thank you to netgalley and the publisher for giving me an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

3 stars

I absolutely loved the writing style of this story and I think that was the only thing that I loved about it. I really wanted to like this book more since I am a HUGE Oscar Wilde fan (not as much as Ken Z but still). I loved the haikus, the vignettes, the conversations between Ken Z and Oscar, but there was something lacking in this storytelling.

I was so frustrated with Ken Z and his friends because they didn’t even try to understand him, and he never gave them a chance to. He skipped out on one movie and suddenly it was the end of the world for them. Ugh.

What also irked me was the way that these characters talked. It felt inauthentic and it annoyed me most of the time. Especially when Cazz used the word “r*tard*d”. I absolutely hated that. What was realistic about this book was the love story between Ran and Ken Z, especially in the setting similar to North and South Korea. I wished we would have seen more of them and see more of Ran’s point of view. I’m sure he had so much going through his head and I really wanted to pick his brain.

While this book definitely had some negatives, I want to look at the positives.

The Oscar Wilde references were EVERYTHING! and I thought it was so cute that they had a book club dedicated to him! The writing style again was my favorite part of this book because it kept me on my toes and it kept me reading. I was never discouraged to read and was never bored of it because of the way the author wrote this book. Not a lot of people prefer it, but I think it was a nice touch to a book dedicated to Oscar Wilde.

All in all, a story with so much potential, but needed work :/ I’m sad that I didn’t enjoy this more, but I did enjoy it!

The Importance of Being Wilde at Heart is a quirky literary love story, centered around the story of Ken Z while he discovers love and heartbreak in his island nation.

However... I would hesitate to call it a "novel". To read this story, you have to appreciate multi-media compositions, and possess patience in spades. Ken Z's story contains so many important themes: classicism, LGBTQ+ advocacy, banned books, and heartbreak, to name a few. But they aren't consistent throughout the book, which could be serious on one page and lighthearted and quirky on the next. (If I use the word "quirky" twenty times in this review, it is only because I couldn't find a good synonym. Forgive me.) This, combined with the varied formatting, made the story feel less a novel and more a collage. All of its emotional power felt theoretical, because the characters and setting were only metaphors for the real world.

Which is why I was not surprised when Ken Z stumbles into Oscar Wilde on the sidewalk, his hero coming to life and giving him advice. I wish I could do that! Oscar comes in sometimes, telling Ken Z about the truths of the heart and sharing words of wisdom. I can't decide if this makes the novel magical realism or if it's just disconnected realistic fiction.

Nevertheless, I liked Ken Z. His love for Oscar Wilde, his tendency towards romance, his habit of bunburying. Life in South Kristol is hard--the nation is cut off from everywhere except the privileged and elite North Kristol, but Ken Z persists in his literary life. He reads and dreams and writes. He fell in love so hard it almost hurt, and he turned to Oscar for explanations, and he always believed. I like a character who has hope, and Ken Z has it in abundance. He wants to think the best of Ran, and everyone, and when he was disappointed, I felt punched.

The concept of Ran as a love interest was promising, but I could never shake the feeling that he was taking advantage of Ken Z. He's from North Kristol, and despite hearing how militaristically oriented his life is, I couldn't understand why he would spend so much time with Ken Z but not do anything meaningful. Part of me wishes there were flipped POV chapters so we could see the romance unfold from both Ran's and Ken Z's perspective, and understand how their feelings develop. Because Ken Z is such a romantic, I couldn't help but feel bad for him and his unanswered-text and missed phone call anxiety.

My favorite characters were Ken Z's best friends: CaZZ and Estelle. They're funny and sweet, and they love him so much, which made me wish all the more that they had more page time. I love reading about supportive best friends, because they really do make a character's world shine. The right friend is the difference between a happily ever after and a tragedy, and it's no different in this story. Even when CaZZ and Estelle are frustrated with Ken Z, they still want to forgive him and support him. They are really good best friends, and I am one hundred percent here for it.

