Again With the YA

Love Is for Losers (by Wibke Brueggemann) 

I’ve read a lot of YA recently (“you don’t say…”) and this one really stood out. The narrator has a snarky, British, Adrian Mole vibe, crossed with one of my all-time-faves, Amelia Westlake Was Never Here. The cast of supporting characters is sublime, I love the thrift shop setting, and humor and emotion are balanced perfectly. The conflict is just our lead’s slow realization that she might actually be gay, which was a refreshing change from the recent trend of characters just declaring “I’m bi!” on the first page. Super good. 

The Agathas (by Kathleen Glasgow and Liz Lawson) 

I wanted to like this more than I did; I would call it “fine” but it did not live up to the Agatha Christie premise for me. The twist isn’t bad, but I feel like Christie burns through suspects faster and spreads out suspicion more, and thus keeps you on your toes. I did enjoy the relationship between our two leads, Iris and Alice, unlikely friends, and the setting of a California coastal beach community. This is possibly the first of a series and I liked it enough to keep reading but not enough to call it a must-read. 

Flip the Script (by Lyla Lee) 

I was eagerly anticipating this one since I enjoyed Lyla Lee’s first book about a K-pop group. The premise is great: a Korean-American girl (complete with “I’m bi!” on the first page, which incidentally felt way too confident for where this character was at) moves back to Korea with her family to star in a K-drama and complications ensue. The details about life in Seoul are wonderful, as is the exploration of trying to assimilate into Korean culture after growing up in America. But the writing style seemed stilted and not… very… good? Overall? The characters were underdeveloped (Minjee) or unrealistic (Bryan) and it kept me a bit at a distance. Still, I enjoyed getting a taste of Korean life as the Seoul setting was the best part of this book!

Home Field Advantage (by Dahlia Adler) 

Mostly very cute.  I didn't love it as much as Cool for the Summer, but I did enjoy it. It did have some insta-love, which is not really my favorite, but my main issue was the main character's best friend and how completely awful she was, yet that's not really resolved.  In fact, the supporting cast is almost all uniformly horribly homophobic so that got a bit tiring.  Cute though.

A Little Bit Country (by Brian D. Kennedy) 

Speaking of insta-love, and cute, there was this story of two boys falling in love at "Wanda World" which is basically Dollywood. (Except Dolly Parton was mentioned in this book so in this universe I guess there is both a Wanda World and a Dollywood? In the same place? This is the same thing that bugged me in Fangirl, when the Simon Snow universe was clearly a Harry Potter pastiche but Potter existed also in that universe.)  Anyway this was also cute, although I thought Emmett was a bit too forgiving and the love story wasn't super deep.