i don’t think that i have outgrown ya books but i kind of think that i have outgrown highschool books centered around romance, especially american ones. this whole book was centered prom, which i didn’t really have, and the main subject of discussions, thoughts, arguments were about romance and crushes which wasn’t my highschool experience at all. that made the first half of the book boring for me but the second half was better. ophelia was an interesting character for me, because i always knew that i wasn’t straight. her whole dynamic with her parents was also interesting. i just couldn’t bring myself to be that invested in her crushes and their whole friend group seemed very shallow. i think i would’ve preferred this story a few years ago because some parts of her coming of age were done really well. and i had to roll my eyes at the end, because i didn’t know a single teenager that was that good at apologies. but good for them.

i always have high expectations for children's books, especially for classics and the railway children pleasantly surprised me. the characters were well developed, the children in particular. they functioned really well as siblings while having completely different personalities. i particularly liked that they were allowed to be mischievous and to cause trouble without having their inherent goodness called into question or having every single one of their adventures turned into a morality lesson. i felt it was a very accurate representation of the world through children's eyes. this book is the type of book where the overachieving plot takes a step back to allow the characters to evolve in their environment. there was still the whole mystery surrounding their father. even if i am stupid and got spoiled by wikipedia, i had a really nice time. it really got me thinking on how children's classics handled politics as something that both interest and concern children whereas i feel like modern children books are less likely to include international politics (?). i was mostly surprised about how this book dealt with gender. the main characters were mostly women/girls while the supporting cast was overwhelmingly male. the point that women are allowed/encouraged to be anything was made multiple times. stereotypes were still present but way less than in other children books. the mother was the head of the family and the girls weren't treated as weak by the writer. i feel like there are so many things i could say about gender but my review is already very long. sarah ovens was a really good narrator.