Overall, I would give The Importance of Being Wilde at Heart 3/5 stars for its sweetness and its characters. I would recommend it to fans of Adam Silvera and Elizabeth Acevedo, but with the note that while the emotions drawn out are similar, the writing and characters are "wilde"-ly different.

I'm going to start off with an honest statement: this wasn't a bad book but lacked any real 'umph' that would have kept me reading. I made it about twenty percent in and just felt like I wasn't compelled to complete it. Since a reviewer's time is precious, I decided to give it what I deemed an appropriate rating: three stars for indifference.

Hopefully this book sparks something meaningful for other readers! :)

I started this book thinking it was going to be a cutesty YA book with some Oscar Wilde references. I actually almost DNF because of just how cute and happy it is for the first part. It was too much. But then tragedy hits and this books takes a much deeper road. It tackles issues of identity, LGBTQ issues, acceptance, classism, corrupt government, and the importance of heartbreak. While seamlessly weaving Oscar Wilde quotes and a modern day representation of Wilde as a character, this book pulled at my heartstrings. I will say that I found the character names distracting and was sad that something so quirky almost put me off of this book. 

As someone who is unfamiliar with most of Wilde's work, this book was sometimes hard for me to follow. It also is incredibly heartfelt and deep at moments, but then tactlessly shallow at others. Kind of like a strange, life-questioning poetry roller coaster. I would recommend this book to anyone who loves poetry and Oscar Wilde, but also YA readers who long for a YA novel that embraces deep concepts while remaining quirky

I can appreciate literary license, but this was just a confusing mess. I didn't really connect to anything.

not for me but i think this is a book that's really going to resonate with a BUNCH of people and it's cover is dang magical

DNF'd; the writing style was a bit flowery for me and I had trouble getting into the story. I'm sure other people will more than likely swoon for this book. Just wasn't the one for me.

The Importance of Being Wilde at Heart tries way, way too hard. But then again, what better encapsulates the spirit of Oscar Wilde and teenagerdom than this messy, passionate exploration of the power of literature?

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In order to get to a story about love being “worth the price of heartbreak,” The Importance of Being Wilde at Heart is going to ask you to make a long journey. “Multi-format” doesn’t begin to cover it; there are haikus and lists and message transcripts and prose sections and strange italicized tangents and entire scenes written as just dialogue. R. Zamora Linmark will pull you down rabbit hole after rabbit hole, wringing every drop of thematic resonance he can out of penguins and Cole Porter and Catcher in the Rye references. By the time Oscar Wilde himself inexplicably shows up in this contemporary, shifting the whole thing into a new postmodern gear, the tangled mess is far removed from what I think of as the “novel.”

But I really can’t fault it too much, because this is YA, after all, and this book is such a teenager.

I don’t mean the characters or voice seem like teenagers. I mean the book itself feels like a teenager. It’s a hot mess that’s trying to do way too much. It frantically flits from topic to topic, searching for a way to put overwhelming feelings into words.

Because those feelings are so big, so raw and earnest (Earnest?) that a simple story of boy-meets-boy seems insufficient. The book is bursting with desperation to communicate the joy and terror of Ken’s existence. The messiness and lack of focus only make the emotion feel more real.

For all the honesty of emotion, little else about The Importance of Being Wilde at Heart is at all realist.

Ken and his friends are an English teacher’s wildest (Wilde-est?) dream, completely oblivious to anything written in the last sixty years. They spend their days debating classics of the Western canon from a fictional island nation with no culture of its own. Their wordplay and “bunburying” feel almost hypothetical, disconnected from context or reality. By the time Oscar himself shows up, I’m not all that surprised; this isn’t a book that takes place in anything like the real world.

I’m not convinced the book hits the mark every time. A short chapter on a trans girl friend of Ken’s, for instance, made me uncomfortable with its fixation on the way Estelle’s gender identity complicates her attractiveness. (Boys and girls alike lose their minds over Estelle, “until the asteroid of reality hits them–he is actually a she sharing a locker room with them.” Quote from ARC.) That chapter, though, is followed by a powerful, admiring meditation on the name change of Ken’s other close friend, which I found captivating and beautiful. (“Each blood-drawn day as cruel and unbearable as the next. All because Jack is Jill. And believed and fought to stay Jill.”) The book’s treatment of queer identities, from Ken’s to his friends’ to Oscar Wilde’s, is often messy and unsettling, but what could be more on-brand for this odd little book?

