Enter Mackenzie Briggs, who isn’t afraid to be herself or wear her heart on her sleeve. When Cameron finds himself unexpectedly bonding with Mackenzie and repeatedly snubbed in public by Karla, he starts to wonder who he can truly consider a friend and who might have the potential to become more… (Pub Date: Jan 03 2023)
Cameron is a geek. Even though he knows he's gone up a few steps on the list of boys in his school, he loves his anime, and manga, and friends from his geek club. But he has a secret, he's been hooking up with Karla, one of the It girls, part of the gang who his club consider their rivals. And if that's not weird enough, another member of that group, the jocker who's always bullied, wants to make up for all he's done. As a bonus, Cameron sees his former bully's sister Mackenzie join his club. Even though she seems to hate him, they find more and more in common.
3.5 rounded up to 4.
The title does its job of making you want to read the book but I don't think it describes it well. I like how Cameron's journey is to fit in his own weirdness, if I were to use the title. Although his weird situation (sorry for the repetition of the word) does bring him a lot of trouble, I can't call it wrong either.
I did take a little long to sympathize with him, though. I was that very kind of teenager, who loved Japanese media, etc, not that I was part of a club, my friends weren't in the popular crowd like Karla's, but I'd say our relationship was more like that, each liking their own thing. So maybe I envied how he'd found his place and yet wasn't satisfied? Also, I never bought his relationship or even his feelings for Karla, so the love triangle failed for me. Last, I didn't understand his problem with Mackenzie, which made it even harder to believe he couldn't see how much happier they were together from the start. As the story goes, however, things fit better. He doesn't argue as much with Mackenzie, so I don't frown seeing through the author's efforts to make me buy that they're enemies, and we start understanding Karla better, and despite still not buying his feelings for her, I did like her, it's a great character. Both girls are. And I grew fond of Cameron, too.
This story is not strong in the love triangle trope or the enemies to lovers one, but it's still a good YA, from the pov of a boy, and not written by a cis woman, but by a nonbinary author. I love women writing, most of what I read are by them, and I think it's great to get another voice.
Regardless of genre, it's got solid writing and good development and conclusion, so I recommend it to any lover of YA romances, especially if you're a fan of anime/manga.
Honest review based on an ARC provided by Netgalley. Many thanks to the publisher for this opportunity.
Rating: 4 out of 5.
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