THIS WAS AMAZING AND SO CUTE AND AAAAH.

this book was exactly what i needed right now. i'm super stressed and anxious about everything that is going on with COVID-19 and i really needed a fluffy sweet story like this. it wasn't all fluffy and cute though. some serious topics were discussed like cancer, the death of a family member and coming out while you are not sure you will get accepted.

only mostly devastated follows ollie who is staying in north carolina with his family during summer to take care of his aunt linda who is suffering from cancer. after summer vacation, his family decides to temporarily move to north carolina because they are needed there. this meant ollie had to go to a new school which will is also attending. their summer fling was something really special to ollie but it seemed like it would only ever be a summer fling because will didn't seem to be all that interested anymore, probably because he isn't out yet and can't be out because of his parents and his friends.

this story shows how the relationship between ollie and will progresses while a lot of difficult stuff happens in both of their lives. it deals with the question of whether or not you have to put yourself first in situations where it isn't always easy to do. coming out while you are pretty sure you won't get accepted is hard. especially when you sort of have a relationship with someone you love, like will has.

i just adored this book and i'm in need of more.

rep: gay mc, latinx bisexual love interest, bisexual side character, black side character, fat brown side character

cws: cancer, death of a family member, toxic masculinity, diet talk, fatphobia, homophobia

This was one of my most anticipated releases of the year and it ended up being such a disappointment.

I really did not like Ollie and Will together. Ollie gave him the world and was treated horribly in return. I understand what it’s like to not be out yet as I am not out to a lot of friends and family, but Will leading him on in secret and being a complete asshole to him in public wasn’t okay. Also this book had a lot of internalized homophobia which made me really uncomfortable.

Also, the fact that this book is compared to both Grease and Simon Vs is so funny to me because it’s not like either of those in the slightest

I received an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

Only Mostly Devastated really sucked me in with the premise that it was going to be a Grease retelling but gay. I don't feel like I fully felt these elements to the story other than the fact that the main relationship had come together during the summer months and they did not know that the main character was actually going to end up staying in the area. Really beyond that I didn't feel any other elements that I could pinpoint as being from Grease. I guess maybe the fact that the girls all wore similar necklaces and the boys all were basketball players were supposed to equate the pink and leather jackets worn in Grease but that's a pretty minor detail in the long run.

Overall though I did actually enjoy the story and gave it a 3.5 star rating. I did not know going into this book about the cancer plot line which was really emotionally hard for me to read but it was done really well. Some of the conversations that happened from that were very spot on with conversations I have known people to have with others as well as thoughts that pop into your head when you have a loved one who has been diagnosed with some form of cancer. If you are considering reading this book but have a hard time with cancer as a plot line do take caution as it is a rather large focal point to this story and if I would have known I may not have picked up this book until a later time.

The conversations throughout the entire book were really well done for all of the harder topics that this book does cover. It tackles coming out, being self-aware of actions and how they might hurt someone even if that was never the intention, cancer, giving and taking in a relationship, and homophobia. I love how you can really see so many different characters developing throughout the story and that the focus isn't just on the main character. The ending to the story was the perfect amount of sweetness with realistic expectations.

I would definitely recommend this book if you are looking for a hard-hitting LGBTQ+ YA Contemporary Romance.

Grease was one of my favourite movies as a kid, so I was so excited to read this retelling. This book broke my heart and put it back together again!

Ollie and Will had a summer romance while Ollie and his family were visiting his sick aunt. When his aunt was still sick after the summer, Ollie’s family ended up moving there to help her family. Ollie started school and mentioned to some new friends that he had a summer fling with Will. What he didn’t know was that Will went to that school, and no one knew he was gay.

This story had great representation. There were gay and bi characters. Some of the characters made comments that they thought were jokes in front of others, who they didn’t realize were gay. The guys who were friends with Will would make jokes about being feminine or liking guys, which just made him more uncomfortable with revealing his true self. At the same time, there were others who were more open and accepting.

I loved this story! I highly recommend it!

