Member Reviews
First of all, thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to read this one early.
The book starts off as a typical high school drama, but ends up taking quite the turn. There is so much pain in this book, and you feel so much for Stevie. I’m sure there are so many kids who have experienced what she has. I thought this was very relevant. A solid 4 star book.
An exciting and heartbreaking read!
I think we can all connect to Stevie as she struggles with the changes surrounding her at her high school. We all know what it's like to have a friendship begin to fade and to feel isolated, but to have everyone turn against is something entirely different. I felt so badly for Stevie and I could feel my anger rising up in me at the unfairness o her situation. The middle dragged a little bit, as it seemed to be just a repetition of bad behavior (from students at one of the worst behaved fictional high schools ever!), but the ending was strong with a twist I hadn't seen coming.
I went into this book initially not knowing what to expect. I decided that I should not keep my expectations very high and that if I was pleasantly surprised then well wouldnt that be pleasant. Soon into reading it, I found that I did not want to stop! Love, Heather is simply thrilling and heart-wrenching. I laughed and cried and laughed and cried and cried some more. I was completely hooked and could not put this book down. I HIGHLY recommend this book to absolutely everyone.
"I want to burn everything to the ground and emerge brand new: a strong, happy, funny, confident Phoenix--Love Heather, Laurie Petrou
The sentiment of wanting to burn everything down isn't new, particularly when we are talking about high school students. I'm sure not all of us, but equally sure a lot of us, can empathize with that idea. Maybe you've even had it yourself a time or two. It's not even an earth shatteringly different idea for a kid in a fiction novel to try to do just that: to create chaos, to right wrongs, to get revenge. This book isn't shocking and it's plot isn't a revolutionary one. The cool thing is, that's not the point at all.
Love, Heather is about the pain you feel when you find yourself alone. High school freshman, Stevie, is alone. Her parents divorced and both her mom and her dad are more worried about making their new lives than trying to make sure Stevie's life is working out. Her best friend since childhood, Lottie, has started hanging out with a new crowd (friendship breakups: what's more relate-able than that?). In short, everyone that Stevie should be able to count on is gone.
Enter Dee, a new friend who helps Stevie find the power to burn it all to the ground. Who seems to know her thoughts from the inside out. Who is exactly what Stevie was missing.
Now, given the title and references to the book, it's pretty clear that "Dee" is just a platonic, female version of J.D. from Heathers. Even the name smacks of intertextuality, so this goes a little deeper than mild references (hello, even the title and movement within the book is a nod to the film). That's not to say you can't enjoy this book if you haven't seen Heathers, but honestly, if you haven't I have two questions for you: what's your damage? Did you have a brain tumor for breakfast? Watch it. Winona Ryder, Shannon Doherty, Christian Slater . . . there's no risk here.
Movie gushing aside, this book was really good. Personal overshare here: I have three children, so while I read more than most, it takes a lot for me to put it all on hold and read for hours on end. I had trouble putting this one down because a) there's a thing I wanted to see if I was right about and b) it was really fast paced and enjoyable.
Okay, so you know how books about high school usually fall into the two extremes of being overly precious or so overly dramatic they read like a Lifetime movie script? this one, one that had so much chance of going totally off the cliff, really didn't. It felt very authentic to what it's like to be in that weird, liminal space of adolescence. sure, Stevie was self-absorbed and had a tendency to make things about her: isn't that the hallmark of being a teenager? But the other stuff, the big, thematic stuff, worked. Petrou discussed sexuality and gender and consent in ways that actually felt like they were just things the character was experiencing, rather than some super edgy, look-at-this-social-problem manifesto. this is a worthwhile read for anyone middle school aged or older. Obviously it's a bit dark for anyone younger than that and I'm sure many will even say it's too much for a middle school kid, but. . . I would argue they are forgetting what middle school really looks like. This is it, y'all. This is youth at its meanest and most honest.
Loved it.
5/5
https://bibwithblog.blogspot.com/2019/04/love-note-to-dark-teenage-comedies-of.html
I really enjoyed the first three quarters of this book. I felt like the author really captured how fraught the high school experience is, specifically how complicated female friendships can be and how quickly things can escalate. This book is about a girl named Stevie who starts off the book with a solid support system, including her best friend Lottie, and how things slowly deteriorate from there. After losing all of her friends, Stevie and a new friend decide to turn the tables on the bullies of the school.
I think that the author dealt with teenage angst well, however, the end of the book really fell apart for me. I found it to be very convoluted and confusing, and kind of heavy handed with the way it tried to address the Me Too movement. I feel that this aspect of high school could have been handled in a much more tactful and realistic way, which is way I had to take off a few stars.
I received an arc from netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
I read Love, Heather in one sitting because it was simply so captivating and believable. The premise is a coming-off-age story inspired by classic teenage flicks from the 80's and 90's, and the execution is just so well done. The characters are believable in every way, the dialogue and lingo never feels forced and they come off as nuanced and well thought out all of them.
The very beginning of the novel had a couple of huge info dumps, but for me, that was fine. It set the premise and backdrop of the story in a believable fashion. The only thing to pick at is that the characters felt a bit older than they were. I'm not well-versed in American/Canadian school systems, and I honestly believed they were 17 until halfway through the novel, when they are revealed to be 14.
This novel is contemporary in every sense of the word, talking about issues such as bullying, rape culture and mental illness.
I wouldn't say you necessarily have to watch Heathers to read this, but seeing as Heathers is an excellent movie, I would highly recommend it. There are a lot of characters throughout the novel that are clearly inspired by the film, and small details come through and connects the movie in more subtle ways.
