coaching it.
Geth goes on and on and on about BTS claiming to be a big fan, but these are things that are very surface level knowledge. I expected something that showed WHY she liked them so much and how they helped her deal with the pandemic, instead of just rattling off facts about them. I wanted to know how Zero O'Clock even related to the book, aside from the obvious start of a new day. I wanted to know if it gave her hope that things would get better. Zero O'Clock mentioned multiple times in the book but never explained, never given any significance.
The only remotely likeable character in this book is Kevin, Geth's mother's boyfriend, who Geth is unnecessarily nasty towards. I understand that the main characters are teenagers so they may be full of angst and misdirected anger, but when you combine this with a holier-than-thou attitude, there is nothing to like at all.
The author seemed to want to stuff every single pop culture reference in the past two years in order to seem relevant, as if he had a word count to fulfill. There was constant and unnecessary name dropping too. Almost a full page, at one point. The writing had no cohesion to it whatsoever. We are supposed to be reading Geth's diary, but the tone and pace seem to differ with every diary entry. Towards the end, there was some virtual reality concept that seemed to come out of nowhere.
For someone who is very aware of the microaggressions against Black people and is so quick to call out racism, she seems to be absolutely unaware that she is pretty damn racist towards Asians, too. I really don't mean to invalidate the struggles that Black people faced especially in this time, but it seemed as though racism only mattered when it affected her and not other BIPOC. This is sad, especially because COVID-19 caused a spike in Asian and Asian-American hate crimes. Even BTS was a victim of this. But there was no mention of this.
It's such a shame that this book was so poorly written because this was such a turning point in the world. It could have been something so beautifully captured, instead, it was wasted on pop culture references, while using BTS to bait people into reading the book.
I have many, many issues with this book, but my main gripe is the writing. From the onset, Geth is incredibly unlikeable. Her constant holier-than-thou attitude and general nastiness are incredibly grating. Her constant references to Game of Thrones alienate those who don't watch it, and her BTS references seem very shoehorned into the story. It so contrived. I'm ARMY, but the way she talks about BTS is just so irritating in a way that might even get readers to not want to listen to their songs. She also reminds me of those young "ARMY" on stan Twitter who make fun of older fans for liking BTS.
There was an unshaven guy in a Rangers jersey who must have been forty, which is way too old to be wearing professional sports insignias unless you’re on the team or coaching it.
Geth goes on and on and on about BTS claiming to be a big fan, but these are things that are very surface level knowledge. I expected something that showed WHY she liked them so much and how they helped her deal with the pandemic, instead of just rattling off facts about them. I wanted to know how Zero O'Clock even related to the book, aside from the obvious start of a new day. I wanted to know if it gave her hope that things would get better. Zero O'Clock mentioned multiple times in the book but never explained, never given any significance.
The only remotely likeable character in this book is Kevin, Geth's mother's boyfriend, who Geth is unnecessarily nasty towards. I understand that the main characters are teenagers so they may be full of angst and misdirected anger, but when you combine this with a holier-than-thou attitude, there is nothing to like at all.
The author seemed to want to stuff every single pop culture reference in the past two years in order to seem relevant, as if he had a word count to fulfill. There was constant and unnecessary name dropping too. Almost a full page, at one point. The writing had no cohesion to it whatsoever. We are supposed to be reading Geth's diary, but the tone and pace seem to differ with every diary entry. Towards the end, there was some virtual reality concept that seemed to come out of nowhere.
For someone who is very aware of the microaggressions against Black people and is so quick to call out racism, she seems to be absolutely unaware that she is pretty damn racist towards Asians, too. I really don't mean to invalidate the struggles that Black people faced especially in this time, but it seemed as though racism only mattered when it affected her and not other BIPOC. This is sad, especially because COVID-19 caused a spike in Asian and Asian-American hate crimes. Even BTS was a victim of this. But there was no mention of this.
It's such a shame that this book was so poorly written because this was such a turning point in the world. It could have been something so beautifully captured, instead, it was wasted on pop culture references, while using BTS to bait people into reading the book.
