The Brightsiders is Jen Wilde’s second novel. I went in with very high expectations! I thought Queens of Geek was absolutely adorable, so I wanted a lot of the same feels from this one. While this was a bit different than Queens of Geek, it was no less amazing.

This follows teen drummer Emmy King who is spiraling a bit. She’s about to turn 18, and gets caught for underage drinking, and her girlfriend for driving under the influence. Branded as a trainwreck by the media, she finds herself moving back into her emotionally abusive parents home. I’ll admit, it took me a while to fully get into this, hence the four stars. But around 30% into the book I found that I couldn’t put it down.

This has one of my favorite romance tropes, friends-to-lovers. The romance was so well done. It was swoony and steamy, and I hope they’re happy together forever.

This book was unapologetically queer and diverse. Emmy is bisexual. We have Alfie who is genderqueer, uses he/him pronouns, and is pansexual. Then there’s Chloe, a black nonbinary femme vlogger who uses they/them pronouns. And finally, Ryan, who is Korean-American and queer. All these characters were so well-rounded and brought something unique to the story.

There were a few discussions on biphobia, misgendering, and just stereotypes they have to deal with that really stood out to me. Alfie also had social anxiety, which isn’t a part of the main plot, but it’s handled so well. There were a few passages dedicated to slut-shaming and body-shaming as well.

Considering this follows a famous teen, Wilde really handled both the “famous” aspects and the normal teen issues well. On one side, you have Emmy’s story of breaking out from her abusive parents’ life, her new romance with her bandmate, and her found family in her friends. Then there was the famous side, where we saw insensitive paparazzi’s and talk show hosts, and biphobia from outsiders. All of this created a very

Emmy experiences so much growth throughout the novel. She struggles a lot with the toxic relationships in her life, and seeing her confidence and self-worth grow made my heart happy. I definitely recommend this! We even see some cameos from Queens of Geek in here.

*ARC received as a part of a blog tour. The thoughts are entirely my own and in no way biased.*

Trigger Warnings : Abusive Parents

The Brightsiders, follows the story of teen rock band The Brightsiders and it’s three members – Emmy, Alfie and Ryan, but mostly Emmy. The book starts with Emmy and her girlfriend, Jessie, getting in trouble for underage drinking when they drunk drive and get into an accident. Circumstances are such that Emmy doesn’t have any option but to move into her parents’ house again – the one place she swore she’d never step foot in again. Her friends are worried about her, the press is hounding her, her manager is unhappy with her, she breaks up with her girlfriend and her parents are still the same – high on alcohol and drugs and living their glory days. So, in short, Emmy’s life sucks. She just needs the press attention to fizzle out so that she can move out, but that ain’t happening any time soon. But, when her parents get too much and take one too many things fir granted, she moves in with her friend, Chloe. Life starts looking up after that with her friends surprising her with a cruise in Hawaii and then there’s this new thing she’s got going on with Alfie, her best friend since forever. But, will things keep looking up?

What I loved about this book was the sheer amount of queer characters it had. I mean, I can’t remember one person from Emmy and her friends who’s straight. I think the only straight people in this book are Emmy’s parents, and maybe Sal, the band manager. I mean, there’s so much diversity, I can’t even. And, none of these sexual identities are used as plot points, so that’s a bonus. I loved that.

Emmy, the lead, is a great character. She’s only 17, which means she’s making a ton of mistakes, but the good thing is that she’s learning from them and growing as a person with each hurdle. She faces. I mean, gods, she messed up so very many times in the book, but I love that she did, cause, hello! She’s a teenager. She doesn’t know everything. But, she’s a good person. She’s got her heart in the right place and she always tries to do her best in everything and that’s what matters most. She does her best to be a supportive friend and she listens when someone needs to talk. She tries to find joy in everything around her. She absolutely loves her fans. So, yes. She’s a very good character.

