eloise_bradbooks's reviews
765 reviews

Well, this book is far from being bad. Loads will probably really enjoy it.
For the casually queer cast, asian rep, chinese cuisine and popular tropes.
Even though I found the book to be enjoyable to some extent, it remains pretty simple and basic for me. Overused tropes that did nothing to surprise me, characters that fell for each other too quickly for my personal liking and a lack of depth to pretty much anything and anyone.

This is what would have happened if Neil Josten (from The Foxhole Court / AFTG) had been bitten by a vampire and thrust into their problems.

Thank you to the author for sending me a copy of the audiobook.
On that note, it took me a while to get into the audiobook as the narrator sounded a little robotic at first... But I got used to it and ended up enjoying it.

Cutting Your Teeth was a really solid read. Characters you root for, a story that holds itself together very well, a sweet romance, and a found family aspect that makes your heart melt.
The vampirism aspect isn't particularly heavy which was okay to me but I wouldn't have minded a little more gritty or fantastical elements.

I always find it a little odd that creatures like vampires, who have lived for decades or even centuries, kind of act like normal people. To me they would be different in some sense, otherworldly almost. I didn't really get that in this story but once again, that's very much a personal preference.

I try not to spoil any ajor plotpoints but my reviews does kind of tell you in what direction the story goes (without details of course), so feel free to only read my short review and skip the longer thoughts.

Short review: I really enjoyed this book. I got attached to the characters and really appreciated seeing quite complex teen friendship dynamics. I loved the non binary and aro ace rep too!
On a slightly more subjectively disappointing note, I didn't like the ending.

Longer thoughts, slight spoilers:
- As is often the case with graphic novels, some things felt like they could have been developed a little more. Or maybe I should say I really wanted to learn more about things that weren't the limain focus. Family, especially.
- I must say I struggled to completely understand some reasons behind the characters choices, especially Leighton's family (who seem particularly accepting at times and then horrifyingly disrespectful and snooty at other times).
- Bittersweet can be good sometimes. But I do think I would have preferred a slightly different ending, for this story.
It honestly feels like the writer and artist want to end on a bittersweet postitive-ish note, but to me it's mostly negative.
One of the main characters is going to live a particularly difficult life and I don't like knowing that... 

This felt different to Emily Henry's other books, in the sense that the romance isn't really the centre of the story.
It's about a friend group coming together for a few days in their "Happy Place". Harriet and Wyn's secret breakup will need to be discussed, and revealed, at some point, but for now they'll fake it. Anyway, that's not the only thing that's "off" between all six of them.

The 'romance' didn't work as well as I wanted. It's essentially based on miscommunication, or not wanting to talk about the issues... out of love? Out of fear, maybe. But still. These people love each other so much and can't talk to each other to try to figure out a way for both of them to feel happy? It felt to aggravating and tiresome to me.

As for the rest of the story, it could have been great.
The first two thirds felt quite long, very slice-of-life, not much going on. Just getting to know these characters interacting with each other. I started to think it was just going to be boring but then it turned around. The last third was packed with great discussions (finally!) from every character, realisations, thought-provoking internal questions...
But so many great things packed in the last few chapters... It still feels aggravating to wait so long for them.
WHY CAN'T PEOPLE JUST TALK TO EACH OTHER INSTEAD OF LETTING THINGS GET TO A POINT WHERE THEY MIGHT LOSE EACH OTHER?

You do get those cutesy grand love declarations, great found family vibes, but only in the last few chapters... So it's up to you to figure out if you're willing to endure the rest. 

 I have finished this book. That's one thing i know.
What i don't know is how to put into words what I'm feeling about it.
When the author of your favourite book from last year releases a new one, you can only expect the absolute best. And although this book wasn't bad, it was far from being Ophelia level and I need time to digest that. 

As always with TJ Klune, you get a weird loveable found family that will make you laugh and cry on a loop. This time it's in the form of a Pinocchio sci-fi retelling with robots, one last (ace) human being, looking for his father, and a robot learning to be 'human'.
I must say I felt a little disconnected this time. It didn't quite impress me like I was expecting it to.
I'm not sure if it comes from reading the same things from Klune for years now, and thus being jaded by it, or if there's more to it.

 This is such a needed book! And knowing Becky Albertalli's history with queerness and coming to terms with her sexuality as an adult and being forced out, you can tell this book is a personal one for her, but it will be for many people.