Thank you Wednesday Books for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Okay, so, for a start, I don’t really like the original Grease movie (I admit the songs are pretty great, but… I don’t like the message. Like, you gotta change yourself from head to toe, become a cool sexy girl, and then the boy you’re into will notice you. Finally. Not great.) BUT, this book fixed all the issues the movie had and did it wonderfully.

So, what’s this book about? Ollie and Will had a summer affair. Unfortunately, summer came to an end and they had to say their goodbyes. Except, now Ollie is going to his high school, so everything will be fine, right? Except, Will is actually a closeted douchebag who won’t even acknowledge him in class and is pretending summer didn’t happen.

When I first started this, I was hoping for some kind of easy-reading rom-com perfect to read during my uni finals. And it is, it’s refreshing, it’s hilarious, it’s cute and fluffy and short. But it’s also not. This book deals with many tough themes, such as cancer. Ollie’s aunt has been sick for a while now, and while the story is mostly heartwarming, there are some difficult parts in it. The author managed those happy and sad moments very well, and treated this theme with the respect and awareness it requires. Grieving is hard and seeing someone you love withering more and more each day requires a lot of strength, and death is always confronting and makes you re-think everything in your life. I’ve been through that and the author did a great job explaining that situation while not ever forgetting this book is a rom-com.

Only mostly devastated deals with LGBT+ issues too. Ollie and Will are not the only people here struggling to figure out their sexualities and how to be themselves, our cast of characters is pretty diverse. And it also speaks against how naturalized we have some homophobic comments, how insensible we can be without even realizing, and how that can affect other people. Will’s friends aren’t bad, they’re just immature and ignorant, but that can hurt too. I really appreciated that. It’s really important to think over whether we have ever said something awful without noticing it could hurt somebody, we probably all have, not only about LGBTQ+ stuff, but weight, clothes, hobbies, family. It’s everywhere in the book with big shiny letters: “Think before you speak”. And I couldn’t agree more.

I loved the characters, they felt so human, so real and so teenagers. They’re struggling with all the trouble that comes with being young but also almost an adult. Love, sexual orientations, university applications, upcoming careers, health, friendship, beauty standards. It’s nice to read a book so relatable, so cute and yet, so deep.

Dubbed as Clueless meets "Simon VS the Homo Sapiens Agenda," this is the male/male take on Grease that I never knew I needed!

The inner dialogue of 17yo Ollie is hilarious. Having already been "out" back home, and having to stay longer than expected out East after summer vacation, Ollie is unsure whether to let people in. Well, except for Juliette, Lara, and Niamh. Ollie is floored when he realizes that Will, the boy he spent all some with, also lives in town and goes to the same high school. He knew Will lived in the state, but didn't know where, as they were vacationing at the lake over the summer.

And Will, who was more than comfortable with Ollie over the summer, still has to retain his status as school jock. And his family does not know about his sexuality.

This is a wonderfully diverse cast of characters. Witty and tender. Also heartbreaking, as it deals with cancer and death as a secondary story arc. Bring the tissues.

This book was fantastic. It was a roller coaster of emotions and I loved it. I went in expecting a cute LGBT+ contemporary romance, and I got so much more. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested. (I will add that the following may be triggers for some: internalized homophobia, biphobia, and cancer.)

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC of Only Mostly Devastated.

Unfortunately this was a DNF for me. I definitely enjoy YA books, but I think I need a bit more of a substantial story to keep me interested. Had I been seventeen, I probably would have enjoyed jumping into another YA world, but as a cranky adult with little patience, I just couldn't hang in this world without the teen drama working my last nerve. This is a long way of saying, in all fairness, that I probably just wasn't the right audience for this read.

Only Mostly Devastated by Sophie Gonzales is a cute romance about two boys, Ollie, who is out, and Will who is not. The boys shared a summer romance, and Ollie and his family planned on returning home, but when Ollie's aunt's health turns worse, he and his parents stay in North Carolina to help. When Ollie starts his new school, he sees Will and he is excited, but Will is keeping his distance. I will be looking forward to reading more books by this author. I highly recommend this fun young adult romance.
I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Sophie Gonzales takes the "summer lovin'" idea of Grease and transplants it to North Carolina, and instead of Danny and Sandy, we have Will and Ollie.