Then, there’s Alfie. His portrayal really awed me. This was the first time I read about a musician who was dealing with anxiety and it was so awesome. I mean, we all think that these rockstars are such confident people with all their swag, but that wasn’t the case here. Alfie was dealing with severe anxiety and performing used to give him panic attacks when the band first started. But, therapy helped him. So, yes. It was nice to see that. I loved him as a friend. So kind and accommodating and comforting and understanding. He was there with Emmy through everything and helped her and supported her.

There was also a lot of drama. Emmy’s parents were straight up a**holes. They didn’t care for her one bit and weren’t above selling personal details of her life to the press. They found faults in everything she did and their sense of entitlement really had me so mad I wanted to hit them at one point. Ughhhhhh. But, I wish their characters were more fleshed out. Like, we understood their motivations for behaving that way with their daughter, but nothing of the sort of was explained in the book.

Also, a lot of drama between Emmy and Alfie could have been avoided if they’d just been honest about their feelings and talked to each other. I mean, I get that they were both scared, but they’d been the best of friends for a very long time and they shouldn’t have had such communication issues.

However, this was a fun read and entirely too addicting because I was unable to put it down once I started reading. Definitely recommend it!

Just as awesomely diverse and fantastic as her first book. I will devour everything Jen Wilde writes!

I'm still not sure if this book is better than Queens of Geek, but it's definitely amazing. This book sucked me in from the start, because this author has an amazing way with words. At first, I wasn't sure if I would like Emmy. The partying type and Jessie (the girlfriend I knew would be trouble), who knew what to expect? The Brightsiders is a fun, but serious book. Emmy has a lot to deal with and it's not always easy. Parents who care more about themselves really messed with her. Her band and fans mean the world to her, so she luckily gets an amazing support system. Jen Wilde wrote a very diverse book, but in a way that fit really well. Everyone is accepted for who they are, exactly the way they should be. To be that young and have more of a break with your band must be an amazing ride. This book is filled with amazing friendships, characters who find themselves and who fight for what they need. It's a mix of funny and serious moments. The Brightsiders had me tearing up a few times. I hope this author writes many more books in the future. It's clear this author knows what she's talking about. The Brightsiders even sound amazing. Reading some of the song lyrics, really make me think I would love music like that!

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. It is definitely one of those that you should pick up, without a doubt.The writing was really good and flowed with the story. I loved the representation in this book and I also liked how this book was also much more than that. It was a story, both educational and fun. The characters were complicated and we got to see the main character develop. Thank you so much to Xpresso Book Tours for providing me with a copy of this book

Kelly’s Thoughts & Christy’s Interjections:

The Brightsiders was the book my queer heart needed. I can only imagine how important this book will be to all the queer and questioning teens out there. If I had this book when I was a teen, I may not have hidden my sexuality for so long, I might have understood why I was scared to tell people I was bisexual, or why I still don’t identify as bi (but that’s a longer story, FYI-I choose queer for my label). I know this all might be a bit personal, but I really felt a real connection to this book, especially resonated with my younger self, as well as made me so happy to read. Having words like, non-binary, queer, bisexual, in a YA romance book was just beyond exciting.

–>Kelly’s excitement and heart-eyes was probably my fav part of co-reading this book. -Christy

Emmy is a drummer with The Brightsiders, a band that rose to fame pretty quickly. Being in LA and on the national music scene has put the band in the limelight and especially a target of the paparazzi. Her life is no longer private, and it seems no matter what Emmy does, it gets twisted and plastered all over the internet. Now Emmy isn’t innocent in a lot of the scandals, especially her most recent occurrence with underage drinking, and it put her and the band on blast with the record company execs.

–>tl;dr being famous sucks.

While Emmy tries to recover and redeem herself, she is woefully let down by many of the people in her life. She learns a very hard lesson that some people will use you for their own gain. She also has to work to change her own self-esteem and reevaluate why she feels the need to please everyone even at her own expense. Emmy learns that she needs to accept her shortcomings as well as learn from her mistakes. The business is cutthroat and if she wants to stay off the tabloids she needs to work on herself first.

–>Ok but the parents are legit the most awful. I love the message that family doesn’t mean the one you grew up with. We know this can be especially true for youth who identify as LGBTQIA+.