November 27, 2021
I am a teenager in this pandemic and turned 16 at the height of it. This book, or the presentation of the story at least, didn’t sit right with me though. While I think the author is well written and spoken, it’s evident to me that he is a man, and that he is an older one who seems detached to the current generation. Constant usage of BTS and bringing up slang in contexts where they wouldn’t be used by someone our age not only made that evident, but became a point of annoyance for me throughout the book. More over, the abundance of pop culture references will make this book outdated within even ten years from now, when a new generation of teenagers may actually be interested in picking this book up. The author also veers more towards journalism as opposed to novels, which becomes palpable from chapter to chapter, and parts of the book seem disconnected like two completely separate thoughts. I also think the book just tried to take on too much at once. Was this about the pandemic and it’s political notions which included racism and a polarizing atmosphere between left and right wing supporters, or was it about teenagers who lost friends and had their life taken away from them? While I love seeing diversity, the constantly bringing it up seemed forced within the story, and while race was a focus, I think it’s important to allow the reader to see the character as a person and not just a token for a race, ethnicity, or religion. I think the book brings up great points, and it may cause you to think about things more deeply, but overall, I don’t think it’s a great book and it’s not one I would recommend.
April 29, 2022
2.5 stars
The beginning was SO strong. So funny. So promising. Then it all fell apart. I think the author tried to make wayyy too many statements and got lost along the way in an ugly, jumbled mess. In the end, I feel like the book ended pointlessly and left me with no hope. lol Also, he should have leaned further into the BTS thing, instead of making it an afterthought. Also also, I HOPE Gen Z isn't this political, cuz if so, y'all all sound 40-50 years old, watching the news and stuff and texting about Trump. The BLM part, while important in reality, was thrown in awkwardly in this book. Instead of giving us time to give a shit about her mom who I believe caught COVID, we're distracted by BLM and only months later briefly told her mom is recovering. No no.
The beginning was SO strong. So funny. So promising. Then it all fell apart. I think the author tried to make wayyy too many statements and got lost along the way in an ugly, jumbled mess. In the end, I feel like the book ended pointlessly and left me with no hope. lol Also, he should have leaned further into the BTS thing, instead of making it an afterthought. Also also, I HOPE Gen Z isn't this political, cuz if so, y'all all sound 40-50 years old, watching the news and stuff and texting about Trump. The BLM part, while important in reality, was thrown in awkwardly in this book. Instead of giving us time to give a shit about her mom who I believe caught COVID, we're distracted by BLM and only months later briefly told her mom is recovering. No no.
November 2, 2021
This was a stressful, anxiety-inducing read for me. It was definitely too soon for me to read a first-hand teen’s account of the start of the pandemic. I underestimated my trauma responses to all of it. The book is an interesting concept, but it focuses a bit much on the start of the pandemic. There were some interesting issues touched on in the latter half but not fully delved into. I received this book as a free giveaway in exchange for my honest review. 3 stars
February 26, 2022
First time thinking I'm too old for a YA novel.
The book covers a lot of super important topics, but that's also why I wasn't able to really get into it. It was just too much and it felt like nothing was covered sufficiently.
My rating is also hugely based on the fact that I got the audio book and the narrator was so very annoying. Maybe 3/5 if I read the book.
The book covers a lot of super important topics, but that's also why I wasn't able to really get into it. It was just too much and it felt like nothing was covered sufficiently.
My rating is also hugely based on the fact that I got the audio book and the narrator was so very annoying. Maybe 3/5 if I read the book.
August 31, 2022
I really enjoyed this book, about a girl's reality during the 2020 COVID lockdown. It's good for teens and adults.
March 17, 2022
really boring if you are not a huge fan
June 17, 2022
"I thought about how many things were slipping away. It was hard to remember what day of the week it was or what time of day it was. Nobody knew where anyone was anymore because everyone was on Zoom or FaceTime and they could be anywhere. Blursday was every day of the week. Zero o’clock was every hour of the day." Kindle Edition.