When we meet Ollie, he is trying to process two things: Will, the boy he spent the summer with, hasn't been in touch with him in several weeks, and his parents want to move from California to North Carolina to help take care of his cancer-stricken aunt and her family. Ollie has no interest in leaving his friends and life behind, but Will lives near where Ollie will live, and there is always hope they can reconnect. If only Will would text, you know?

Just like what happens when Danny and Sandy reunite, Ollie (finally!) sees Will during a party, and, much like Danny, Will's reaction isn't as happy as Ollie hoped. Will does NOT want anyone at school to question his sexuality, so Ollie's presence causes some issues.

Sophie Gonzales tells this story through Ollie's eyes, letting you feel his helplessness where Will is concerned as well as--and perhaps more emotionally impactful--his aunt. Gonzales doesn't exploit cancer as she reveals Aunt Linda's suffering. Instead, she shows you how cancer infiltrates a family and the ways it destroys them.

As for the romance, you will cheer for Ollie. When he demands more for himself, you will want to high-five him. When he helps a friend through her own romantic crisis, you will wish you'd had someone like him on your side when you were in high school. And when, despite his promises to himself that he will not stand for being treated as less than, he capitulates and allows Will to diminish him, you understand. Ollie is seventeen. He doesn't yet know how to value his own worth.

You will laugh as you read, and you also might find yourself shedding a tear or five. I can't wait to have a couple copies of this book in my high school English classroom because I know students will feel great comfort in finding themselves in Sophie Gonzales's story.

This book is:

A) - Extremely enjoyable
B) - Really cheesy
C) - Frustratingly angsty
D) - Utterly hilarious
E) - Really gay
F) - All of the above

I can already tell some people are going to hate this book. And I can also tell a lot of people are going to love it.

Here's the thing: this book is cheesy af, has some pretty extreme second hand embarrassment, and I'm fairly certain these characters have never heard of the concept of communicating their feelings. By all logic, this book should have annoyed me. My initial reaction when I finished the book was:

"Sometimes you read a book, and you go 'wow this book has a bunch of tropes that I hate and it doesn't do them in any way out of the ordinary and I can just tell some people are going to hate this book but yet somehow I love it anyways'?
Yeah that was this book"

And I'd say that remains 100% accurate.

I already pretty much covered what I didn't like about this book (COMMUNICATION. IS IMPORTANT.), but I also want to touch on a few things that I personally thought were handled well, but think might be slightly controversial, before we dive into what I loved.

One of the main conflicts in the book is that Will pretty much refuses to even be seen talking to Ollie because he's terrified of people realizing he's queer, and Ollie is, well, not a huge fan of Will avoiding him. Personally I thought it was handled with sensitivity. Ollie is mad that Will is being a dick, not that Will isn't ready to be out. That said, there were certainly points in this book where I was dubious of the direction it was taking. I want to clarify, I don't think it did take that direction, and I don't think Will was in any way shamed for being closeted, but I think some people will disagree, and it's good to go into this with some level of awareness.

Now enough of that, onto what I loved about this book.

First and foremost what made this book really stand out to me was the voice. This book is written in a very snarky, sarcastic tone, and it was absolutely delightful. I found myself laughing out loud constantly while reading this book.

I also absolutely adored the characters. Ollie was so charming and precious and I just absolutely adore him. Will was a dickhead on more than a few occasions, but I also found myself completely in love with this soft boy.

The side characters also all had so much life. This was a very well fleshed out cast of characters, with flaws and nuances in every single character we meet. Also I just want to appreciate how freaking CUTE Ollie's cousins are!!

I also absolutely love the relationships in this book. From romance to friendship to familial relationships, we had so many messy but beautiful relationships, and it warms my heart.

I totally loved this! From the beginning I was hooked. I love how this is not a traditional rom com. The fact that this is a YA book, but also LGBT was great! I was getting a lot of Red, White, and Royal Blue vibes from the characters and even the writing style. I loved Oliver’s character from the very beginning. This is a quick and cute read. I love the flirty boy drama that this is full of. Gonzales makes the writing very engaging and all of the characters are actually likable. Even Will is extremely likable. This was like a modern day realistic Grease instead of like 30 year old people playing teens. Loved it!

