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chroniclesofabookmum's review against another edition
4.0
DISCLAIMER: Thank you so much to Bloomsbury Children’s Books, especially Grace, for sending me this advanced reading copy and giving me the opportunity to read this book before it is released.
“One choice doesn’t determine your whole future”
I knew from the moment I read A Curse So Dark and Lonely that Brigid Kemmerer was one of my new favourite authors. Call It What You Want definitely confirmed this for me. Brigid you are amazing! I am always baffled when a writer can dip in and out of different genres, for me that makes an amazing author.
Firstly, I have been in a reading slump for the last 2 months. THE MOTHER OF ALL READING SLUMPS. I have read a few chapters of SO MANY different books in this time and got bored, put them down and not returned to them. Call It What You Want has got me out of this slump for sure. I devoured this book in two sittings, in less than 24 hours and I am now cured. Brigid Kemmerer is my medicine.
This was such an easy and light hearted read. I absolutely love Brigid’s writing style, I find it instantly draws me in and keeps me wanting to read more and more. Whilst easy and light hearted some imperative subjects and themes are explored. Teenage pregnancy, suicide, young carers, consent and safe sex to name a few. I find that a lot of YA contemporary authors are timid when it comes to exploring important yet sensitive subjects. Brigid is not one of these authors. She dives full force into these, does not cast shadows or hide away and she does this so well. As an older reader, looking in the eyes of somebody slightly younger I really do believe that the way Brigid has approached these subjects is perfect. It acknowledges that not everybody’s life is perfect, people struggle and that those that do are not alone.
I knew before I started reading this book that I would love the characters. Why? Because Brigid has a way of making you fall in love with her characters. I absolutely love her attention to detail and I find it difficult not to love every single one of her characters. Apart from a select few. A Curse So Dark and Lonely **ahem**. Individually I loved Rob and Maegan but as a pair I loved them even more. I am openly not a romance loving person, but this just drew me in. It wasn’t the normal YA “love at first sight” trope, ew. Or love to hate trope, bigger ew. It just worked an it was beautiful.
I did guess what would happen in the end to a certain extent. But that didn’t phase me. I still thoroughly enjoyed the book and I enjoyed the ending. I feel like it was steady, not rushed and definitely not over the top just for suspense. I hate those kind of endings. However, Call It What You Want really did satisfy me and I really do not think I would have wanted more from it.
What I did notice which I have NEVER noticed in a book that I have read before, is that in the acknowledgements of the book Brigid shouts out to bookstagrammers and bloggers. What a hero. It is so nice to know that she appreciates her audience and to what extent she does. This just made me love Brigid even more than I already do.
Brigid could write a manual on the best way to watch paint dry and I would buy it. I can’t wait to read more of her work.
“One choice doesn’t determine your whole future”
I knew from the moment I read A Curse So Dark and Lonely that Brigid Kemmerer was one of my new favourite authors. Call It What You Want definitely confirmed this for me. Brigid you are amazing! I am always baffled when a writer can dip in and out of different genres, for me that makes an amazing author.
Firstly, I have been in a reading slump for the last 2 months. THE MOTHER OF ALL READING SLUMPS. I have read a few chapters of SO MANY different books in this time and got bored, put them down and not returned to them. Call It What You Want has got me out of this slump for sure. I devoured this book in two sittings, in less than 24 hours and I am now cured. Brigid Kemmerer is my medicine.
This was such an easy and light hearted read. I absolutely love Brigid’s writing style, I find it instantly draws me in and keeps me wanting to read more and more. Whilst easy and light hearted some imperative subjects and themes are explored. Teenage pregnancy, suicide, young carers, consent and safe sex to name a few. I find that a lot of YA contemporary authors are timid when it comes to exploring important yet sensitive subjects. Brigid is not one of these authors. She dives full force into these, does not cast shadows or hide away and she does this so well. As an older reader, looking in the eyes of somebody slightly younger I really do believe that the way Brigid has approached these subjects is perfect. It acknowledges that not everybody’s life is perfect, people struggle and that those that do are not alone.