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I received an eARC of this title from the publisher via NetGalley in expectation of an honest review. No money changed hands for this review. All opinions my own.

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Review will be posted July 22.

I enjoyed this book, but don't know how it would go over with teen readers. I did enjoy the Oscar Wilde reference and the character development. It is definitely unorthodox and different, something that might attract young readers. I've definitely never read anything like it, which is saying a lot!

Admittedly, this book was lost upon me. I knew that it would have strong ties to Oscar Wilde, but I was hoping that it would still be an understandable read despite not being super familiar with Wilde's work. However, I felt this book so so hard to follow. With prose and haiku throughout, I got lost in the storylines and had trouble getting through it. I think it would be a great read for some people, but it wasn't for me.

This novel was a harrowing account of first love; something that changes your life and opens your eyes to the world around you. We go through life feeding off of love from our parents, our friends, and then when we find that first someone that sets our heart aflame it is an experience unlike no other. We follow Ken Z, who is slowly figuring out who he is with the help of his mentor: Oscar Wilde.

Through Wilde’s influence, he decides to ‘bunbury’ one day; heading to the other side of the territory he lives in which is much nicer yet more strict. He pretends to be an archeologist on a tight budget and gets to see how the other half lives. While he’s there, he meets Ran, who sits down with him at a restaurant and talks to him about Oscar Wilde. They become fast friends despite the distance between them.

They visit each other and their bonds deepen, with Ken Z having fantastical chats with his hero for guidance. Oscar Wilde leads him to the realization that they are more alike than they think. Ken Z and Ran fall in love fast and hard, until one day when Ran went away. It happened with no warning, no bang but a whimper. Ken Z was left grieving and started pushing away everyone in his life, including Oscar.

By the end of the novel, Ken Z began to make amends with his friends, his favorite author, and himself. It was a touching tale with so many different types of storytelling devices, which really excited me because I love variations on traditional storytelling! We had essays, haikus, poems, lists, emails, and ‘Zaps’ (like Snapchat messages). I also loved all the little tidbits about Oscar Wilde’s life. I feel like I know him so much better now because of Ken Z.

I could see how this book might appeal to a certain type of teen reader, but it just didn't work for me. It felt too cutesy and try-hard with the Oscar Wilde stuff, I really didn't care for Ken Z or Ran, and the most interesting aspect of the story (the two different countries, the connection between them, how the North developed into a dystopia, etc.) wasn't really developed at all.

Overall this was a pass for me, but I did appreciate the diverse group of characters!

There were a lot of interesting parts, but I found myself wanting to know more. I feel a bit more detail would have helped me connect to the characters more.

About to waste the better part of an hour Googling the connection between Oscar Wilde and haiku, I changed my mind in favor of contemplating Ken Z's potential for becoming "Wilde at Heart." The prose story parts of this novel are pretty good; there is a lot of valid discussion of gender identity, class differences, and acceptance. While we've come so far, especially from Victorian England standards, there is more road ahead of us. But then the plot broke down into one lamenting self-imposed jail sentence with a fictitious messaging system called Zap, too many unsent emails, and one confusing haiku after another. The story was not straightforward. As a story for the YA market, I'm not sure I have an audience for this book. It is like an ocean; tremendously deep at some points and shipwrecking shallow at the others. I think the YA audience would get lost at sea.

What an odd book, but odd in the best way possible. I can honestly say I don't think I've read anything like this and I love when books surprise me. The synopsis is a bit deceiving and while it is certainly a love story it is also so much more than that. It tackles politics, socioeconomic status, education, and so much more. It may take teens a minute to wrap their head around this novel, but once they do it will totally be worth it. Additionally, this book not only creates an excellent discussion opportunity but those new to Oscar Wilde will certainly be eager to seek out his work. A great choice for teen (or even adult) book clubs making it a must have for YA shelves.