This book is not only is full of personal growth, but there is also the smoking hot queer romance. Set within a rockstar backdrop (swoon), the heat and love is off the charts. It was so sweet, yet so so hot! Plus…we even get song lyrics!! Seriously, the audiobook was amazing in this aspect because the narrator, Katherine Littrell, actually sings the lyrics!! Absolutely brilliant!

If you enjoy a good rockstar romance and drama, The Brightsiders is for you!

–>I loved that this is set with slightly older young adults! Plus the lyrics and amazing audio narration by Katherine make The Brightsiders a stellar option for your audiobook collection.

I was given a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. The fact that I was given the book did not influence my review.

So I loved Wilde's last book Queens of Geek a lot. Like seriously, a lot. It's a fantastic book. You should go read it. Anyway because of how much I loved it I was both excited and wary about this book.
Librarian: As I said, I loved her first book. And I'm not the only one. When the copy of it arrived in our last book order, one of my fellow librarians and I mutually geeked out over how much we loved it. We found it an amazing book that provided a great jumping off point for getting our students to start to think about some surprisingly deep topics. In that regard this book might be even better.
Like its predecessor Brightsiders has a bright, energetic, almost joyful cover that attracts the eye and makes readers want to pick it up and discover what's inside. It also has a premise that all but guarantees that it will be devoured by girls who are fans of other music themed realistic fiction stories(which honestly could be its own subsection). The cover may be but the topics inside are anything but. There's tough issues being dealt with here. Important issues. And I hope that reading this book will get people thinking. So I'll definitely be buying this one for my library.
Reader: In a lot of ways I like this book even better than her last one. As mentioned before, there's tough issues in this one. And a lot of heartbreak. But there's joy too. And love, and laughter. It's well worth falling in love with.

Thank you to NetGalley and Swoon Reads for the ARC to read and review!

You know how a lot of people are calling 2018 20GayTeen instead? If you don’t, now you know- 20GayTeen is real, as I’ll personally attest! That being said, The Brightsiders is a great contribution to the 20GayTeen hype, and although it wasn’t my favorite book ever, it was still wonderful in many ways.

While reading The Brightsiders (written by Jen Wilde, who also wrote books such as Queens of Geek and As They Rise), I quickly came to appreciate the vastness of the representation in the book. The main character, Emmy, is proudly bisexual. Her best friend and bandmate, Alfie, is genderqueer. One of Emmy’s best friends, Chloe, is gender non-conforming and uses they/them pronouns. Even with the side characters, there’s diversity galore. It’s really great to see, to be able to open a book and find so many different identities represented in the pages. That’s something I think many readers will love and appreciate, and many will hopefully be able to see a bit of themselves in the pages, which is, of course, always important.

As The Brightsiders follows Emmy’s story, though, I couldn’t help the nagging voice in the back of my mind that this book reads like fan-fiction. Please don’t get me wrong here, by the way- I am a big proponent of fan-fiction, both as someone who got my start in my own creative writing largely through fan-fiction, and as someone who enjoys reading it on occasion still to this day. The problem is that the fan-fiction vibe, while great in its own regard, doesn’t really make for a great book, in my opinion. Some readers might love it, of course, but the constant pop culture references and the grandiosity of the plot that made everything happening seem the slightest bit too unrealistic and the extreme flair for the dramatic of… just about every character… it was just too much for me, and I wasn’t able to truly lose myself in this book like I’d really hoped to do.

Speaking of the constant pop culture references, I don’t think pop culture references in a book are inherently bad. However, when the pages of a book are so laden with them, that really detracts from my enjoyment of a book, too. I understand that these references bring a sense of realism to a book; you feel, generally, that this is a story happening right here and now in the same world as the one where you and I live. But is there a line between a fun amount of references and an over-saturation? What if a reader who picks up The Brightsiders doesn’t know all the songs and artists mentioned (music references were the main culprit, seeing as to how The Brightsiders is a book about a popular band and takes place in the music industry)? A reader might not be able to enjoy the story quite as much if they’re unable to really feel like they know the characters due to this disconnect. And what about when the book has been out for some time, and the references are no longer nearly as relevant? The pop culture references in this book were numerous, and while some readers might love that, it just really didn’t sit well with me.

