OLLIE: He's the cutest, most adorable character ever. He's our ridiculous MC. Its so easy to fall in love with him with his jumbled thoughts and overthinking. Ollie is gay and very well out, he finds it a little difficult to fit in at his new school and let's just say Will wasn't making things any easier. We follow his adventures and misadventures throughout the book as he finds new friends, takes care of his cousins whose mom had cancer and tries but fails to stay away from Will. Only Mostly Devastated se posiciona en mi lista de top de libros de temática LGTB. Sin duda alguna. Lo pondría junto a Openly Straight, Con amor, Simon o Las ventajas de ser un marginado, entre otros. Tienen ese rollo, esa manera de calentarte el corazón y llenarte de esperanza, esa buena manera de entender el mundo mientras te dan lecciones vitales. En fin, que un novelón. Si os gustan las novelas de ese tipo, os va a encantar. Si vuestro rollo no es tanto la romántica contemporánea, no sé qué deciros… ¡Pero sé de gente a la que le ha gustado independientemente de sus preferencias! Así que yo le daría una oportunidad. El estilo de Sophie Gonzales es una delicia. Es sencillo, directo, pero lleno de referencias a la actualidad. Y no, no son referencias forzadas o que se hagan por el simple hecho de ganarse la simpatía de lxs lectores. Son referencias a conceptos, películas o eventos en conversaciones o diálogos internos, ya que desde el principio el tono de la novela es un poco jocoso. Dramático en partes, pero mayormente jocoso. Se habla desde el gaslightning hasta del patriarcado, ¡y se hacen bromas con 'los heteros unga unga'! *god bless* Quizá está demasiado explotado el concepto ‘chico gay se enamora de otro chico y delante de todo el mundo tiene que fingir ser hetero’, y la verdad es que sí que es un cliché un poco viejuno, pero en este caso no me ha molestado por todos los elementos que os comento, desde los personajes que hacen que todo tenga más fuerza, a la propia evolución del personaje de Ollie, que poco a poco va dejando atrás ese 'enchochamiento' para centrarse en mejorar tanto él como persona, como a su entorno, y en general, su vida. Aparte de su evolución, tenemos la de Will, y sinceramente, parte de su historia ha resonado conmigo, por lo que he conectado bastante con su visión de las cosas. (No es que yo haya sido el heterito de mi instituto, pero hacia el final entendí mejor al personaje y, de hecho, me hizo llorar.)

Can I confess something?” Hearing those words come out of Lara’s mouth felt odd. Like a vegetarian asking you to pass the meatballs, or a mermaid asking to borrow your shoes. Guilt + Lara = system error.” Ollie and Will were meant to be a summer fling—casual, fun, and done. But when Ollie’s aunt’s health takes a turn for the worse and his family decides to stay in North Carolina to take care of her, Ollie lets himself hope this fling can grow to something more. Dreams that are crushed when he sees Will at a school party and finds that the sweet and affectionate (and comfortably queer) guy he knew from summer isn’t the same one attending Collinswood High. What If It's Us meets To All the Boys I've Loved Before in this upbeat and heartfelt boy-meets-boy romance that feels like a modern twist on a '90s rom-com! And " Grease"? Ummm, I didn't really feel that many Grease-like moments, but I'm not completely obsessed with that movie in the same adoring way that my hubby is. The boy has a problem, I'm telling you. heh I felt like the ending was a bit abrupt but, overall, I enjoyed this highschool drama-y novel! Review to come

Ollie makes friends with a circle of girls, each with their own challenges to deal with. Will is torn between wanting to spend time with Ollie and overcompensating whenever one of his friends from the basketball team comes by and could possibly suspect the truth about Will. It gets to the point where Ollie is tired of being treated like dirt by Will, tired of being jerked around so Will can maintain his reputation. First, there’s Ollie, our sweet, loyal protagonist who can also be an unreliable narrator. He’s awkward but earnest, and his outlook on life is more than a little skewed because of his feelings, but deep down he always has good intentions. It’s obvious from the very beginning that Ollie would do anything for his family, and he continuously steps up in small ways without ever complaining about having to uproot his life in California to move to North Carolina. Trigger warnings: family member with cancer, chemotherapy, mentions of homophobia (called out), biphobia (called out), fatphobia (called out), death and grief, polycystic ovary syndrom. Sophie also doesn’t shy away from death as a theme, which is pretty rare in a book that’s marketed as a YA contemporary romance. The book is set into motion because Ollie’s Aunt Linda has cancer and his family moves to North Carolina to help out and be there for her, and there are times when things get heavy. My grandpa passed away because of leukemia when I was 11 years old, and I remember being scared out of my mind when my grandma was diagnosed with breast cancer years later because of that, even though we knew at the time that she was going to be completely fine. I loved the fact that Only Mostly Devastated, while it shows exactly the kinds of complicated, messy politics that teenagers have to face every day in school, also shows the heavy stuff they have to face when they get home. And I’m really glad that it does.