I knew before I started reading this book that I would love the characters. Why? Because Brigid has a way of making you fall in love with her characters. I absolutely love her attention to detail and I find it difficult not to love every single one of her characters. Apart from a select few. A Curse So Dark and Lonely **ahem**. Individually I loved Rob and Maegan but as a pair I loved them even more. I am openly not a romance loving person, but this just drew me in. It wasn’t the normal YA “love at first sight” trope, ew. Or love to hate trope, bigger ew. It just worked an it was beautiful.
I did guess what would happen in the end to a certain extent. But that didn’t phase me. I still thoroughly enjoyed the book and I enjoyed the ending. I feel like it was steady, not rushed and definitely not over the top just for suspense. I hate those kind of endings. However, Call It What You Want really did satisfy me and I really do not think I would have wanted more from it.
What I did notice which I have NEVER noticed in a book that I have read before, is that in the acknowledgements of the book Brigid shouts out to bookstagrammers and bloggers. What a hero. It is so nice to know that she appreciates her audience and to what extent she does. This just made me love Brigid even more than I already do.
Brigid could write a manual on the best way to watch paint dry and I would buy it. I can’t wait to read more of her work.
hall3y_t's review
emotional
hopeful
informative
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
nikkadel's review against another edition
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
michellesbookishlife's review against another edition
5.0
Thanks to Netgalley.com for a review copy of this book.
Rob and Meagan both have secrets. Rob’s dad is caught money laundering and decides that suicide is the answer. He tries, and fails, to kill himself, leaving Rob and his mother to care for him for the rest of his life. Meagan’s sister Samantha comes home from her freshman year at college pregnant. Not only that, but Sam begs Meagan to keep the pregnancy a secret from their parents. When Rob and Meagan are paired together for a project, they become close, but they feel that their secrets are too much for their new friendship to handle. Kemmerer fans will love this heartfelt novel.
Rob and Meagan both have secrets. Rob’s dad is caught money laundering and decides that suicide is the answer. He tries, and fails, to kill himself, leaving Rob and his mother to care for him for the rest of his life. Meagan’s sister Samantha comes home from her freshman year at college pregnant. Not only that, but Sam begs Meagan to keep the pregnancy a secret from their parents. When Rob and Meagan are paired together for a project, they become close, but they feel that their secrets are too much for their new friendship to handle. Kemmerer fans will love this heartfelt novel.
vacantbones's review against another edition
4.0
This was cute! Darker at points than anticipated, but definitely reminded me of the warm, fuzzy feeling YA romance gave me when I was younger without being written in a way that feels childish.
yuyuieeee's review
emotional
funny
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
nessyreadsalot's review against another edition
emotional
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
Very repetitive. Very wattpad writing style. Liked the ending but felt rushed. Romance had no chemistry or build up, felt very forced.
actuallyjusthanne's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
I picked up this book at the library because I wanted to read an emotionally devastating book, and I knew that Brigid Kemmerer had 2 contemporary fiction books that are that for me! Unfortunately for me, I ended up getting my least favorite out of her contemporary novels LOL so that itch is left unscratched for me. With that being said, the writing and the plot are still superb, because it is a Brigid Kemmer novel, but it just wasn't what I was looking for.
This is my second time reading this book, and looking over my review, I feel very similarly to how I felt when I read it for the first time. There's something about the main characters that just don't feel particularly relatable, and it's not that the story feels contrived necessarily, but it doesn't hold a ton of weight for me personally. With that being said, the entire story feels very realistic and believable. While living in and going to parties in mansions isn't very relatable, the whole story was written in a way that made it very easy to believe and understand why/how people would do it.
The small town setting in this book was so lovely, and being able to go hang out and get fast food or go to Wegmans seems so fun! I liked Maegan's relationship with her sister and how that grew over time. Rob's relationship with Owen was hard to read, but did end up turning out positively, which I did like. There were some heavier topics discussed, such as disability, suicide, abortion, social isolation, and bullying.
All in all, this book was good, but wasn't my favorite. I probably wouldn't read it again.
This is my second time reading this book, and looking over my review, I feel very similarly to how I felt when I read it for the first time. There's something about the main characters that just don't feel particularly relatable, and it's not that the story feels contrived necessarily, but it doesn't hold a ton of weight for me personally. With that being said, the entire story feels very realistic and believable. While living in and going to parties in mansions isn't very relatable, the whole story was written in a way that made it very easy to believe and understand why/how people would do it.