Ah..so I wanted something different and found this one on SORA as a brand new ebook chronicling the tumultuous days we all lived through that started in March of 2020 when the Covid-19 pandemic hit..As an educator it definitely affected me and to read about it through this quirky intelligent sixteen year old was refreshing..This book follows Geth and her two friends as she goes through the days of uncertainty, school closures and updates from “the president” who she only identifies as villains and the most evil and despicable from the Game of Thrones series….she is insightful and witty-love her voice as a real teen…
“People in their fifties are funny because they’re too young to realize they’re really old.”. Kindle Edition.
“I like a lot of those movies and shows but I don’t relate to those kids because they have everything in life they want except maybe enough charging stations on the interstate for their Teslas. Meanwhile, I have like two friends total, a house one size up from a trailer, and when I walk into my English class at New Rochelle High School, it’s entirely possible I’ll be greeted by a dying mouse twitching on the floor.” . Kindle Edition.
I can’t let Walder Frey’s ugly name pass through my lips even one more time, so until he’s out of office or George R.R. Martin finishes that final book, I’m just gonna say the names of Game of Thrones villains instead.”Kindle Edition.
As things get more and more intense they start seeing people in masks and the school shuts down for the first two weeks for teachers to reconfigure their lives and get ready to teach virtually–
“If I see someone in a mask, I figure they’re sick,” Diego said. “So if by work you mean do they raise everyone’s anxiety levels unnecessarily, then yes, they work.”. Kindle Edition.
This one goes there and realistically and honestly tackles the anti-maskers and the reasons why they believe the virus is a hoax…
“Then they want to say that we’re the ones who don’t believe in science. Well, I believe
in economics. Ain’t that a science? And economics tells me if you can’t make enough money to pay your bills, you die. More people will die from economics this year than will die from coronavirus.”. Kindle Edition.
There are racial insights as the George Floyd verdict happens and race comes into play –again the insight and conversations are just so good–
“White people gushing about Obama is the new “some of my best friends are Black.” I loved the Obamas too, but pulling the lever for a Black man twice in eight years doesn’t make up for four hundred years of slavery, oppression, segregation, not to mention the Kardashians’ overuse of spray tan, which is basically low-key cultural appropriation. Drives me cray-cray.”Kindle Edition.
“Racism is why that officer sat on that guy’s neck for nine minutes. He wouldn’t have done that if Reese Witherspoon had passed a fake twenty-dollar bill by mistake in Beverly Hills. There aren’t a lot of clips going viral of cops choking out blondes. I guess that’s why that movie was called Legally Blonde. Cause it’s always legal to be blond. Being Black is a felony waiting to happen.”Kindle Edition.
If I could go into all the things I learned from this one..it was such a gem for the most mundane or complex of terms and I was here for every insight from this amazing commentary—
“That’s where the term gaslighting comes from—a psycho murder thief telling you that your problems are imaginary when really he’s creating them to defraud and destroy you.”Kindle Edition.
“The issue I have with it is this is just gonna be another scam. When they start cutting their checks, the money is gonna go to the big boys who get traded on the stock exchange. Wall Street goes up, Main Street goes down. Ain’t no money gonna trickle down to Black businesses like mine. What’s that they say? When the white man gets a cold, the Black man gets pneumonia. So if white folks are catching COVID, we better start digging graves, you know what I’m saying?” Kindle Edition.
I spent time and even research into where to buy the exotic fruits I read about–Cherimoya, rambutan, sapodilla ...hmm what even are these..Love to learn about new things..
This was easily almost a five star book because I learned so much about hmm everything and it was just witty and intriguing as hell as it chronicled the wild year we all lived through..So much happened and I am just so glad to get to read it and share it with others..I liked this one alot.
Ah..so I wanted something different and found this one on SORA as a brand new ebook chronicling the tumultuous days we all lived through that started in March of 2020 when the Covid-19 pandemic hit..As an educator it definitely affected me and to read about it through this quirky intelligent sixteen year old was refreshing..This book follows Geth and her two friends as she goes through the days of uncertainty, school closures and updates from “the president” who she only identifies as villains and the most evil and despicable from the Game of Thrones series….she is insightful and witty-love her voice as a real teen…
“People in their fifties are funny because they’re too young to realize they’re really old.”. Kindle Edition.