Ollie's parents are so unimportant and 'unwritten' as to be closer to two nebulous entities than to two human individuals. In her first appearance Ollie's mother tells him that they will be moving to a new state and he can't complain because she has a lot on her plate. Which... yeah. After that she has a few lines about 'energy' and such. Ollie's father makes his first appearance around the 40% mark and tells him off because he is stressed. After that I'm not sure he does or says anything of notice. They were like the adults in Tom and Jerry..cut off from Ollie's story, barely in the picture. Okay. I could do this. This wasn’t a big deal. It was just a guy texting another guy. A guy who knew all my biggest secrets, had spent the better part of seven weeks making out with me, and had Seen. Me. Naked™. Ollie and Will were meant to be a summer fling—casual, fun, and done. But when Ollie’s family decides to stay in NC, Ollie lets himself hope this fling can grow to something more. Dreams that are crushed when he sees Will at school and finds that the sweet and affectionate (and openly gay) guy he knew from summer isn’t the same one attending CollinswoodHigh. This Will is a class clown, closeted—and, to be honest, a bit of a jerk. Finally, I loved the theme of the book which is that everyone processes events and emotions at their own pace in their way. That's something that everyone should keep in mind.I received an ARC from NetGalley and the publisher (thank you!) in exchange for an honest review. ** Ollie is a precious snowflake and I will defend him with my life. He had such an incredibly fun perspective on life and it truly brightened the scenes. Only Mostly Devastated is the kind of book I wish existed when my kids were younger - a charming, funny, laugh-out-loud teen romance that reminds all readers love comes in a multitude of flavors, and they are ALL sweet." -JodiPicoult, NYT bestselling author of Small Great Thingsand A Spark of Light its your typical YA realistic fiction about teenagers and crushes and school and family. i think the story does a decent job at representing the LGBT community, normalising being plus-sized, combating harmful stereotypes, expressing grief and the loss of a loved one, and showing the joys of liking someone.

Sophie Gonzales is a YA contemporary author. She graduated from the University of Adelaide and lives in Melbourne, Australia, where she currently works as a psychologist. When she isn't writing, she can be found ice skating, performing in musical theatre, and practicing the piano. She is also the author of The Law of Inertia. I’ve been on the hunt for books like Mamma Mia! my whole life. I always joke that I watched Mamma Mia! too many times in my formative years and that’s why I’m obsessed with Pierce Brosnan in white linen pants, ABBA, and literally every musical that has ever been made. My birthday after the film came out was Mamma Mia!–themed, with plates and napkins plastered with the cast and everything. I talked through the entire movie. How my friends remained my friends after that, I haven’t a clue.Let me just start off by saying that, although I tried to lower them, my excitement and expectations for this book were very high. I mean look at that cover and that blurb! How could my expectations not be high! While this read was enjoyable and cute it, didn't quite do it for me like I was hoping. Really, if you thought about it, I had to message him again. In a cool, casual, not desperate kinda way obviously. But with a question this time. So if he saw it and didn’t reply, then I’d know for sure he was ignoring me. That was the reason we’d come to North Carolina in the first place, after all, when Aunt Linda’s health took a turn for the worse and she’d needed some time away, to chill out and see family and actually enjoy herself for once. Obviously, my family wanted to see her, so we met her here at the lake, the farthest she could safely go for a holiday. It was the biggest trip I’d taken from California in years, so I’d been more than up for it. I’d been appointed the unofficial, unpaid, uncomplaining—but only because they’re so damn cute—nanny to her kids, and we’d rented side-by-side lake houses. Things had been good. Great, even. Best summer of my life I’d have said.