The small town setting in this book was so lovely, and being able to go hang out and get fast food or go to Wegmans seems so fun! I liked Maegan's relationship with her sister and how that grew over time. Rob's relationship with Owen was hard to read, but did end up turning out positively, which I did like. There were some heavier topics discussed, such as disability, suicide, abortion, social isolation, and bullying.
All in all, this book was good, but wasn't my favorite. I probably wouldn't read it again.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abortion
Moderate: Bullying and Suicide attempt
colleens_conclusions's review against another edition
5.0
Like many other fellow bloggers are saying, Brigid Kemmerer is quickly becoming an auto buy author for me. A Curse So Dark and Lonely was the first book I ever read by her and now I need to read Letters to the Lost or whatever that first one is. I just found out my Nook has that e-book!! 😀
Anyway, for some reason I wasn’t sure how I’d feel about this book because some authors can’t write different genres, buuuuuuuut Bridgid Kemmerer definitely can! I was just as captivated with this book as I was with ACSDAL.
I loved all of the characters, though Rob was the one who sucked me in the most. I just really felt for his character and there were definitely soooooooooo many emotions with this book. I still didn’t cry, I did react to different parts. I kept saying, oh no! No, don’t do that!! And I just wanted to hug the characters, but I could only hug my e-reader and since I was reading during breaks most of the time, that would have looked quite weird if my co-workers saw me hugging my e-reader.
They just went through so much and I loved the character development in this book. I loved how the sisters stuck together.
This was a five star read and I will definitely be looking forward to anything Brigid Kemmerer writes. She’s the queen of writing. I will never again question that. I whole heartedly recommend this book. It’s definitely good for any time of the year.
I received this book from Netgalley and the publishers. This has no impact on my thoughts. My thoughts are my own. Thank you for giving me the chance to read this book, it is one of my favorites for this year.
Anyway, for some reason I wasn’t sure how I’d feel about this book because some authors can’t write different genres, buuuuuuuut Bridgid Kemmerer definitely can! I was just as captivated with this book as I was with ACSDAL.
I loved all of the characters, though Rob was the one who sucked me in the most. I just really felt for his character and there were definitely soooooooooo many emotions with this book. I still didn’t cry, I did react to different parts. I kept saying, oh no! No, don’t do that!! And I just wanted to hug the characters, but I could only hug my e-reader and since I was reading during breaks most of the time, that would have looked quite weird if my co-workers saw me hugging my e-reader.
They just went through so much and I loved the character development in this book. I loved how the sisters stuck together.
This was a five star read and I will definitely be looking forward to anything Brigid Kemmerer writes. She’s the queen of writing. I will never again question that. I whole heartedly recommend this book. It’s definitely good for any time of the year.
I received this book from Netgalley and the publishers. This has no impact on my thoughts. My thoughts are my own. Thank you for giving me the chance to read this book, it is one of my favorites for this year.
sl_val15's review against another edition
5.0
4.5 STARS
AAHHH I LOVED THIS SO FRIGGIN' MUCH
Also, I'm crying. I don't know if it's a happy cry or sad cry, but I am crying.
I'll probably write a review when the level of my adrenaline has lowered and I'm not sobbing like a crazy anymore.
*************
Storytime:
My best friend gave me this book as a birthday present and I asked her out of curiosity why this book in particular (because it was already in my tbr but I never told her about it) so she said: ''Easy, I know your favorite genre is young adult and I know you love pink''. I guess I taught her well.
AAHHH I LOVED THIS SO FRIGGIN' MUCH
Also, I'm crying. I don't know if it's a happy cry or sad cry, but I am crying.
I'll probably write a review when the level of my adrenaline has lowered and I'm not sobbing like a crazy anymore.
*************
Storytime:
My best friend gave me this book as a birthday present and I asked her out of curiosity why this book in particular (because it was already in my tbr but I never told her about it) so she said: ''Easy, I know your favorite genre is young adult and I know you love pink''. I guess I taught her well.