4.5

Ollie and Will met and spent a wonderful summer together while vacationing with their families in North Carolina. At the end, Ollie was prepared to go back to California for his final year of high school and, hopefully, keep in contact with Will.

When Ollie's parents inform him that they're moving to North Carolina in order to help out his aunt who has cancer and is undergoing chemo. Ollie immediately texts Will to give him the good news, only to be met with silence. Ollie is just about to give up/get over Will when they run into each other at a beginning of school party. Only now, Will acts like he doesn't know Ollie. That's when Ollie understands that Will is still in the closet. As they begin to run into each other during the day-to-day of high school life, Ollie sees a side of Will different from the one he saw during the summer. Despite Will privately saying he's still interested in Ollie, it's all contradicted by his public actions.

Ollie doesn't know which side of Will to believe, but he knows he can't take his heart getting broken again and again.

This reimagining of Grease was spot on. So much so that I may or may not have internally broken out into a few musical numbers while reading. A little sad that the characters didn't follow suit.

For me, what always makes a retelling successful is when an author can take the great parts of the original source material and turn them around while also paving the way for their own story to shine through. It's actually not an easy thing to accomplish, but Sophie Gonzales does a wonderful job.

I mean, what can I say? I adored Ollie. He's such a great character. He's so sure of who he is, but there's still this vulnerability that arises in regards to Will.

The contrast between Ollie and Will is very clear. I can't remember if it's ever specifically stated, but assuredly, Ollie has been out for a while. He has unwavering support of his family, and his friends back home. He comes to Collinswood and while he doesn't shout it from the rafters, he also doesn't shy away from being exactly who he knows himself to be. We also don't know when Will acknowledged that he likes guys, but it's something that he's felt he's had to hide for all the reasons one would suspect: he has preconceived notions of how his family and friends would react. His struggle to maintain the status quo with his friends and family, all while having feelings for Ollie is deftly felt.

I mainly liked that Will isn't painted as the "bad guy" at least in my eyes. It's a situation where you know he cares for Ollie, that's undeniable, and in small moments you see his feelings, but keeping himself closed off hurts not only Ollie, but it hurts himself as well. And sometimes if you can't be completely yourself no amount of love is enough. It's the major conflict that arises throughout the story. Even though the story is told from Ollie's point of view, I thought we got a good representation of both sides of the coin.

Overall, I was really impressed with Only Mostly Devastated. It's the first book by Sophie Gonzalez that I've read, but I'll definitely be looking out for her other work.

Only Mostly Devastated is a story about family, finding yourself, and learning to accept others. This is a loose LGBTQ+ Grease retelling and a perfect mix between a romantic comedy and a family drama.

The story is set in your typical small-city high-school. There are the jocks, the mean girls, parties, a lot of sports, and drama. It showcases the best and worst of being a teenager, which grips you in pretty quickly.

Beware, there’s a huge plotline that focuses on a character who has cancer. And that profoundly impacts the journey of the main character. Usually, I avoid these type of plotlines because it’s a personal trigger, but I was caught off guard and decided to keep going. But I’m glad I did. Although it broke my heart and reminded me of similar situations in my personal life, I was able to handle it and not get triggered. Which was a victory for me.

The characters in Only Mostly Devastated aren’t examples of healthy, pure people. A lot of them are pretty toxic and deeply flawed.

🎸 Ollie, our main character, is so wholesome. He’s socially awkward, but he tries his best. He also has his flaws, since he can be a bit selfish at times. But Ollie is loyal to his family and will do everything for them without complaining, which I relate to.

🏀 Will is your typical jock that has to keep up appearances while he’s in love with a nice boy. He’s pretty sweet, but some of his actions are hurtful. I get where Will comes from, his anxieties, and his fears. But his decisions affect others, and he learns that the hard way. Also, like it happens most of the time in my YA romances, I wish we had some chapters in his POV.