My other main gripe about The Brightsiders is also, in a way, a praise. The plot deals with some emotionally abusive relationships, these being the relationship between the main character, Emmy, and her parents, as well as Emmy’s relationship with her ex-girlfriend. While I understand the purpose in the plot these relationships served, they felt a little too extreme in the way they were depicted (which goes back to the fan-fiction-ey vibe I got from this book). It was almost as if they were written to be textbook examples of abusive relationships, right down to some of the things Emmy’s parents or ex-girlfriend, Jessie, would say to her (there’s one scene towards the end of the book that is especially guilty of this; I remember literally thinking to myself that some of Jessie’s dialogue could’ve been plucked directly from one of my psychology textbooks in a section about abusive relationships). I am in no way trying to discredit the level of abuse anyone out there has gone through, and I really don’t think I would’ve had as much of an issue with the depiction of abuse in The Brightsiders as I did if it wasn’t for, again, the fan-fiction feel of the book as a whole.

I know this review might seem like I couldn’t stand this book, but I would like to assure you that’s not the case! It did, thankfully, have enough redeeming qualities to make me a.) want to continue reading it through the end and b.) become interested in reading some of Jen Wilde’s other work. I loved Alfie as a character and as a love interest. I very much appreciated the queer representation throughout the book, and the fact that it addresses, and not just in passing, the stigma against bisexuality and bisexual erasure- while I myself am not bisexual, many of my closest friends are, and I see how these problems affect them in their daily lives.

Getting to read about characters who live in a world so vastly different from my own (I am nowhere near being a rock star!) was refreshing and fun, and I’d definitely recommend this book to anyone looking for just that- something refreshing and fun. As you can probably assume, I’d recommend treading lightly if depictions of emotional abuse are triggering for you, as well as depictions of alcohol abuse/dependency (although I didn’t find quite as much content on that subject as I did the emotional abuse content). And of course, like I said earlier, the representation in this book, ranging from sexuality to gender to race and ethnicity to mental health, was fantastic and makes The Brightsiders worth the read just for that alone. It comes out tomorrow, so please do check it out if it sounds up your alley!

3 stars

This was such an adorable and cute story. I have a weak spot when it comes to books about music or rock stars, so I had a feeling I would enjoy this one. And I was pleasantly surprised to see that it was an incredible diverse novel, and had a great time reading it.

One of my favorite parts of the book was the friendship between our main character and her band and friends. They were incredibly supportive with her. They took care and love each other so much, and you could clearly see that throughout the story. Another thing I enjoyed was that Emmy realized she was in a toxic relationship and did something about it with the help of her friends.

The romance was very cute, and I had an amazing time reading about their relationship and development. But I had some issues with the plot, because once we reached the half mark, I feel the plot became a bit more lineal and a bit lacking, and the story focused more on Emmy and Alfie's romance. I had some issues with the writing style as well. It's not that I completely disliked it, but there was something about it that made me not connect with the characters as much as I wanted to.

But overall, it was a very fast paced story and perfect to read if you're in a reading slump or want something light. It was very diverse, and the romance was really adorable.

★★★★☆

+ The Brightsiders was written as an "unapologetically queer book". And that it is.

+ I tried to read Queen of Geek by Jen Wilde last year, and I didn't make it pat the second chapter. I didn't DNF, I just...lost interest. I'll pick it up again sometime.

+ But I saw that this book had a bisexual MC, so I was interested in reading it (largely to kinda improve my mental image of female bisexual MCs *cough* Leah *cough*). AND it was about a Cool Teen Band -- which is a huge weakness of mine. I cannot escape my love of Teens Jammin'™.

+ What I realized as I was reading The Brightsiders, is that it's about a lot more than the things that originally drew me to it. It's also very much about figuring yourself out among society's pressure, dealing with emotional abuse (gaslighting), and about found family.

