Book Review: Only Mostly Devastated by Sophie Gonzales
SIMON VS. THE HOMO SAPIENS AGENDA meets CLUELESS in this boy-meets-boy spin on Grease
Summer love...gone so fast.
Will Tavares is the dream summer fling―he's fun, affectionate, kind―but just when Ollie thinks he's found his Happily Ever After, summer vacation ends and Will stops texting Ollie back. Now Ollie is one prince short of his fairy tale ending, and to complicate the fairy tale further, a family emergency sees Ollie uprooted and enrolled at a new school across the country. Which he minds a little less when he realizes it's the same school Will goes to...except Ollie finds that the sweet, comfortably queer guy he knew from summer isn't the same one attending Collinswood High. This Will is a class clown, closeted―and, to be honest, a bit of a jerk.
Ollie has no intention of pining after a guy who clearly isn't ready for a relationship, especially since this new, bro-y jock version of Will seems to go from hot to cold every other week. But then Will starts "coincidentally" popping up in every area of Ollie's life, from music class to the lunch table, and Ollie finds his resolve weakening.
The last time he gave Will his heart, Will handed it back to him trampled and battered. Ollie would have to be an idiot to trust him with it again.
Right? Right.
★★★★☆
Right off the bat, the book was very punchy and had me turning pages immediately. I really like when a book begins this way (I mean, who doesn’t?) because I read faster that way.
The characters were all very likeable and relatable. I especially liked the relationships between Ollie and Juliette (in the beginning), Ollie and Lara, and most importantly, Ollie and Will. I do feel like Juliette and Ollie’s friendship was promising in the beginning to be strong, it kind of fizzled out a bit for me. The fact that Ollie didn’t feel like he could confide in her in the end made me sad.
This last act of this book pulled on my heart strings, a lot. The emotional turmoil of grief was very well written. I am glad Ollie had grown the way he had to get through it all.
While similar to Clueless and Grease in subtle ways, this book is unique and stands on its own.
There were a few times where I wished the author trusted us (the reader) more and didn’t explain everything to us, especially in the scenes where Ollie is socially awkward. A little less tell and a little more show in those areas would have been good. I also got lost a bit with dialogue at certain points and had no idea who was saying what and found myself going back and scratching my head. Not sure if it needed more dialogue tags or better streamlined dialogue.
Overall, this book was really great and I’d recommend it.