~Book Review: Odd One Out

Odd One Out: Nic Stone
Ebook
Simon & Schuster
Page count: 320
Contemporary YA/ Coming of Age
Rating: 3/5

I would like to thank the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for a review.
I will be honest, this has been on my netgalley shelf for some time now but I ended up falling behind on ARCS, so I am having to refrain from requesting new ones until I am up to date.

This novel is told in 3 different sections and 3 different characters perspectives.

Courtney “Coop” Cooper
Dumped. Again. And normally I wouldn’t mind. But right now, my best friend and source of solace, Jupiter Sanchez, is ignoring me to text some girl.

Rae Evelyn Chin
I assumed “new girl” would be synonymous with “pariah,” but Jupiter and Courtney make me feel like I’m right where I belong. I also want to kiss him. And her. Which is . . . perplexing.

Jupiter Charity-Sanchez
The only thing worse than losing the girl you love to a boy is losing her to your boy. That means losing him, too. I have to make a move. . . .

One story.
Three sides.
No easy answers.

*Yes I did have to borrow that from Goodreads.

Ok so, I wanted to give this a higher rating, the internal suffering that both Rae and Jupiter were going through was actually heart breaking. I could see this being something that many adolescents could relate to.

But I did have to drop it to a 3 because I just could not agree with Coop being “in love” with his best friend despite knowing she wasn’t interested in the male gender.
It is one thing to have a crush and then find out that you aren’t their type, but to constantly fantasise about her is creepy.
I myself have had a crush on someone but when he came out and started openly dating men, I didn’t continue to think “oh well maybe one day he’ll change his mind”.

My favourite perspective to read from was definitely Jupiter’s, she was so well written, and you could see just how much she was struggling with her feelings, especially after labelling herself as one sexuality for so long, it was very realistic to see the confusion she was feeling and then the worry about how people would react towards her.

Sexuality definitely isn’t black and white, and I am so glad that Jupiter spoke up for herself and tried to explain her decision to her peers.

They definitely weren’t all perfect friends, there was a lot of leading each other on, lying to each other, using one and other, but they did manage to come out the other side better people (I’m not condoning their actions and wouldn’t recommend following in their footsteps).

This is definitely a coming of age story that I think people of all ages could relate to, even when thinking back to their own teen years.