“I like a lot of those movies and shows but I don’t relate to those kids because they have everything in life they want except maybe enough charging stations on the interstate for their Teslas. Meanwhile, I have like two friends total, a house one size up from a trailer, and when I walk into my English class at New Rochelle High School, it’s entirely possible I’ll be greeted by a dying mouse twitching on the floor.” . Kindle Edition.
I can’t let Walder Frey’s ugly name pass through my lips even one more time, so until he’s out of office or George R.R. Martin finishes that final book, I’m just gonna say the names of Game of Thrones villains instead.”Kindle Edition.
As things get more and more intense they start seeing people in masks and the school shuts down for the first two weeks for teachers to reconfigure their lives and get ready to teach virtually–
“If I see someone in a mask, I figure they’re sick,” Diego said. “So if by work you mean do they raise everyone’s anxiety levels unnecessarily, then yes, they work.”. Kindle Edition.
This one goes there and realistically and honestly tackles the anti-maskers and the reasons why they believe the virus is a hoax…
“Then they want to say that we’re the ones who don’t believe in science. Well, I believe
in economics. Ain’t that a science? And economics tells me if you can’t make enough money to pay your bills, you die. More people will die from economics this year than will die from coronavirus.”. Kindle Edition.
There are racial insights as the George Floyd verdict happens and race comes into play –again the insight and conversations are just so good–
“White people gushing about Obama is the new “some of my best friends are Black.” I loved the Obamas too, but pulling the lever for a Black man twice in eight years doesn’t make up for four hundred years of slavery, oppression, segregation, not to mention the Kardashians’ overuse of spray tan, which is basically low-key cultural appropriation. Drives me cray-cray.”Kindle Edition.
“Racism is why that officer sat on that guy’s neck for nine minutes. He wouldn’t have done that if Reese Witherspoon had passed a fake twenty-dollar bill by mistake in Beverly Hills. There aren’t a lot of clips going viral of cops choking out blondes. I guess that’s why that movie was called Legally Blonde. Cause it’s always legal to be blond. Being Black is a felony waiting to happen.”Kindle Edition.
If I could go into all the things I learned from this one..it was such a gem for the most mundane or complex of terms and I was here for every insight from this amazing commentary—
“That’s where the term gaslighting comes from—a psycho murder thief telling you that your problems are imaginary when really he’s creating them to defraud and destroy you.”Kindle Edition.
“The issue I have with it is this is just gonna be another scam. When they start cutting their checks, the money is gonna go to the big boys who get traded on the stock exchange. Wall Street goes up, Main Street goes down. Ain’t no money gonna trickle down to Black businesses like mine. What’s that they say? When the white man gets a cold, the Black man gets pneumonia. So if white folks are catching COVID, we better start digging graves, you know what I’m saying?” Kindle Edition.
I spent time and even research into where to buy the exotic fruits I read about–Cherimoya, rambutan, sapodilla ...hmm what even are these..Love to learn about new things..
This was easily almost a five star book because I learned so much about hmm everything and it was just witty and intriguing as hell as it chronicled the wild year we all lived through..So much happened and I am just so glad to get to read it and share it with others..I liked this one alot.
August 1, 2022
3.5 rounded up, only problem is the author put everything including the kitchen sink into one book.
February 3, 2022
This YA novel took me by surprise as I didn't expect that it would make me laugh, mourn, and deep contemplate. The main character is a Jamaican-American high school senior, Geth, and the book is written as her almost daily journal of her life in Rochelle, NY around the first few months in 2020 that mark the start of the pandemic. The book tells us about Geth's friends, family, neighborhood, school, college applications, Game of Thrones, Black Lives Matter movement, and... as the other reviews have highlighted, her love for BTS, a Korean pop band.
I received an e-ARC through Goodreads giveaway in the fall 2021 (thank you!) but didn't get to read it until January 2022. Once I started, I couldn't stop. I really enjoyed Geth's fiery/confused/self-interested teenage perspective of when the world turned bleak. The story flows well I was ready to give it 4 stars, until I reached the last third of the book. I am not sure what happened, but the last few chapters were so packed and busy, yet they did not lend cohesiveness to the rest of the book. Thus, the 3 stars.