What it's about:
Imogen's finally visiting her bestfriend Lili at college. But Lili has told her queer group of friends that she and Imogen used to date. Which is not true. Because Imogen is straight. The biggest ally you'll ever meet. But she's straight. Right?
When she arrives on campus she pretends to be queer to help her friend. But she's also getting really close to Lili's friend Tessa, so close that she starts feeling things she never knew she could. And she starts questioning if she's ever really been straight at all.

My thoughts:
Like I said, this is a much needed story. About taking your time with figuring yourself out, about friendships and not following societal rules and stereotypes, about being OK with taking up the space you need to take up.
I loved the whole coming to terms with being queer, being unsure, being OK with taking things slowly and wanting to just be OK with feeling whatever you feel without having to specifically define it just yet.
Imogen is surrounded by queer people. Lovely queer friends and family as well as biased hurtful queer people. Just diverse queer people being people, being young adults. Sometimes being imperfect but trying to make it right.

This book just felt like a big hug to anyone who isn't sure, who feels like they shouldn't take up space, who doesn't have everything pinpointed yet. It's a book that tells you you're perfect just the way you are and you are so very welcome here.

Can we use the term "coming of queer" instead of talking of "coming of age"? Like age of what? There is no age for learning and growing and coming into yourself. You can do that at all ages. 

 
Small asexual rant / rambling thoughts:
Personally, I would have liked to see asexuality mentioned at least once (we only hear it once when a friend says she's panromantic and ace).
When I was reading Imogen's thoughts, her struggles to understand what "being attracted" meant, her talking about how she was sort of straight by default because she never really thought of girls "that way"... It all made me think "Maybe you're on the ace spectrum, Imogen!!". Because your internal monologues and questioning very much ressembles mine as an ace person...
But that never crosses her mind. Either she's straight or she's bi. She never thinks about how attraction comes in different forms and maybe they're not all sexual. And Imogen thinks about her sexuality A LOT in this book (understandably). So how come that aspect of sexuality didn't come up? Especially for someone who seems to know so much about the queer community.
It particularly hurt when someone talks about attraction to girls like this : "do you want to fuck her? No? then you're straight". Given, that person is far from a good model in this story, people do say she talks shit. But that part of what she says isn't ever challenged or talked about again. That part about being sexually attracted to women will determine of you're sapphic ot not remains a thought that Imogen carries with her for the rest of the book. For many people, that actually works. But it is also aphobic and invalidates all the sapphic aces out there. One phrase challenging that thought could have done a lot of good. 

 A good book but it could have been much better.
The first half of this book is a cute sapphic love story. The second half is about one of them dying, becoming a reaper and wanting to see her girlfriend again.
I was disappointed to see that there was little thought about family, them grieving, or anyone grieving much to be honest. Nothing about the impact of someone dying on their friends and family... We only really see Ash desperately want to see Poppy again.
I'm all for romance, but you've GOT to have more depth to the rest of the character, not only their relationship with one person.
The ending was pretty sweet though. 

I'm not usually a fan of the amnesia 'trope', but in this instance it worked much better than I was expecting. Things don't magically come back to Stevie. She gets to relearn what she forgot, maybe decide to take new directions as she is a new Stevie. She gets to fall back in love with Nora even though she doesn't remember the last two years together. And i really appreciated that.

I was also a little disappointed that Nora's POV was only seen once in a while, through a sort of letter or two she writes to Stevie, telling her how she feels... There is so much that needed to be unpacked in Nora, who only really had Stevie in her life, only for her to forget her... I would have liked her own POV, experiencing her life through her own eyes and not just being told what she feels every few chapters.
Their getting back together again may have been a little more emotional, I think, had we experienced both POVs.

Other than that though, I really enjoyed this book. There's a little bit of sad but a lot of love, of choosing your own way and making decisions that will set you on a brighter path.

Rep: both MCs read as lesbians although term isn't specifically used in the book (Stevie struggles to come to terms with that part of herself, let alone use the word "lesbian"), Stevie is also Korean-American. 

I'll be honest, I don't know if I really cared as much about the bakery, the romance and magic baked goods parts of this story as I wanted to.
What touched me and made this book feel like a warm hug, a comfort book I know I will come back to, was the discussions / internal thoughts around Syd's gender.
There were even recipes for feelings, for gender expressions, so beautifully written I want to tab them all, print them all, go back and read them on a regular basis.
We don't get to read very many stories about questioning gender identites other than some general trans and non binary stories. I desperately need more agender characters, more questioning agender characters.