check TW before reading. i think this was a very well written book. it focused on not only romance but multiple other topics. the story continued to take unexpected turns that kept me constantly flipping to the next page. i also love Rob, such a great character. i appreciated all of the character development throughout the course of the story and overall would recommend this book. also kind of crazy the entire story took place over the course of less than two weeks and plot hole they never finished or really even started their pre calc project, but we’ll just ignore that haha

I love Brigid Kemmerer. I truly do with all my heart. She can put so much life into every single one of her characters in a way I’ve rarely seen in ~300 page novels. She takes stereotypes in her contemporary books: the brooding loner boy, the girl who is apprehensive of said boy, etc., and gives them such depth. The side characters in Call it What You Want are so great. Ex-best friends, pregnant sisters, teachers scammed out of retirement, this book has it all. I’m hard to impress with one-liners but I laughed out loud quite a few times at this book just because the characters were being so much like themselves, and that just speaks to how well Brigid Kemmerer develops her characters. Y’all already know I stan my queen I don’t need to continue

I do not want to review this all that much, so I am going to treat myself to writing a couple sentences and moving ON. Positive vibes ONLY. Negative reviews are so YESTERDAY.

(Just kidding. Can you imagine? I’d have to just...stop writing reviews altogether. And we all know I’m addicted to the fame and fortune.)

If you want more of me writing about a Brigid Kemmerer book I did not care for, you can read this. Or this.

We’re not on awesome terms, to be honest.

I thought these characters were so incomprehensibly awful, to each other and themselves and the people around them. It broke my brain. I had to read passages out loud to my long-suffering roommate in order to stay aware of how messed up they were. (One example of this included our male main character / half of the Perfect Couple taunting his dad by loudly playing music he hated, because his dad was paralyzed, in a wheelchair, and unable to speak.)

It’s a joy beyond words to hang around these f*ckbags for nigh on 400 pages.

Bottom line: The only way on god’s great green earth you’ll catch me reading another Brigid Kemmerer book is if Bloomsbury, the light of my life, sends me one.

Or if I decide to go likes-chasing by reading the sequel to A Curse So Dark and Lonely.

Whichever.

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i did not succeed.

review to come

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me attempting to enjoy a Brigid Kemmerer book, take three. and......action

(mucho thanks to Bloomsbury for the ARC)

I zipped through this YA cutie over a long lunch the other day and really enjoyed it! Its very much of the same vibe as Brigid's earlier two contemporary YA novels, although its not set in the same connected world as they are. Not that I'd be mad about a story centered on Owen finding the man of his dreams (maybe even...Zach Poco?!). Brigid Kemmerer is definitely an esteemed graduate of the School of Sarah Dessen and a master of all the fire emojis age appropriate make outs, but she also doesn't the intensity of subject matters covered. TWs abound for sexual, emotional, and physical abuse, and for suicide, although nothing is ever graphic or overwhelming and never descends into an After School Special about Doing the Right THing.

Oh, and lets give a huge shout out to a truly phenomenal teacher/librarian who made me cry! Mr. London forever!!!!!! School librarians are secretly social workers on the side, and this is just a lovely depiction of what that really looks like. 3.5 stars.

3 - 3.5*

This is going to be a hard one to review.

I love Brigid Kemmerer <3
Her writing style is so good and noone writes a hardhitting contemporary about very important subjects like she does and this book is no different in that aspect.
I loved the way she portrayed everyone's internal struggle and how not one person was perfect.

My issue with this book though, is simple: Meaghan.
She is so indecicive and she let's everybody elses opion influence her so much!
I was screaming for her to just grow a pair and stand up for herself and her friends!!!

In the end, she kinda did do that, but it felt a little late to me.

Overall, I really liked the writing style and the story, but that one character just brought it down for me.
This is completely a personal opinion and I would still highly recommend you read this wonderful novel!

3.5

¿Vieron cuando una sinopsis les deja ver absolutamente toda trama del libro? Bueno, esa fue mi primera opinión respecto a esta novela. Cuando empecé a leerla, me dije "ok, veamos cómo la narran, total la idea central ya la deduje" y... me equivoqué un poquito.

Si bien la trama entrelaza los caminos de 2 jóvenes, disímiles y en problemas, también da un par de giros muy peculiares de leer. La relación extra-matrimonial de un catedrático, la convivencia conuna persona con necesidades muy específicas, el embarazo adolescente, el aborto, la adopción, la traición entre amigos, la desconfianza dentro de tu propio círculo de amigos... temas fuertes que no he visto tratarse normalmente en otras novelas.

Creo que la autora supo muy bien cómo hilar todo el tema del romance juvenil, dramas familiares, y demás sucesos, de una manera en que todo resultara sencillo de comprender y disfrutar.