I received an e-ARC through Goodreads giveaway in the fall 2021 (thank you!) but didn't get to read it until January 2022. Once I started, I couldn't stop. I really enjoyed Geth's fiery/confused/self-interested teenage perspective of when the world turned bleak. The story flows well I was ready to give it 4 stars, until I reached the last third of the book. I am not sure what happened, but the last few chapters were so packed and busy, yet they did not lend cohesiveness to the rest of the book. Thus, the 3 stars.
September 20, 2021
2020 was probably the most significant year we'll see in a long time. Fiction set in that time is starting to arrive on our shelves now. And I can definitely say, this is - one of those.
There isn't really a plot, as such. It's an almost day by day narration of Geth's life as the Covid crises looms, crashes, peaks and retreats (a bit). Geth's mother is an ER nurse so Geth knows better than most how things are going. It doesn't help that her mother's boyfriend has decided to move his ex-wife's son in, and into Geth's bedroom besides.
There's a scene relatively early on that kind of exemplifies my problem with this book. Geth is thinking about Donald Trump, the then president, but rather than uses his name she uses a variety of names of villians from Game of Thrones, never the same name twice, and doesn't explain this decision until right at the end of the section. Believe it or not, there are people out there who didn't watch Game of Thrones, wouldn't have picked up those names, and thus would have spent that whole section wondering who all these people that Geth was angry at are. If the explanation had come first, things would have been better.
I didn't hate this book, it isn't awful, but it's probably not one I'll revisit, sadly.
There isn't really a plot, as such. It's an almost day by day narration of Geth's life as the Covid crises looms, crashes, peaks and retreats (a bit). Geth's mother is an ER nurse so Geth knows better than most how things are going. It doesn't help that her mother's boyfriend has decided to move his ex-wife's son in, and into Geth's bedroom besides.
There's a scene relatively early on that kind of exemplifies my problem with this book. Geth is thinking about Donald Trump, the then president, but rather than uses his name she uses a variety of names of villians from Game of Thrones, never the same name twice, and doesn't explain this decision until right at the end of the section. Believe it or not, there are people out there who didn't watch Game of Thrones, wouldn't have picked up those names, and thus would have spent that whole section wondering who all these people that Geth was angry at are. If the explanation had come first, things would have been better.
I didn't hate this book, it isn't awful, but it's probably not one I'll revisit, sadly.
May 18, 2022
At times this book was a bit hard to read just because it reflected so much of what actually happened in the world during the summer of 2020. I can relate to the main character Geth being that she’s a black young girl who had to cope with all the trauma that was the pandemic, racial violence, etc and seeing how she found comfort not only in her friends and family but BTS was similar to my own experience which made me happy to see. This book read like a personal diary from Geth and was basically a stream of her consciousness which made it interesting and personal. I enjoyed this book and i’m truly glad i read it.
October 14, 2021
So, I guess we don't actually need to have plots for books anymore? If you love reading the social media of a person who is political about EVERYTHING, and want it expanded into the boring day to day life of a teenager, this book is for you. Unfortunately, it's not at all for me.
May 21, 2023
I liked it, but I feel like this was too soon for it to come out. Who would want to read a book about World War 2 while the war is going on? Just saying…
The only reason I read was for BTS references
…which didn’t end up being good. We never got to why she likes them so much. Idk like whatever.
The only reason I read was for BTS references
…which didn’t end up being good. We never got to why she likes them so much. Idk like whatever.
July 27, 2022
Sad to say that I could not make it halfway through this book. I got 35% of the way through and a comment was made about police brutality that took it in a joking manner and I had to stop. The first part of the book that I was reading I didn’t love it it felt very Wattpad sounding honestly I read better books on Wattpad. It felt very much like a middle-age man was trying to relate to 16-year-old girls which is what was happening authors not a girl was never a teenage girl.
A lot of the vocabulary used throughout this book was what TV shows would use to make fun girls. I also felt that a lot of this book was using phrases and vocabulary that could be seen as making fun of liberal teenagers. The author never used the word Trump always had some other word to use and had even mentioned multiple times in the book about how he had already ruined the country so much she didn’t want to give him any more by using his name and then compared him to Voldemort and compared him to Lord of the rings characters.
