If this Gets Out- A Novel by Sophie Gonzales
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Web ID: 15458844My favorite book ever
I was excited to read the book, read the first chapter and didn't pick it up for a year because I lost interest in reading, but I finally picked it up a few months ago and I literally finished it in 2 days it was so good. I did not put it down once. I have tried to read other books and I have, but I always come back and re-read this one. My favorite book ever.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Unfortunately not for me.
Unfortunately this book just didn't do it for me. I'm a huge fan of Young Adult romance but this book almost felt like too much information was being thrown at me that had nothing to do with the main characters or their situations. It felt very drawn out when trying to explain the simplest things that could have been a couple of sentences instead of a couple of paragraphs. I do see a younger audience enjoying it more than me which is fine but I did notice a lot of details were glossed over or just not fleshed out very well that even teenagers might catch on to. *Many thanks to Wednesday Books for the gifted copy for my honest review*
Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Highly recommend
With the world watching what happens to Brittany Spears and other teen stars, this is the book we need. A look into the abuse that so commonly happens in the music industry. But just about the time you have given up this book has a love story that makes it worth it again. I love the dynamic between the two main characters. After reading "I'm glad my mother died", I was worried this book would also make me feel sad. But the characters and this story was a breath of fresh air.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
A Classic Hollywood Rom Com with a Queer Twist
While this didn't fit my personal tastes, I appreciated the difficult issues it tackled in its writing, including homophobia, addiction, and what constant media exposure can do, especially to youth. It was also very current in reflecting how attitudes towards the LBGTQ+ community are constantly shifting.
Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
funny, sweet, emotional, and romantic love story
If This Gets Out, co-written by Sophie Gonzales and Cale Dietrich, is a sweet, moving, and enchanting YA romance about falling in love and following your heart. The novel captured hold of my complete attention and imagination. I had to make myself stop reading for bedtime. I couldn’t resist the opportunity to read and listen to it—after all, it’s a book about a boyband with friends-to-lovers and a forbidden relationship, as it turns out. But there’s so much more to this novel. With emotional authenticity, nuance, introspection, and insight, the authors explore the difficulty of being queer when people make you fear openly expressing and being yourself and ask you to hide fundamental aspects of who you are—who you love and with whom you choose to share intimate parts of your life and yourself. The novel is written/narrated in alternating, dual, first-person POVs of Ruben Montez and Zach Knight, eighteen-year-old members of the popular boyband Saturday, capturing Saturday’s experiences on their world tour. More than just a boyband or American’s latest teen heartthrobs, Saturday’s four members—Ruben, Zach, Angel Phan, and Jon Braxton—are best friends backstage and off-camera. Ruben and Zach, however, have always been closer friends, looking out for each other, listening, or simply being there. So, it’s no surprise that Ruben confides in Zach how isolated and frustrated he feels because the band’s management pressures him to stay in the closet. Moreover, the strain of the tour, little or no free time, restrictive schedules, fame’s/stardom’s pressures, and management's complete control of their identities/lives wears on the teens, and they all deal differently. Zach and Ruben spend more time alone, relying on each other for sanity and balance, their relationship shifting unexpectedly from friendship to romance. Management’s stifling control and restrictions affect their ability to adjust to, explore, and be in a romantic relationship on their terms. Each of the characters is well-drawn with distinctive personalities. The authors excellently explore the conflict between the teens’ true personalities/identities and their Saturday identities forced upon them by management. Gonzales’ and Dietrich’s description is vibrant, and their worldbuilding is detailed, bringing these characters and their stories so brilliantly to life that you feel every moment of their tour and its aftermath so deeply and personally. The band members’ interactions and the details about their performances and preparations are among the best things about the novel. Of course, the relationship between Zach and Ruben is my favorite. It’s beautifully developed from the beginning, as the foundation of their close friendship is laid and sprinkled with seeds of their potentially requited romantic feelings. Their interactions are sweet, adorable, humorous, and affecting. Ruben’s and Zach’s pining and inability to simply talk to each other after their relationship started changing are painful in the best way. Gonzales and Dietrich develop these characters so wonderfully. The evolution and maturation of Zach are so beautifully written. Following the tour allows readers to experience the highs and lows, demands, responsibilities, and sacrifices of being a successful teen performer at the height of their career and its effects on each of the members—especially having your image/identity created and dictated to you and your every moment limited and controlled by someone else. Gonzales and Dietrich explore many issues teens deal with in a hugely familiar setting—the fishbowl of celebrity, a boyband in particular—but the story and pacing never feel weighed down. Issues explored include drug use, teen alcohol, teen sexuality, depression, confusion about sexual orientation, and toxic relationships with parents and other adults. The narrative flow and pacing are smooth and steady as each teen and the band face and deal with these issues organically within the novel’s progression. If This Gets Out explores themes of friendship, sexual orientation, coming out, finding your soulmate, discovering who you are, who you want to be, what you want for your life, and how to fight for yourself and a life with the one you love in a down to earth way without being preachy. It’s a relevant, thought-provoking, intense, funny, sweet, emotional, and romantic love story I cannot recommend highly enough to fans of queer YA romances, boybands, pining, and friends-to-lovers romances.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com