Review: Only Mostly Devastated by Sophie Gonzales

Only Mostly Devastated is the perfect story of a summer fling gone wrong. Ollie and Will are opposites who fall for one another. Then, the summer holidays end. Will stops messaging Ollie, and a heartbroken Ollie consoles himself with the fact that he will be back in California soon. Then his parents make a surprise announcement. They're staying in this small town permanently and Ollie is enrolled at a local school where he soon discovers that Will runs with the popular sporty crowd and he is most definitely not out. And no friend of Ollie's ...

This was an entertaining read, a queer YA romance with some very definite parallels with Grease. Ollie is an easy character for the reader to feel sympathetic toward. Fortunately, Will is portrayed as a sympathetic character as well, a popular sporty kid in a small town who may not necessarily had the support he needs from his family if he comes out. There's also a cast of slightly loopy supporting characters who I did not care for as much as perhaps I should have, but their antics will probably resinate more with readers in the target audience. Only Mostly Devastated is a fun read that will be enjoyed by its target audience and anyone else who cares to join in, and it probably doesn't require much more analysis than that.

Recommended.

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