Which yes a lot of people do not want to say his name because of how disastrous the presidency was but it took me a couple of these references to realize who the character was talking about because she didn’t preface by saying oh I don’t called Trump by his name I call him these things instead and every time it changed.
I also think that The author used BTS way too much as a way to try and relate to girls and relate to the younger audience. It was as though every other sentence included BTS and then at one point the author compare to BTS to One Direction and the Jonas Brothers even though those three bands did not exist all at the same time.
A lot of the vocabulary used throughout this book was what TV shows would use to make fun girls. I also felt that a lot of this book was using phrases and vocabulary that could be seen as making fun of liberal teenagers. The author never used the word Trump always had some other word to use and had even mentioned multiple times in the book about how he had already ruined the country so much she didn’t want to give him any more by using his name and then compared him to Voldemort and compared him to Lord of the rings characters.
Which yes a lot of people do not want to say his name because of how disastrous the presidency was but it took me a couple of these references to realize who the character was talking about because she didn’t preface by saying oh I don’t called Trump by his name I call him these things instead and every time it changed.
I also think that The author used BTS way too much as a way to try and relate to girls and relate to the younger audience. It was as though every other sentence included BTS and then at one point the author compare to BTS to One Direction and the Jonas Brothers even though those three bands did not exist all at the same time.
September 20, 2022
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Thank you New South Publishing for this book in exchange for an honest review
Nope. Nope. Nope.
I don’t even know where to start with this.
Firstly, the premise of the book was something that I was keen as hell to read about and about halfway through reading the book, I had to check that this was the book I was originally thinking of. Was this the book I was excited to read? Yep.
Did this book seem all over the place that it could have been a different book? Very much a possibility.
This was written in such an odd capacity that it was as if I was reading a newspaper article. It was scattered and all over the place. It was like reading the rough draft of multiple authors writing a few different versions of the one story and their work was compiled and unedited. It was rough. Was it about COVID? Politics? Racism? BTS? Right Wing? Left wing? Teenagers going through a hard time? Something about the atmosphere was mentioned as well. It was too much going on and as it was written like a news article, it was info-dumping all the time. No chance for any sort of story to develop around the hardcore information.
BTS was mentioned way too many times. It was constant. It was as though I was reading a news article about BTS, which isn’t what the book synopsis even mentioned.
Honestly, I’m calling it now. This was the worst book of 2022 that I’ve read.
Bookstagram
Website
Thank you New South Publishing for this book in exchange for an honest review
Nope. Nope. Nope.
I don’t even know where to start with this.
Firstly, the premise of the book was something that I was keen as hell to read about and about halfway through reading the book, I had to check that this was the book I was originally thinking of. Was this the book I was excited to read? Yep.
Did this book seem all over the place that it could have been a different book? Very much a possibility.
This was written in such an odd capacity that it was as if I was reading a newspaper article. It was scattered and all over the place. It was like reading the rough draft of multiple authors writing a few different versions of the one story and their work was compiled and unedited. It was rough. Was it about COVID? Politics? Racism? BTS? Right Wing? Left wing? Teenagers going through a hard time? Something about the atmosphere was mentioned as well. It was too much going on and as it was written like a news article, it was info-dumping all the time. No chance for any sort of story to develop around the hardcore information.
BTS was mentioned way too many times. It was constant. It was as though I was reading a news article about BTS, which isn’t what the book synopsis even mentioned.
Honestly, I’m calling it now. This was the worst book of 2022 that I’ve read.
December 12, 2021
I have received this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
As someone who started my own journal at the beginning of the pandemic to document history as it was happening, I was really excited to read Zero O'Clock to get a perspective of a teen living in New York City. Especially a senior who was dealing with schools being closed, graduation and prom being cancelled, and the uncertainty of college.
I had mixed feelings about the characters who felt real but also a bit absurd at times. What felt really weird, though, was the bit of unrealistic sci-fi that was thrown into the middle of the story. While Geth (the main character) is working through the challenges of friendships and being stuck in lockdown with her family, her mom's boyfriend's stepson suddenly has trope-level hacking skills and there is mysterious brain scanning technology. It felt really out of place since it didn't come up until the middle of the book and just seemed to be thrown in, while the rest dealt with real problems. Don't get me wrong, I love sci-fi, but in a book based on a real moment in history that already had feels like living through a Stephen King novel, made up tech was not necessary.