+ Which are also some of my favorite things. Suffice to say, I read this thing straight (ha) through in about 5 or 6 hours. The writing flowed and it was so easy to read.

+ The romance is actually kinda to die for (friends --> lovers), the friendships are for real, and the music is rockin'. I'm always so sad when I read books that have made up musicians in them because I want to listen to them so bad.

+ I don't have a lot more without spoilers... but I thought that things were treated.. pretty realistic. I can't speak for all of the people represented, but from what I do know it looked good.



Thank you to NetGalley and Swoon Reads for the opportunity to read this novel.

Even though I have it, I haven't read Queens of Geek, so this was my first Jen Wilde book and I loved it.



I really connected to Emmy.  Not the bisexual rock star part, but her insecurity and need to please people.  That desire to want everyone to like you.  That is very much me to the point that I do things I don't want to do pretty often.



"I don't know why, maybe I'm just super insecure, but I have this intense need to be liked.  If someone doesn't like me-or even expresses a different opinion than me-it makes me judge myself."



Emmy, Alfie, and Ryan are in a punk band.  Emmy is just getting ready to turn eighteen and gets busted for underage drinking after her girlfriend, Jessie, gets in an accident and gets a DUI.  The paparazzi goes nuts and Emmy is a wreck.  Her parents are huge drinkers and she doesn't want to be like them.  She had a really rough childhood.  Both parents partied non stop and either ignored Emmy or made her feel terrible about herself.  Once Emmy made it big, all they wanted from her was money.  After the accident, Emmy moves back in with her parents to hide out.  She was hoping things would change, but they just seemed worse.



"I have fame, money, friends...everything that's supposed to make me happy.  So why am I crying alone in my tub?  Why the hell am I making headlines for all the wrong reasons?  What is so fundamentally broken in me that I keep trying so hard to screw it all up?"



When she was young and things got bad, Emmy would leave and go to Alfie's house.  Aflie is genderqueer and goes by he/him.  He's Emmy's best friend.



"I've never felt 100 percent like a girl, but I'm not a guy either.  And I don't see why I have to fit.  Why should I try to change myself to suit someone else's binary?  It's like trying to fit a galaxy into a glass jar."



Emmy starts to realize that her girlfriend, Jessie is using her and they break up.  Jessie doesn't take it well.  She is controlling and mean.  So Emmy's friends decide to surprise her with a trip for her 18th birthday.  During this time, things start happening with Emmy and Alfie.  They agree to keep it on the boat only, but it's hard for either of them to keep their hands to themselves when they get back to LA.  They keep everything secret and start wondering what this will do to the band.



There is so much to like in this book.  The diversity was amazing and I loved all the music references.  Alfie also comes out to Emmy about his social anxiety which is something I have, too.  I really appreciated being able to read about that.  This was a story about friendship, discovering yourself, growing up, and falling in love. 



There are some warnings for emotionally abusive relationships and teenage drinking.  



Thank you to netgalley for giving me a chance to read this early.  All quotes are taken from an arc and may change before final publication.  I gave this one 4  1/2 stars (rounded up to 5).

A solid 3.5.

The concept of this book--a teenage band trying to make it big while juggling all the normal teenage angst and THEN SOME--is really fun, but because it is so character driven and some of the characters are not fully fleshed out, it fell a little flat in parts. I LOVE how smoothly different identities are interwoven, and I think that is this book's greatest strength. If someone wants to see themselves represented, it is pretty likely they'll find that in this book, and that is AWESOME. However, not all the characters got equal time on the page and that was a major hindrance. The main character supposedly has this supportive group of friends that are like family to her, but some of them got 4 or 5 lines in the whole book! I think the book would have been more effective if Wilde had narrowed the focus a little more and not included characters just because.

I still definitely enjoyed this as a fun, quick read that does delve into some serious topics as well. TW for verbal abuse and binge drinking.

The Brightsiders was actually one of my most anticipated books of 2018. I mean, a book about a teenage rock star and her awesome friends with some scandalous friends-to-lovers romance happening on the side? Sign me up! That said, I was a little nervous to read it because I was expecting such great things, but…

Guess what? I loved it. This book was so much fun!

