Wow. That was truly awful. I read it so you don't have to and I'm gonna convince you of that.
Let's start with quotes:
• "If a boy took me on a date and didn't try and kiss me I'd think he's a frigid weirdo"
•"I don't think it's natural to be honest" (about not kissing on a first date)
• it's not the 19th century why didnt you make out on your first date (paraphrased)
• is it even a date if you didn't kiss (paraphrased)
• about being single: "why would you want to advertise that no one wants you?"
• girl on girl hate. Are we still doing this?
• "you're in a relationship! People have to know or what's the point
• very questionable moment where the MC makes fun of her Polish friends name and says she's "surprised even Polish people can spell it correctly". The xenophobia is pointed out but not apologized for
•also regarding her supposedly best friend who is Polish. All we know about her is that she puts up with the MCs bullshit and is Polish. That's literally it. The MC continuously refers to her as her "Slavic Sagittarius" and makes comments about her being from Poland.
• "her snot probably tastes like honey" this is just gross and it's mentioned like 4 times in a few paragraphs
• SUPER lesbophobic jokes and content within the friend group "weird lesbian crushes" etc
• aggressive use of "Uber" and "uberliscious"
• oh look, another mention of "dying alone" literally they're 14 years old and it's mentioned multiple times about how dying alone is the worst thing ever.
Okay, so if that didn't deter you, let's dig in a bit.
Beyond the extreme aphobia that's never once challenged or noted as being problematic, every single character in this is insufferable. There is not one character that was pleasant or friendly or redeemable.
I get that they're teenagers but this was on another level of ignorant selfish bullying.
So our MC, Cat, is part of the popular group at school. The group consists of her supposedly best friend who is Polish, the Regina George mean Girl Siobhan, the girl she's in love with Allison Bridgewater, and like two or three other people that I could not tell you what their names are to save my life. I feel like the only character who could have been okay is the Polish friend but honestly the fact that all I can say about her is that she's Polish and that she occasionally calls out Cat for being an asshole is a problem. She has no other defining traits and continuously participates in and contributes to all of the bullying.
So Cat is in love with Allison Bridgewater and don't forget her name and you won't be able to because for 90% of this book every time she's mentioned by our MC, it's her full name. It is obnoxious. Anyway Cat is in love with Allison but Allison does not know and is straight. Cat decides to date a boy for a minute and that doesn't go well and when she starts to get feelings for the weird obviously queer girl at school who their group relentlessly bullies, she has to rethink some things because weird queer girl is a Gemini and you never trust a Gemini. I don't know why either okay It's just a thing apparently. So anyway I really thought that Morgan was going to be a redeemable character but she's not. She's okay for the first 85% of this book and then she apologizes for something that was not her fault and forgives Cat and they're happily ever after even though Cat is an asshole.
This entire book consists of a popular friend group at school who bullies everyone else around them including each other and ties all of their self-worth to whether or not boys like them and if they're going to die alone.
So if you go back to the quotes some of the problematic moments are addressed but they're not really resolved if that makes sense. With the exception of the aphobia, which is ignored because of course it is, the xenophobia is slightly addressed but not resolved and the lesbophobia is addressed and partially resolved to a shitty standard. Basically super mean girl apologizes for making the jokes and how she wouldn't have made the jokes if she had known Cat was a lesbian and then they're friends again but that is not an acceptable apology or awareness of why it was wrong in the first place.
Anyway, besides it being problematic, the writing, plot, and storytelling is so bad. It's so juvenile and I realize this book is targeted towards 14-year-olds but I would be insulted to read this as a 14-year-old. It is so childish and vapid and I just don't think that this generation of teenagers is going to go for this shit. This book really makes some assumptions about the intelligence level of 14-year-olds and I just really don't think they're out there saying "uberlicious" every five sentences.
I do want to make a comment about the aphobia and the queerophobia. In this author's bio she talks about how she's writing LGBTQ+ stories that are not trauma-led and that was one of the things that made me so excited about this story. I would argue that this book is traumatic. There is not a big gay bashing scene but there are so many problematic moments that are not resolved and there is so much bullying. I cannot even handle how full of insults and mean girl bullshit this book was. I didn't have a physical copy but I would bet that there is at least one insult every three to four pages. At a minimum. If you went through and averaged it out I bet there's an insult every page. It is ridiculous and disappointing.
Regarding the aphobia, this author knows that ace people exists because in their bio they say LGBTQ+. They acknowledge the plus. We are here. To have such blatant comments about someone's validity being based on their relationship status is problematic. To have comments that say someone who doesn't kiss on the first date is a weirdo. I also feel like this is slightly dangerous ground to put into the heads of 14-year-olds. Especially with the lackluster sex education curriculum around the globe, to plant this idea that you must be physically intimate with another person as soon as humanly possible is not a good look.
Honestly I should have DNF'd this at 15% when the aphobia hit but for some reason I decided to just continue and I wish I didn't because I am enraged at this book. If I could give it zero stars I would but I'm going to give it one so that it drops the rating a little bit.
Do not be fooled by the cover. This book is not good.