Otherwise the book had its ups and downs. Sometimes Geth felt overexplanatory of certain things and some of the moments were a bit extreme, but other parts were honest and moving.
Overall, it wasn't bad and I was left wondering how Geth managed the following fall with college.
As someone who started my own journal at the beginning of the pandemic to document history as it was happening, I was really excited to read Zero O'Clock to get a perspective of a teen living in New York City. Especially a senior who was dealing with schools being closed, graduation and prom being cancelled, and the uncertainty of college.
I had mixed feelings about the characters who felt real but also a bit absurd at times. What felt really weird, though, was the bit of unrealistic sci-fi that was thrown into the middle of the story. While Geth (the main character) is working through the challenges of friendships and being stuck in lockdown with her family, her mom's boyfriend's stepson suddenly has trope-level hacking skills and there is mysterious brain scanning technology. It felt really out of place since it didn't come up until the middle of the book and just seemed to be thrown in, while the rest dealt with real problems. Don't get me wrong, I love sci-fi, but in a book based on a real moment in history that already had feels like living through a Stephen King novel, made up tech was not necessary.
Otherwise the book had its ups and downs. Sometimes Geth felt overexplanatory of certain things and some of the moments were a bit extreme, but other parts were honest and moving.
Overall, it wasn't bad and I was left wondering how Geth managed the following fall with college.
January 16, 2024
I had really high expectations of this book since it's included in my Army TBR. I did not expect to be a little underwhelmed😥😅 ofc I enjoyed all the parts where BTS was mentioned, and the protagonist being an army is believable enough. Maybe I wasn't the target market, this book seems to be more appropriate for a younger audience (teens). The story itself is relatable, because it centers around the pandemic (t/w: it relives the covid era so it lightly touches on loss and death. It is also a BIPOC story, so there are mentions of racism, discrimination, police brutality, and school shooting). It's basically a story of teenagers living during this time. The characters were not really likable for me, and it was too long that I skimmed some pages. I would've cut some scenes tbh. Safe to say I pushed myself not to DNF. 😅
BTS is what saved this book 😅 How their songs, their lyrics, and any info the author inserted into the story were done like a true army, so on point 💜 I especially loved how the author used Jamais Vu as part of the pandemic playlist. What was once familiar became unfamiliar. So true for us coming from staying at home and isolating, to coming back outside the real world and becoming a part of society again. And my ult fave part? Mint Yoongi 😅💜
BTS is what saved this book 😅 How their songs, their lyrics, and any info the author inserted into the story were done like a true army, so on point 💜 I especially loved how the author used Jamais Vu as part of the pandemic playlist. What was once familiar became unfamiliar. So true for us coming from staying at home and isolating, to coming back outside the real world and becoming a part of society again. And my ult fave part? Mint Yoongi 😅💜
February 7, 2022
Parts of this were ok, but I felt like everything was thrown into it. Not only the pandemic, but we learn Geth's dad died in a school shooting. A racist police officer breaks their door down because they're not wearing masks?!? Pandemic cynics/non-believers. Stereotyped characters-the good and the bad-the feminist and Jew (same character), the asshole rich kid quarterback, an undocumented imigrant, etc. On top of all that Geth has OCD and anxiety disorders. Oh, and let's throw in Geroge Floyd's murder, too! I, for some reason, keep torturing myself reading/watching things about the pandemic and quarantine times. I wanted to like this, and every single topic is/was tragic, but just focusing on one would have been enough. We've all lived through 2020 in its entirety. Experienicing ALL of it again was overkill. (I also realize this is coming from a place of privilige, but I honestly don't think every tragedy that happened in 2020 needed to be addressed.)
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 19, 2021
It’s March 2020 and senior Geth, along with friends Tovah and Diego, are anticipating their college acceptances, plus prom and graduation. Then their town, New Rochelle, becomes a flashpoint for COVID cases, Geth’s mom, who is a nurse, starts pulling double shifts and coming home in tears because of all her intubated patients,school goes to Zoom, and mom’s boyfriend Kevin’s teenaged son Karhakonha moves into the only available space, Geth’s bedroom.