I knew I was in for a wild ride when Emmy was spiraling out of control at 10% in — but I felt that Wilde handled all of the conflicts really well. I loved all of the main characters and would love to be friends with them if I were ten years younger. (Maybe at this point in my life I can be a surrogate big sister.) All of the characters are complex and fully fleshed out and although there’s a wide variety of representation (bisexual, pansexual, genderqueer, nonbinary, different races and ethnicities, mental health issues) nobody feels like they’ve been added to the story just to check a box.

This is exactly what I’m looking for when I read YA and I can wholeheartedly recommend it to anybody looking for a fun contemporary. If you’ve read Wilde’s Queens of Geek, keep an eye out for some cameos by characters you already know and love.

As the drummer in the hit band The Brightsiders, Emmy King is living the life of her dreams... except for the fact that her parents are terrible, her girlfriend is only with her for the fame, and her partying is taking a turn towards a downward spiral. This book is basically just super queer wish fulfillment, but that's not a bad thing at all -- we have enough heteronormative wish fulfillment stories, so this is a nice change of pace. It's a fairly quick read that's generally enjoyable. I had a bit of difficulty keeping track of the characters, and I had a really hard time buying The Brightsiders as a punk band (none of their stated influences were punk! punk is not topping any charts right now! none of their lyrics were angry enough!) but it was still fun.

I absolutely loved Jen Wilde's first book and was thrilled to get a chance to read this book! It wasn't the same magic for me as her first but I think that it just is a scene (LA music) that I don't fully understand. What I do understand is the overwhelmingly strong themes of the importance of identity, the importance of self acceptance and that family is defined in the way we want to define it. Well written, it tackled a lot of topics that are relevant in society today. I enjoyed the characters (and revisiting some old friends!). I have some students who will devour this book and will be able to strongly relate to some of the subject matter and I feel like it is important for books like this to be. Thank you netgalley for this arc in exchange for my honest review.

Oh. My. GAWD. I fell absolutely in love with this book. Why aren't they a real band? They need to be a real band. I would spend my hard-earned adult money on these kids. They were so sweet and genuine, and can I adopt Emmy because she needs me and I will love her forever.

I loved how quippy the characters were, and all the wonderful pop culture references. These guys are my people. I blew through this book in two days. I just couldn't put it down. I loved following Emmy and I cannot wait to add this to my bookshelves.

So, funny story I accidentally read this in one sitting. I feel as though Jen Wilde has improved since Queens of Geek (even if I gave both books 4 stars). The story was fun, extremely diverse, and dealt with celebrity issues as well as regular life issues respectfully.

Emmy is living a life most teens would die for. She's almost 18, is part of a wildly popular internationally known (and loved) band, and has money & fame, but for Emmy, things aren't always as they seem. She's got a girlfriend who is manipulative and living off Emmy's name, she's recently decided to come out a bi-sexual, her parents are perpetual losers whose lives are like one neverending party, and it seems like every decision Emmy makes land her in hot water. With the support of her surrogate family - bandmates Alfie & Ryan, cousin Kass, and a cast of other friends - Emmy is planning her next big hit, and this one will not let anyone down!

This was an easy read, but the unrealistic nature of the characters' lives just didn't ring true to me. The fact that a YA book finally embraces the queer community is awesome, but I felt that Wilde tried to tackle too many issues in one story (LGBTQ issues, anxiety, family dysfunction, etc.)

I didn't love this one as much as Queens of Geek, but I think it will still be appreciated by queer teens so I'm sure there will be some I'll recommend it to. Loved the diversity and representation, and that cover is just so cute. It just seemed a little overdramatic and kind of cheesy for me.

We need more books like this one. In all the ways. Jen Wilde's "The Brightsiders" gives us a dose of LGBTQIA+ acceptance, lady rockstars, friendships the likes of which we all wish we had, finding ourselves, and self-love and acceptance. There are also hard doses of reality, so this book isn't showing a fairy-tale world. We see the good with the bad, but there is more hope than despair, which is what we truly need. 5/5 stars.