Only Mostly Devastated tells the love story between Ollie and Will. Which is cute and wholesome and, fortunately, doesn’t make the same mistake as Grease and shows some flashbacks of their magical summer. That’s important to sell their relationship, especially when they end up hurting each other quite a bit.

Sometimes, their relationship gets too complicated for no reason. There’s a lot of unspoken feelings, evading each other and miscommunication. But they find out who they are, what their boundaries are, and they grow together.

Apart from Ollie and Will, the only other relationship that is worth mentioning is Ollie and the Mean Girls posse. Lara, Juliette and Niamh are mean at first, but they quickly grow very protective of Ollie. Lara, in particular, is the rudest and most toxic character in the book, but she does grow and learn from her mistakes.

Only Mostly Devastated was another YA romance I enjoyed A DAMN LOT. It has teen drama, a cute romance, and some family sorrow.

<em>Only Mostly Devastated </em>by Sophie Gonzales is marketed as an LGBTQ retelling of Grease, and really, that's what sold me on it. I've always enjoyed Grease (though I have many thoughts on that problematic line in the first song), and so picking up this novel was a moment of true excitement for me. And while at first I wasn't sure about the degree to which this novel could be compared to that film, I decided to watch the movie as I was reading this and suddenly a lot of smaller pieces fell into place.

The biggest complaint I have about <em>Only Mostly Devastated</em> is the fact that is it singularly told from one perspective. Gonzales gives us some <em>amazing </em>characters, but we see them all through the lens of Ollie, the novel's resident Sandy. There's a lot of nuance to the many characters throughout this book, but really the only perspective I think it actually <em>needed</em> was that of Will Travers, the novel's Danny Zuko.

The single point of view really took away from the novel.

Ollie, already out and from the more accepting California, has an amazing summer with closeted Will Travers just as Sandy once had with Danny. When Ollie's parents make the decision to remain in North Carolina to help his mother's sister who has recently been diagnosed with cancer, he is excited at the possibility of being able to keep up his summer romance. But when he begins school suddenly Will decides to pretend he and Ollie have never met all for the sake of keeping his secret, well, secret.

Will does a lot throughout the book to keep his friends and family from finding out that he is bisexual and had a summer romance with the new boy in school. The biggest problem I see with that is the fact that Will's perspective is only ever seen through Ollie's eyes. I think, for some, this can make it difficult to justify or, at the very least, understand Will's decisions. Like Danny, Will makes a number of mistakes that are genuinely hurtful to Ollie.

This does, unfortunately, include not calling his friends out for their awful gay jokes and, a moment you might recognize from the film, dancing with his ex-girlfriend in order to throw his friends off finding out his secret. Admittedly, these pieces can certainly be seen as problematic. Ultimately, that's partially why I think the book would have benefited so much from including Will's point of view.

While Ollie is not so self-focused as to not understand Will's feelings, a lot of the feelings that motivated Will's decisions are kind of lost to the reader. They are only given through Ollie's realizations and dialogue throughout the novel, leaving everything kind of one-sided. There was a missed opportunity in getting to know and understanding Will.

Aside from that, this novel was phenomenal.

The story overall was an immense amount of fun to read. The characters were brilliant, each with their own Grease spin. And while the Rizzo pregnancy scare is swapped for a different story line, I never really felt like I was missing anything from the movie that I needed in the novel. I was able to sit back and enjoy the journey with no problem at all. I loved Ollie most of all.

<em>Only Mostly Devastated</em> is one of those keep you up all night novels and I even found myself trying to sneak chapters in while I was at work just to find out what happened next. It's very easy to find yourself invested in the characters and their tale. I adored Juliette, Lara, and Niamh. Lara's story, an alternate to Rizzo's, took center stage over the other two girls. To be honest, I kind of preferred it this way.

Ollie's Aunt's battle with cancer is the most glaring diversion from the Grease film. It packs an emotional punch, for sure, and adds some realism to the novel that, admittedly, I didn't really love. I won't say I hated it, because I didn't. I definitely think that the novel benefited from this side plot, but it wasn't the reason I read the book. I've never been much of a "sad book" reader, and so some aspects of the cancer piece just didn't really resonate with me.