Texts, playlists, and snippets of news combine with dialogue and narration to deftly convey the experience of early quarantine chaos as Geth manages her asthma and OCD as well as her resentment of Kevin, her grief over the death of her father, political divisions among her classmates, and her response to the emerging Black Lives Matter movement. EARC from Edelweiss.
Texts, playlists, and snippets of news combine with dialogue and narration to deftly convey the experience of early quarantine chaos as Geth manages her asthma and OCD as well as her resentment of Kevin, her grief over the death of her father, political divisions among her classmates, and her response to the emerging Black Lives Matter movement. EARC from Edelweiss.
February 6, 2022
This was written by my law school professor, Anthony Farley's brother- so I was excited to read it. I thought he did a good job capturing the pandemic experience through the eyes of a black teen, Geth, the narrator. CJ Farley has a teen daughter himself, so that likely helped him to understand. There are so many important issues in this book - it almost feels like too much for one YA novel to tackle: the pandemic, Black Lives Matter, gun violence/school shootings, LGBTQ issues, immigration issues. It was hard for the characters to really be multi-dimensional bc of all that was going on in the book. I did love how Trump is never named outright in the book by anyone, yet the reader always knows when a character is referring to him. That was pretty great.
September 22, 2021
there's some really good stuff here, but it's truly the epitome of a mixed bag. in many ways, this feels so incredibly fresh that reading it was retraumatizing instead of cathartic. the pacing is very weird, some of the references don't quite work, and the characterization is...uneven.
this might get better the further we get from 2020? but my guess is that we'll see such a slew of other attempts to derive meaning from what has happened (and is still happening) that this might get lost in the shuffle.
this might get better the further we get from 2020? but my guess is that we'll see such a slew of other attempts to derive meaning from what has happened (and is still happening) that this might get lost in the shuffle.
March 10, 2022
Thanks to the publisher for providing an eARC of Zero O'Clock in exchange for an honest review.
(DNF'ed) I was really looking forward to a relatively short, relatable book about experiences that I, as a teenager, has lived through, but I could barely get through two chapters. The writing felt like a very long tangent from the start and I couldn't really tell where the plot was going, or what the plot even was. In other words, this book did nothing to hold my attention and I got bored. It's a shame - I thought the cover looked cool.
(DNF'ed) I was really looking forward to a relatively short, relatable book about experiences that I, as a teenager, has lived through, but I could barely get through two chapters. The writing felt like a very long tangent from the start and I couldn't really tell where the plot was going, or what the plot even was. In other words, this book did nothing to hold my attention and I got bored. It's a shame - I thought the cover looked cool.
August 15, 2022
I was attracted to this book because I am a fan of bts. I thought because the author had found depth in the lyricism of bts, that they would be equally good with their own writing. I was disappointed. I didn't get very far with the book. I have read many other YA books that appealed to all ages and this was not one of them. It was very apparent how far removed the middle aged, male author was from the character that he created. It was like he only did research on Twitter and the first person view was very annoying.
February 19, 2022
2,5 ★
apesar de abordar temas importantes como o racismo, xenofobia, a situação atual da pandemia covid-19, achei um pouco aborrecido. as personagens não conseguiram chegar até mim.
gostei das imensas referências a bandas, músicas (o autor dá-nos umas quantas playlists), filmes do Miyazaki, livros, filmes, entre outros.
talvez os fãs de BTS/army apreciem a leitura pelas referências à banda. o livro é, certamente, um elogio a eles. não fosse o nome ser zero o:clock 💜
apesar de abordar temas importantes como o racismo, xenofobia, a situação atual da pandemia covid-19, achei um pouco aborrecido. as personagens não conseguiram chegar até mim.
gostei das imensas referências a bandas, músicas (o autor dá-nos umas quantas playlists), filmes do Miyazaki, livros, filmes, entre outros.
talvez os fãs de BTS/army apreciem a leitura pelas referências à banda. o livro é, certamente, um elogio a eles. não fosse o nome ser zero o:clock 💜
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