Reading the Rainbow: Friday I'm in Love

lapetitepritt

Feb 1

Hello, bookworms!

Happy first day of February, otherwise known as my birthday month (yay!) and unofficially dubbed the aroace reading month for me. I'll talk about this a bit more next week, when a certain review will be up, but I still wanted to give you a little hint as to what to expect from me this month. I hope you'll enjoy all the content I have planned for February, eheh.

For now, I still have a few reviews to catch up on from January. Which is why today we are here to talk about Friday I'm in Love by Camryn Garrett. I wasn't planning on reading it this soon after it came out, but one evening I didn't know what I wanted to start, and I had the ebook on my Kindle, so I decided to give it a try, because I felt like it was going to be a quick and fun read. Was I right or was I sorely mistaken? Read on to find out.

About the book
Title: Friday I'm in Love
Author: Camryn Garrett
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf for Young Readers
Publication date: January 10, 2023
Pages: 288

Plot, as stated on Goodreads
It's too late for a Sweet Sixteen but what if Mahalia had a Coming Out Party? A love letter to romantic comedies, sweet sixteen blowouts, black joy and queer pride. Mahalia Harris wants. She wants a big Sweet Sixteen like her best friend Naomi. She wants the super cute new girl Siobhan to like her back. She wants a break from worrying--about money, snide remarks from white classmates, pitying looks from church ladies . . . all of it. Then inspiration strikes: It's too late for a Sweet Sixteen, but what if she had a Coming Out Party? A singing, dancing, rainbow-cake-eating celebration of queerness on her own terms. The idea lights a fire in her, and soon Mahalia is scrimping and saving, taking on extra hours at her afterschool job, trying on dresses, and awkwardly flirting with Siobhan, all in preparation for the Coming Out of her dreams. But it's not long before she's buried in a mountain of bills, unfinished schoolwork, and enough drama to make her English Lit teacher blush. With all the responsibility on her shoulders, will Mahalia's party be over before it's even begun? A novel about finding yourself, falling in love, and celebrating what makes you you.

My rating: 2 out of 5 stars

Review
Now. What first drew me to this book was the cover, I am not going to lie to you. However, I am getting better at reading plots before picking up books and this one sounded fun and over the top, just how I like my YA queer contemporaries. I mean, a Coming Out Party? I want one for myself even if I am already out to almost everybody, pretty please.

Unfortunately, the execution wasn't quite as good as I hoped it would be, and the book ended up disappointing me. I was so sad when I finished it and I had to go on Goodreads and Stroygraph to log my rating, since I hoped to give it at least 4 stars, if not a full 5.

I had several issues with Friday I'm in Love, the first one being the fact that the book was too short, and everything felt exceedingly rushed. I hate instalove, especially when the characters show no chemistry whatsoever, and this was the case with this book. I can understand insta physical attraction, but I cannot for the life of me comprehend how you can see a person for the first time and be like "I want to date them". You don't even know what they're like! They may be horrible people, as far as you know, how can you want to date them?!

Moreover, I feel like we didn't know any of the characters except for Mahalia, because she was so selfish and self-centered we barely had the chance to see what her friends and family are really like. And this leads me back to the book being short, because had we had a few more pages, not only could we have gotten a better development for our MC, we also could have gotten a bit more on Mahalia's mom and her best friend Naomi.

Who, by the way, deserved way better. She was a really good friend to Mahalia, I think, and she did not deserve to be treated the way she was. She made some mistakes, especially when money was the issue at hand, but other than that she was always there for her best friend, who simply did not care. I hate when people fall head over heels for someone and forget all about the ones who have been there for them all along, it makes me sad. And some half assed 'i'm sorrys' at the end are not enough for me. #NaomiDeservedBetter.

Generally speaking, I did not like Mahalia. I understood where she came from and how frustrated she was by some things, but I found her growth almost non existent. And, as I was saying before, she had literally zero chemistry with Siobhan. Which is a problem when the romance is such a central theme in a book, you'll agree with me.

Another problem with this book, once again linked to its brevity, is that the author tried to introduce a lot of different topics, ranging from family to money to racism to queerness and how everyone lives it differently and so on. However, every single one of them was treated in a very surface level way, and it made me feel disconnected to it all. Overall, it read like a first draft, more so than a finished and traditionally published novel, I would say.

Kudos to the author for making a reference to she who must not be named only to point out that she is transphobic and that you could read so many other books than hers like PJO. That was probably my favourite thing about this book, if I'm being honest.

So, in general this was a disappointing book. Maybe, if my expectations had been lower, I might have enjoyed it more. I'd still recommend it, if you don't mind not liking the main character. I know some people don't care about that, so I still think Friday I'm in Love could find its audience, especially if you haven't read as many YA queer contemporaries as me.