Gonzales'<em> Only Mostly Devastated</em> was released just two days ago on March 3rd, so go grab yourself a copy!

This truly was a fantastic read and it's one I think a great many people will enjoy. If it's not on your TBR yet, you should probably go add it right now. You'll be glad you did. I know I was.

<em>I was provided a free copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.</em>

"[L]ife was too short to play chicken with something as important as the person you loved."

Have you ever seen in movies where someone goes “shhh, you had me at ___” and place a finger on the speaker’s lips? That was me and this book. “[T]his boy-meets-boy spin on Grease” was my moment of “shhh. You had me at Grease.

Thank you Netgalley and Wednesday Books for a chance to read this book in exchange for a review!

Synopsis

After a summer filled with romance and love…in between taking care of his little cousins for his sick aunt, Ollie’s family decides not to pack up their lives and move back to California, but to instead stay in North Carolina and help out with Aunt Jules.
Unfortunately for Ollie, he hasn’t heard a peep out of Will, the guy he met over the summer and bonded with. So it’s a bit of a shock for both of them when at the first back to school party, they run into each other and Ollie learns that Will is in the closet.

Rants, Raves, and Reviews

Honestly, this book is really cute and a little hard to read, mostly because I haven’t books with closeted people in awhile. Our main character, Ollie, is out of the closet and had no intentions of hiding that in his new school. Especially as he’s spent the summer with this amazing guy. A guy that there is probably no way he’s going to see again, right?

Ollie makes friends with a group of girls that he (and I) can’t quite get a read on. People that instantly give nicknames freak me out, but eventually I do learn to like Julia. There is also Niamh, who is hoping to be a model and Lara, who Ollie really can’t quite get a read on, but doesn’t like what he’s read so far. Lara ends up being a character I understand quite well - she uses anger and sarcasm to misdirect from any problem she’s currently having. She takes out her emotions on people that she loves, trusting that they’ll love her even when they are furious with her. (Honestly Nimah and Julia are a bit flat in this story -- Lara is the C plot and I enjoyed her story.) 

Rose Gold Ladies in action. Honestly, Lara is an amazing Rizzo update.

In some ways this book frustrated me as to what it was trying to accomplish. The Aunt’s illness is a side story that I think is handed well, with absentee parents for possibly the first time that I’m happy about? The little we see of Ollie’s parents I don’t like them. His mom is super new age-y, which there is nothing wrong with, but that much positivity  against his dad’s anger is incredibly weird. I’m guessing they are all in their own little bubbles most of the time, it’s just that the parents’ bubbles happen to overlap in “taking care of sick Aunt.” I love his Aunt though, and her ability to talk about her pending death with a level of positivity and remorse. At one point asks Ollie point blank to take the kids out of the hospital room because she’s sick of pretending that everything is okay and being upbeat. She just wants to watch crappy tv and rest and be sad. This resonated so deeply with me. So frequently when people are in the hospital, the mistake their family and friends make is trying to stay so ridiculously upbeat and happy that it is almost insulting to them?

Ollie and Will’s relationship just hurt my soul in the way relationships where someone is hiding that they’re dating the other always does. It rips a piece of Ollie’s soul out every time he has to hide behind a tree to kiss Will or take a long drive to get some time together. I respect that Will isn’t out and feels that he can’t be, but man my poor soul as they stumble trying to figure out what to do. I cried for Ollie as he tried to find the confidence to say "I'm done, I'm out" (He would also love Six and sing Catherine Parr's song very loudly and oh am I seeing too much of myself in Ollie? Whoops.) 

Final Thoughts

I have come to the conclusion that I love contemporary YA stories over fantasy YA. Ollie and Will’s relationship makes me want to punch things, but it feels like something teens are genuinely going through (hopefully less and less!) If you like romance stories, if you like Grease, and if you like a good cry (I won’t tell you if this book has a happy ending or not…just look at the title!) then give this book a shot. You won’t be disappointed.