I highly recommend this, it is a must-read for 2019!
“What’s your damage?”
Ok, full disclosure, Heathers is one of my all time favourite films. The first time I saw it, I was way too young to be watching it and found myself misunderstanding a lot of what was going on. I revisited it as an older teenager and saw my friends, my enemies and my school is this film. It was funny, raw, honest and brutal. Just like high school.
Love, Heather is not a retelling of those awesome cult film, but there are references throughout, some clear and obvious, others hidden to only true Heathers fans. Or obsessives!
The main character, Stevie, finds herself ostracised in school, kicked out of the popular gang by her best friend and soon buddies up with Dee, a new girl at school who recruits her and other bullied teens to take action against those that hurt them.
I do not condone what Stevie does in this book, but it’s interested to see from the perspective of someone pushed into that position. Damn, kids can be mean. And adults can be blind.
The twist was clear, if I’m honest, but it didn’t detract from the importance or the truthfulness of this book. I loved reading it and would recommend it to all YA readers who want to read something realistic.
I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley. This in no way influenced my review or my opinions of this book.
I want to thank Netgalley for providing me an Arc of this book in exchange for my honest review.
This was a really good read.
It was so fast paced I felt like I was constantly on the edge of my seat!
I loved the wrong style and the plot was beyond amazing!
Some of the characters annoyed me but overall a really awesome book!
I gave it 4 stars.
To start, I love the author’s prose and the pacing, and was really looking forward to reading this. I am, however, not a fan of the use of a trans character’s journey as a supporting arc for the main protagonist’s journey. Trans people deserve to tell their own stories and to not be limited to serving as vehicles for the growth or change of other characters. Additionally, the end of the book seems to justify school violence and glorify the perpetrator’s perspective under a hastily thrown together #metoo piece of the plot.
Very well written novel about bullying, but so much more than that, very disturbing content. Be prepared to be frightened,, horrified and stunned, but definitely worth reading.
Absolutely brilliant! A powerful storyline with some brilliant twists to keep readers of most ages hooked; I found it incredibly difficult to put this book down once I'd started! Great characterisation with loads of clever inter textual references to films from the 1970s up to the modern day. The story follows the challenges that most of us face when in high school: the omnipresent hierarchy of popularity and its abuse of power but with dramatic consequences! Highly recommended!!!!
Wow. That's the best word to describe this book.
It was so dark, it almost feels wrong to say that I loved it, but I did. The title comes from the move Heathers - essentially a story about bullying that escalates. It's also about power, alienation and mental illness.
One thing that I loved was that in class, they were told to re-imagine a movie and update it for current times. That's what this book was.
I thought I knew where this book was going, but I was wrong. It was more twisted and yet more hopeful than I expected.
It is marketed as young adult, but I think it's for everyone - especially those who remember their high school days. If you were bullied in any way, you can relate to this book. If you remember the peer pressure and the desire to fit in, you will relate to this book.
This stood out, and I will remember it for a while.
I've read a few reviews of this book and have noticed that this has references from the movie "Heathers", a movie that I have not seen so I was unable to pick up on them, but I'm sure those who are might enjoy them. Aside from this, I must say this book took a much different turn of events!
At first, the plot seemed pretty straight forward, with former best friends "breaking up" over petty drama, which followed with bullying because the high school social hierarchy is that messed up of a concept. Then comes Dee, Stevie's "savior" of sorts. She is what causes Stevie to get back on her feet and where the whole revenge "Love, Heather" comes about. I absolutely despise bullying, but seeing some justice being served gave me some satisfaction, but at times when the line is crossed, I no longer feel that. This is also around the time when Stevie's character began to change, though it's introduced subtly. The parallel of Stevie's character to the pranks was evident, as when the "revenge pranks" began to lose control and became rampant at school, so did Stevie with her sanity. Sure, Stevie's worrisome nature can be grating on people's nerves (it did to me at times), but it stems from good intentions. As people began to leave her, you can sense Stevie is losing a sense of herself and is reaching a point of dangerous desperation. This becomes more obvious once you learn the true nature of Dee. I think the build-up to the conclusive ending was brilliant because you no longer knew how to point out the enemy. Is it the extensive list of bullies at school? Lottie, her former best friend who left her? Rhonda/Pete, who is clueless to the drama around him and is seemingly about to leave? Her mother, who seems to have all the time in the world for her boyfriend but not her? Or it is Stevie herself?
Although I despised many characters (because Stevie's school just so happened to be a breeding ground for one-dimensional bullies), I feel like the development of Stevie made up for that. She is a very flawed complex character, but people can be flawed in different ways. Do I agree with her actions at the end of the novel? ABSOLUTELY NOT, but through the events of the story, I can see how she got to where she ended up. With such an unexpected perspective, it sheds light to many dark aspects of a teen, such as bullying (in person and on social media), the stupid social hierarchy, and the many clueless adults that surround them. Overall, it had a mediocre start that fell a bit flat in the middle, but it does eventually pick up once things begin to click into place. Despite this I still recommend it.
Surprise ending! This book references the Winona Ryder/Christian Slater movie "Heathers." For a long while, that is all that I thought it was, and in the middle, I got a little bored with all the bad behavior. But the end brings it all together. I wish that there had been more "showing" of the story throughout the middle when I felt the story was getting a little repetitive. This book would actually make a good play or perhaps movie for teenagers and the clueless adults who love them but have no idea of the effects of social media.