Reviewed by shannonmiz on
This is a weird review to write. On one hand, I loved Mark a lot. I liked Kate. I loved Mark and Kate as friends. I felt for Mark and his unrequited love for his best friend (this has been me more times than I care to admit). I liked watching Mark and Kate learn about relationships, both platonic and romantic. I enjoyed that this was a book about living while being openly gay.
So what went wrong? Well, nothing. It wasn't that it was bad at all, it just lacked... something. Something that is hard for me to put my finger on. I guess really, the whole book takes place over the course of a week, and frankly, not a ton happens. Sure, Kate and Mark became fast friends (which doesn't bother me, sometimes you just click with people!), and they dealt with some feelings and relationship stuff, and some issues with their existing friends. They went to Pride Week (which I did really like!), and Kate did some art stuff. But... that was it. And while I am generally down for character driven books, I still needed a bit more to make this a homerun for me.
And while the characters' journeys were great and quite often emotionally moving, some of the plot points seemed a bit unbelievably coincidental. To the point where I couldn't really wrap my head around it being plausible.
Bottom Line: Come for the friendships. Come for the writing. Come for the strong LGBTQIA+ representation. Expect emotion and introspection, but not a ton of action.
**Copy provided by publisher for review
Reading updates
- Started reading
- 4 June, 2016: Finished reading
- 4 June, 2016: Reviewed