I am over the moon at what this story did. I was able to see myself on the page so clearly and in so many ways for the first time. And despite the VERY sensitive topics being addressed, it was very nice to see our main characters' actively working to break the cycle of abuse, deal with their respective traumas, and become healthy for each other. And there was a plethora of advice given throughout that was clearly not just meant for the characters, but was done in a well-placed and non-lecture-y manner.

It was nice to see such well-integrated stories surrounding asexuality and belonging, asexual-allosexual relationships, relationship trauma, codependency, deafness and sign language, mental health, and positive body image.

However, there were several punctuation mistakes that may bother some readers.

Major/Detailed Triggers: Gaslighting; Emotional abuse; Stalking; Acephobia Other Triggers: Physical abuse; Toxic relationship; Alcoholism; Sexual violence; Infidelity *Most of these triggers are not in relation to the main characters' relationship with each other

What happens when two broken-down men enter into a fake relationship of mutual benefit? This humorous novel tells us. It tells us that love might not cure all, and definitely not overnight, but having someone to support you, defend you, cheer for you, and be there through the rough parts definitely helps - whether that be a complementary-opposite romantic partner, a gaggle of teasing and sarcastic friends, or family members that show unconditional love. It shows that healing dominoes into a variety of parts of your life. It shows that not all single-parent families are a mess, nor that all happily-married-parent homes are healthy.

I'm all for these valuable messages, especially in the way that they wove together throughout the book. I also loved the reoccurring scenes where Luc tries to tell his literal-minded coworker(s) jokes, before having to give up with promises to do better next time. It was a quirk that I surprisingly enjoyed, and reminded me of the energy found in old sitcoms. It was all relatable and humorous, and sometimes I even laughed out loud. Also, did I spot a QPR in there?

But the same sarcasm and wit that Luc used to keep people from getting too close, also kept us readers from getting too emotionally attached. It made the moments of conflict, climaxes, and even romantic moments felt rather muted. In fact, I feel like I was more consistently onboard with the friendships and mother-son moments than the romance. But that might also be because of the pacing: the first climax happened around 50% into the book, and was resolved quickly. The final climax happened at 90% of the book and, on behalf of being so close to the end, felt rather easily resolved as well.

In another old sitcom-like gesture, we also get some supporting characters who had about 1/4 of a functioning braincell - so much so that they struggled to follow simple lines of conversations. This is a particular character archetype that I've personally never been fond of and rather forgot that it existed.

Memorable Quotes:

I've never seen the point of fancy dress parties. You have two choices: either you make a massive effort and wind up looking like a disk, or you make no effort and wind up looking like a dick. And my problem, as always, was not knowing what kind of dick I wanted to be.

Someone else's actions may affect you. But what other people choose to do is about them."

“Will it ever stop hurting?” “Non.” Mum shook her head. “But it will stop mattering.”

"Are we really bad at this?" I asked. "We've been fake broken up once." "Yes, but we fake resolved our difficulties and fake got back together, and I'm hoping it's made us fake stronger."

Awkward as this is, I like to feel that 'slightly more friends than you can fit around your table' is exactly the right number of friends to have.

This book does exactly what it sets out to do, and more. Throughout the work I was waiting for the ball to drop, chills gathering by the chapter. And had nothing but tears for those last few sections. It’s a heart-wrenching tale of connection that transcends friendship, romance, and sisterhood. A tale of loss that’s impossible to bounce back from. Throughout the work, Claudia just wanted to be taken seriously. Just wanted to know what was going on. Desperate to know if she was right. But sometimes being right comes with more pain than satisfaction.

Besides how palpable the emotion was on the pages, how desperation and fear permeated nearly every word, I think what really hurt the most was how real this scenario felt. How many kids are ignored and left in states of living hell all because of people applying “ain’t our business” logic to situations it shouldn’t apply. How it’s funny that “ain’t our business” logic never seems to apply to gossip. How people pretend to be blind when things get serious. How “ain’t our business” gets spouted even by the very systems meant to protect people, in order to protect reputation and time instead.

And how I know/n kids to this day who should’ve had state and school intervention. But received nothing other than a scheduled knock on the door and a “could be worse.” And I know it’s even worse in other areas. In other communities. So much needs to get fixed.

“𝑰 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒌 𝒊𝒕 𝒃𝒐𝒊𝒍𝒔 𝒅𝒐𝒘𝒏 𝒕𝒐 𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒒𝒖𝒆𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏: 𝒘𝒉𝒐’𝒔 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚 𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒑𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒊𝒃𝒍𝒆 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒘𝒆𝒍𝒍-𝒃𝒆𝒊𝒏𝒈—𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒇𝒂𝒎𝒊𝒍𝒚, 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒈𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒏𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕, 𝒐𝒓 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒎𝒖𝒏𝒊𝒕𝒚?”

Our protagonist is Claudia. Daughter of a southern mother and a trucker father. Tragic fan of go-go music. Beautiful dancer and overall artist. She sees the world in colors. And words tend to escape her. She fears speaking. Fears standing out. Monday is her safety net from the world. And Claudia is hers. They shared a dynamic that perhaps wasn’t the most honest or healthy, but was nonetheless crucial. Nonetheless genuine. I absolutely loved how the author explored this relationship, and how deep-seated and confusing it was, without ever turning it into something it wasn’t.

