Maggie and Nash are outsiders. She’s overweight. He’s out of the closet. The best of friends, they have seen each other through thick and thin, but when Tom moves to town at the start of the school year, they have something unexpected in common: feelings for the same guy. This warm, witty novel—with a clear, true voice and a clever soundtrack of musical references—sings a song of love and forgiveness.
I am not usually a big fan of love triangles in books. Actually, I kind of hate them. But this one had me intrigued: a love triangle where a girl and a guy both like the same boy. That is so different from anything I have read. At first, the character of Maggie kind of annoyed me. She is fat. She knows she is fat. The problem with this is that she kept blowing off the idea that any guy could possibly like her because of her weight. The whole "I hate myself" thing was annoying but then I realized how much of myself I saw in her. As a teenager, I constantly put down my body and had such low self esteem (FYI, that hasn't changed a whole lot since I became an adult). Maggie and her best friend Nash are considered "outsiders." I kind of got why Maggie saw herself as one. She is overweight and really doesn't fit in with the popular girls. But I never got why Nash was considered an outsider. Yes, he is gay but a great part of the book is that it really wasn't treated as a big deal. The kids who would typically bully Nash for being gay stopped bullying him, mainly because he actually fought back. So none of the kids really gave him grief for it.
The love triangle started out fairly innocently enough. A new guy comes into town and Nash calls "dibs" so Maggie considers him off limits. Now, let's try to forget about how insulting it is to call dibs on a person. Obviously, Nash really can't "have" him unless he's gay. But Maggie is a loyal friend, almost to a fault actually. Nash is really overbearing and got on my nerves for most of the book. He got mad at Maggie for everything and Maggie just kind of took it. She apologized for things that she had no business apologizing for. I can appreciate that Maggie had a lot of loyalty to Nash, but there were times where I wanted to shake her and make her stand up for herself with him.
So Maggie and Nash both become friends with Tom and for the longest time (longer than necessary), they had no idea if he was gay or not. Seriously, I just wanted them to ask! So I won't give away any spoilers as to whether he is gay or straight, but I will say that the romance part was really sweet. It was slow burn, none of this insta-love business. Tom and the other person really took their time getting to know each other. I loved that part. But at some point, Tom came between them and I thought this was so unnecessary. I can appreciate that both Maggie and Nash were trying to put their friendship first, but honestly . . . whether he is gay or straight, the other person really shouldn't get mad at that. And at what time, Tom even irked me. It almost seemed like he was deliberately trying to come between Maggie and Nash. In essence, the book started out okay but the characters just got on my nerves.
Buy/Borrow/Skip: I would probably skip this one.
The love triangle started out fairly innocently enough. A new guy comes into town and Nash calls "dibs" so Maggie considers him off limits. Now, let's try to forget about how insulting it is to call dibs on a person. Obviously, Nash really can't "have" him unless he's gay. But Maggie is a loyal friend, almost to a fault actually. Nash is really overbearing and got on my nerves for most of the book. He got mad at Maggie for everything and Maggie just kind of took it. She apologized for things that she had no business apologizing for. I can appreciate that Maggie had a lot of loyalty to Nash, but there were times where I wanted to shake her and make her stand up for herself with him.
So Maggie and Nash both become friends with Tom and for the longest time (longer than necessary), they had no idea if he was gay or not. Seriously, I just wanted them to ask! So I won't give away any spoilers as to whether he is gay or straight, but I will say that the romance part was really sweet. It was slow burn, none of this insta-love business. Tom and the other person really took their time getting to know each other. I loved that part. But at some point, Tom came between them and I thought this was so unnecessary. I can appreciate that both Maggie and Nash were trying to put their friendship first, but honestly . . . whether he is gay or straight, the other person really shouldn't get mad at that. And at what time, Tom even irked me. It almost seemed like he was deliberately trying to come between Maggie and Nash. In essence, the book started out okay but the characters just got on my nerves.
Buy/Borrow/Skip: I would probably skip this one.
Ugh! Sounds like a fun premise but not executed well. I hate when characters get so obnoxious and annoying that you just want to fling the book and move on. Great review!
ReplyDeleteThanks Julie! Yeah, when the plot works but the characters don't, it is so disappointing. Ugh
DeleteMeh. It does sound a bit like a letdown... Don't worry, Cynthia - plenty of jewels out there awaiting discovery by you :)
ReplyDeleteThanks so much Ramona. You are so right!
DeleteI don't know what to make of this one. Because yes- why wouldn't they just ASK!? It doesn't make sense. I know, the book couldn't exist if they DID ask, but it doesn't sound like it works even without asking. I DO understand Maggie a lot though. I was SURE I didn't have a boyfriend EVER because I was "fat" in high school and college (turns out, I was NOT fat, but I didn't know that because when people tell you you're fat, you believe them? - I am fat NOW, for real, but that's a whole other story haha). I almost want to read this one just because of Maggie. But I don't know, you and I have a LOT in common, reading-wise, so maybe I will have to skip it. I won't be rushing out to get it, that's for sure! Great review :)
ReplyDeleteShannon @ It Starts At Midnight
Funny story? I got an email today that I WON IT. So I guess I won't be rushing to it, but it WILL be rushing to me ;)
DeleteHa, That IS funny! And yeah, I thought I was fat in high school and college too, but man I would love to be that weight again. Maybe it got on my nerves in the book specifically because I could relate to it so much. But I had an extremely low self esteem too, so I couldn't really fault her for it. But since you won it, at least you get to read it without spending any money on it. That is why I was so glad to get the ARC. Whenever you do read it, you'll have to let me know what you think. :)
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