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184 pages, Kindle Edition
Published February 15, 2019
ARC supplied by the publisher in exchange for an honest review
How absolutely adorable! I adored this read so much it caused me to read more Young Adult after a very long time which is incredible. Sison manages to perfectly capture that feeling of being young, as if your entire future is spread out in front of you and you can make it into whatever you want. At the centre of the story is Miri, the granddaughter of a somewhat known Pinoy director and the daughter of a semi-famous but now retired actress. Miri, who wants to work in film, gets accepted into a summer internship at a film studio. The only catch? The film studio is the same one owned by the studio head that Miri's grandfather had a feud with. However, Miri is determined to make the best of her time there. Enter: Pabs, the grandson of the very same studio head and heir apparent to the studio. Pabs is determined to make his own way in the industry, not on the basis of nepotism. Flipping the Script is a summer romance, but also a book about growing up and learning how to make our expectations match our reality.
Let's start off with the meet cute, which is arguably the funniest meet cute that I've read about in a while. Followed by a second meet cute when both Miri and Pabs realise exactly who the other is. It sets a perfect tone of fun for the novel which Sison manages to carry throughout. The romance itself is adorable as Miri and Pabs overcome their grandparents' feud and address their feelings for one another. Particularly in the latter parts of the story, the affection that Pabs has for Miri is really obvious in his actions and there are some scenes that made me say awwww as I was overcome with the cuteness of it all.
The secondary characters, such as the other interns and Miri's mother, feel fleshed out and it is evident that they are important to the story. The scenes where the interns sit and watch films are an exercise in characterisation. Each preference for a different film and the reasoning behind it gives an insight into the personality of the other interns. Not to mention, they are all adorably invested in Miri and Pabs' relationship. Miri's mother was a funny addition to the story. I did find myself wishing that there were a few more scenes between Miri and her mother. However, the villain of the story, Pabs' uncle, feels very bland and almost as if he is evil just for the sake of being evil.
Flipping the Script gave me extreme teen dramedy feels. There were references to the sometimes over-the-top aspects of Pinoy cinema. I'm not familiar with Pinoy cinema, but it did lead me to think about the cinema that I had grown up with: early 00's Bollywood. It was notorious for its over-the-top storylines, romances, and action sequences. Somehow, this novel set in a totally different part of the world managed to remind me of the cinema of a different time and place. So despite the unfamiliar location, it felt like coming home.
Sison gives us a novel which features an adorable romance and characters you can't help but adore. It is fun and sweet, but somehow still manages to deal with the very universal issue of managing our expectations. I can't wait to read more of Sison's work.
“My god, what a stupid haircut he has. I don’t know what’s more annoying- that nineties bob or the fact that he’s actively avoiding our table.”