“𝑰𝒇 𝑴𝒐𝒏𝒅𝒂𝒚 𝒘𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒂 𝒄𝒐𝒍𝒐𝒓, 𝒔𝒉𝒆'𝒅 𝒃𝒆 𝒓𝒆𝒅. 𝑪𝒓𝒊𝒔𝒑, 𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒊𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒈, 𝒗𝒊𝒗𝒊𝒅, 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅𝒏'𝒕 𝒎𝒊𝒔𝒔 𝒉𝒆𝒓—𝒂 𝒃𝒖𝒍𝒍'𝒔-𝒆𝒚𝒆 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒓𝒐𝒐𝒎, 𝒂 𝒄𝒓𝒂𝒄𝒌𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒇𝒍𝒂𝒎𝒆. 𝑰 𝒔𝒂𝒘 𝒔𝒐 𝒎𝒖𝒄𝒉 𝒓𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒊𝒕 𝒃𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒅 𝒎𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒂𝒏𝒚 𝒇𝒍𝒂𝒈𝒔.”

“𝑰𝒇 𝑰 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒂 𝒄𝒐𝒍𝒐𝒓, 𝑰 𝒘𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒃𝒆 𝒘𝒉𝒊𝒕𝒆, 𝒗𝒂𝒔𝒕 𝒊𝒏 𝒎𝒚 𝒃𝒍𝒂𝒏𝒌𝒏𝒆𝒔𝒔. 𝑷𝒖𝒓𝒆, 𝒘𝒉𝒐𝒍𝒆, 𝒗𝒊𝒓𝒈𝒊𝒏𝒂𝒍, 𝒑𝒓𝒆𝒅𝒊𝒄𝒕𝒂𝒃𝒍𝒆. 𝑩𝒐𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒈. 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒄𝒐𝒍𝒐𝒓𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒓𝒐𝒘𝒏 𝒂𝒕 𝒎𝒆 𝒅𝒊𝒅𝒏'𝒕 𝒃𝒍𝒆𝒆𝒅 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒐 𝒎𝒚 𝒄𝒂𝒏𝒗𝒂𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒂 𝒎𝒂𝒓𝒌. 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒄𝒐𝒍𝒐𝒓𝒔 𝒘𝒂𝒔𝒉𝒆𝒅 𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒏𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒘𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒓. 𝑻𝒉𝒂𝒕'𝒔 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒎𝒂𝒅𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒚 𝒔𝒐 𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒓𝒆𝒎𝒆𝒎𝒃𝒆𝒓. 𝑰𝒕'𝒔 𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒅 𝒇𝒂𝒄𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂 𝒎𝒊𝒓𝒓𝒐𝒓 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒔𝒆𝒆𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒎𝒂𝒅𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅𝒏'𝒕 𝒂𝒃𝒔𝒐𝒓𝒃.”

Overall, this story was excellently crafted. It really spoke to how kids notice a lot. But they often lack the focus and emphasis that comes with experience—the focus that establishes importance. This style made it spectacularly well-suited to a mystery thriller.

I also loved how the story used AAVE. I think this might actually be the first book I’ve read that used it consistently throughout. It was interesting to see how similar it was to my southern dialect—enough so that I would occasionally slip into it while reading—but also simultaneously so different that I had to use context to understand the general meaning.

And the detail is chef’s kiss. After reading a certain revelation, I am tempted to go back and re-read to see what details I may have missed, or forgotten about while waiting for all the simultaneous timelines to come together. I’ve already seen a few while getting quotes for this review, so I know they’re there. But I’ll do that reread when I get the physical book for my shelf.

“𝒀𝒐𝒖 𝒂𝒊𝒏’𝒕 𝒏𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒑 𝒍𝒐𝒐𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒉𝒆𝒓. 𝑵𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓.” “Lastly, missing children of color, we have not forgotten about you. We will continue to fight and give you a voice. You matter.” – Tiffany D. Jackson, Acknowledgments

I first read this book many years ago as a webnovel on Tapas. I quickly fell in love with Siena and the world she occupies. And as the story went on, I also found myself quickly taken by the residents of foresthome right alongside Siena.

It's not a particularly emotion-evoking story, I admit. In part, it's because of the length. But the fact that we don't have a lot of imagery and detail also keeps us from being immersed in the scene. Similarly, the conflicts are flat and quickly resolved, as even the climax tension doesn't hold out throughout the work. What we do have however, is a well-written POV character, Siena. We want to root for her, from the very beginning. Her balance of gentle soul and determined spirit was well struck, even despite of all her circumstances that could have easily broken both.

There is a little bit of romance, but it is very much a subplot and felt well-balanced with her overarching story of becoming comfortable and finding a home for herself.

It was every bit a great, understated, easy YA read (and re-read) that I highly recommend.

Honestly seems to argue more for what shouldn't be than what should. His points were bogged down by too many sources being synthesized together and his decidedly aggressive and authoritarian tone. Furthermore, several of his "debunkings" were not fully researched, nor was his application of Ecology theory. Combined with the fast-evolving nature of the field, this 2011 work is not ideal for a reader trying to get a sense of the composition/post-composition field.

Summary: When Beck and Jax find out that their parents are dating - they’re determined to stop it. For one, Beck’s dad has been hurt enough and two, Jax’s mom is a lesbian. But as they set out to do a reverse parent-trap, can the two overcome their differences and become friends (or more)?

Review: This story does what most would be too scared to - demonstrate the life of outcasts in a small bible-belt town. Anyone who has felt outcasted by extreme Christians can find joy in this tale of rising above hate and the sass that an openly gay kid can throw out in spite of it all. I find myself opening this book again and again for my favorite scenes - hoping to imprint them in my brain before I return this book back to whence it came (the library).