Carrie Noel’s Reviews > Play Me Backwards > Status Update

The main character feels raw, real, and relatable (which compensates for the one dimensional characters surrounding him)

Has the potential to be a cute, non-formulaic romance, except the couple is doomed from the start and the love-interest-of-sorts (Paige) doesn't seem to have a ton of personality. I am intrigued by the potential underlying meaning that Selzer is proposing with what's going on with Paige and Anna B.

Moral: even if you feel directionless and unmotivated, if you decide to just do _something_, one thing will lead to another and you might gain direction and confidence that you didn’t have before.

I like the diversity of high school archetypes in this book. Makes it feel realistic.

Anna is just a fantasy. Moral to the story?

I’m kinda convinced Stan/Satan is a figment of Leon’s imagination.

In another note, enjoying the middle more than the beginning.

Plot is moving along nicely, enjoying the book with time.

Seems like it’s an interesting plot idea

Characters kinda strike me as millennial stereotype—which, I guess given the time period this book idea was first conceived and how old the characters are, they would be millennials

The main character feels really underdeveloped. He might have been better off being a year or two older. He has parents, who are apparently involved enough in his life to push him to do homework and get into college, yet he seems to otherwise have no connection with them. And what dynamic between them pushes him to be unmotivated? Maybe I’m reading too far into this... or maybe it’s not a good genre for me.