Rob es un personaje increíble, con una moral muy alta y una capacidad para distinguir entre el bien y el mal que hasta inhibe... Es realmente muy dulce. Quizás comete algunos errores pero, en el camino que atraviesa mientras los resuelve, se encuentra con grandes amistades.

Maegan es... un personaje un tanto complicado de querer al principio, porque uno es inevitable que compare ambos con sus contextos de vida. Mientras más avanza la trama, más la conocemos, más se juzga ella misma, más reflexiona y más se suelta.

Al final puedo decir que la relación entre estos 2 te llena al alma. En especial porque se da de una manera muy fluida, natural y super lenta. A quienes disfruten de estas características, se los hiper mega recomiendo.

This is was my first contemporary by Brigid Kemmerer. I had high expectations because her other book Letters to the Lost gets a lot of praise. I can see why it does because I really enjoyed her writing in Call it What You Want!

"One choice doesn’t determine your whole future."

This book makes you think about that line between right and wrong. It gives you scenarios that make you see that the world isn’t just black and white. It shows that there is always a good reason for doing a bad thing and also a bad reason for doing a good thing. The biggest question this book asks is “Who gets to say if it’s bad?”.

Our two main characters are Maegan and Rob. They both aren’t popular at school for different things that they have done. Rob because of his father and Maegan because an action she did last year. These two outcasts are thrown together for a school project and they start to see each other in a different light. They also see that maybe two hurt people can build each other up.

I enjoyed the way the author shed light on all of the characters. Nobody was perfect and I love that! Everyone had their own issues and was trying to figure out their own path in life.

I have to say that this book was A LOT darker than I thought it would be. I haven’t seen any trigger warnings in other reviews, so I’ll list some. Trigger warnings for suicide, talks of suicide, talk of abortion, and underage drinking. This book talks about some heavy topics and it’s not shy about them. Please make sure that you are in the right headspace before reading this one.

All in all, it was a hard hitting contemporary and I really enjoyed it. I can’t wait to see what else she writes!

✨I received an ARC via the publisher for an honest review. The quote was taken from an ARC and is subject to change upon publication.

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Can I please give this book 10 stars, goodreads? No? Why nooooot?!

3.25*

I received an arc of this from Bloomsbury via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review

Summary
Maegan is known as "the cheater" since she was caught cheating on the SAT, causing her and 100 other student's tests to be thrown out. And to add to the household tension, her sister has just come home from college pregnant.
Rob was always the big guy on campus. But after his dad was turned in for stealing money from his clients, he's become a social outcast. At home, Rob is also responsible for taking care of his comatose father who lived after attempting to take his own life.
The two are teamed up for a math project and realize they've both been looking for someone to talk to. As they grow close, they try to make amends for all the dark secrets they're hiding.

Overview
This book is told in dual perspective from the POV of Maegan and Rob. This book is packed to the brim with lots of difficult topics (taking care of a comatose parent, familial & school pressures, and loads more). So definitely make sure you're in a head space to handle a heavy book before going into this one.

Spoiler

Content Warnings: Embezzlement, Attempted Suicide, Cheating (school), Bullying, Teen Pregnancy, Abuse, PTSD (never directly stated)

What I Liked
1. Mr. London. He was hands down my favorite character in this book (and the only one who didn't drive me up a wall).
2. I thought the relationship between Rob and Maegan was well written and realistic. I appreciated that they supported each other when they had no one else to rely on.
3. The sisterly bond between Sam and Maegan was really well written. They bickered and didn't always see eye to eye, but they always had each other's best interest at heart. It felt like such a realistic portrayal of siblings. And I definitely wanted to slow clap when Maegan stood up to the professor.

What I Didn't Like
1. My number one grip with this book was the sheer over-the-top dramatics. Like there was never a single moment of relief throughout this. It was just terrible choice after terrible choice. And to make it even worse it wasn't just the teens being train wrecks - it was every adult too. But the end I was so exhausted and frustrated. It just felt like way too much. The reader is dragged in so many directions and into so many problems that I personally never connected or cared about any of them. Because there was always another disastrous thing happening. I needed this to focus on one big thing rather than taking on: teen pregnancy, embezzlement, child abuse, bullying, cheating, familial pressures, poverty, attempted suicide, etc. It was all just too much.
2. I HATED that her pregnant sister gets drunk at high school party and then it is never discussed again. Like everything's cool. Not okay.

This was overall just not for me. This book was heavy, but not in a way that I enjoyed. I can definitely appreciate that there were important topics discussed in this - and if these are something you're interested in reading about, this may work for you! But overall I felt like this book took on too much.