CW: Terminal Illness, homophobia, forced outing

I received an advanced copy of this book from the publisher, Wednesday Books, through Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

Only Mostly Devastated follow Ollie, a love-struck teenager who thought that after summer was over, he would never see his fling, Will, again. When Ollie’s parents tell him that they aren’t going back to the West Coast and that they’re going to stay in North Carolina to be with his aunt, his world is flipped upside down. It’s flipped upside down again when he sees Will at a party, and he starts to wonder if their summer romance meant anything to Will at all.

This book was a lot of fun to read, and I thought the romance was super cute. I loved Ollie and I enjoyed reading about his struggle between following his head or his heart. I thought that he was super caring, and I loved his relationship with his family, especially with his two younger cousins. I loved how the girls, Juliette, Lara, and Niamh, accepted him into their group, and I love that these three girls all had their own personalities that actually added to the story.

One of the things that I loved about this book was the flashbacks to the summer and the romance between Ollie and Will. I thought that these moments were super cute, and they helped explain why Ollie was so hurt and confused by the Will he was experiencing in high school. Throughout the book, I felt bad for Will because he was juggling so many things and expectations, and it was clear that he was struggling to juggle it all.

I also liked that even though this book was cute and romancey, it also tackled a lot of serious issues. Some of the heavier topics that this book deals with is coping with a serious illness, grief, homophobia, and body image issues. I especially liked how this book dealt with grief, and I thought that some of the scenes dealing with this topic were quite moving.

Finally, I want to talk about the romance between Ollie and Will. They had their share of cringy moments together, but I think most romances have their share of cringy moments. The whole time I was rooting for them to get together publicly, and when they had their moment, I literally started clapping and squealing for joy because I was so happy for them.

This book has been pitched as Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda meets Clueless, and Grease and I can say that if you’re a fan of Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda you’ll probably like this book. Unfortunately, I can’t make any comments on the Clueless and Grease comparisons because it’s been eons since I’ve watched either of those movies, but if you like books that have a summer romance and a couple you can root for, check out this book.

As a fan of the film, Grease I was very eager to read this Grease inspired LGBTQ+ novel. In terms of paying homage to Grease, Sophie Gonzales nailed it on the head by turning the Pink Ladies into three female characters who wore rose gold rose necklaces versus the basketball players wearing black and white leather jackets to represent the Thunder Birds or T-Birds.

I enjoyed that the author still made this her story rather than just copying Grease entirely. I really enjoyed the story she wrote about Ollie and Will.

Ollie is forced to prolong his stay in North Carolina for the entirety of his senior year to stay with his family to help take care of his Aunt Linda and her kids, Dylan and Crista, as Linda is fighting for her life battling cancer. After having a summer fling with a boy named Will who he met at a lake in NC. The writing was fun and I appreciated the appropriate use of pop culture references. However, some of the analogies felt excessive. I'm a sucker for a story that tackles grief and I was filled with tears by the end.

This book hit all the requirements I like in a book: music; specifically pop-punk, grief, and any queer characters with strong character development. Only Mostly Devastated hit all of those for me. Throughout the novel, I was struggling with accepting the decisions each character was making, especially Will. He irritated me to no end and his relationship with Ollie was borderline toxic. But I commend the author for tackling that and making Ollie such a strong character. There were instances where I felt like I couldn't connect to him aside from being into pop-punk music, being late to things and his "emo" style.

Ollie's new friend group, The Rose Gold Ladies is what I'll call them. They made me feel so many mixed emotions specifically toward Lara. But in general, each girl was very catty and dramatic toward one another. I was confused at times why Lara was even there because they would constantly be down each other's throats. A lot of girl hate and body shaming as well. But I appreciated that they stood up for each other when needed.

Great character development and I loved the coming out scenes. They were very important. I would recommend this to anyone who liked Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda or Autoboyography.

Now I want to go watch Grease.

"Here walks Ollie Di Fiore. Master of his feelings, expert detacher, only mostly devastated."

Only Mostly Devastated is a charming, and at times surprisingly heartbreaking, modern and queer Grease retelling that follows Ollie and Will as they are suddenly forced to confront their "summer romance" that unexpectedly continues into the school year. Gonzales weaves cheeky humor and quick wit into this tale to make it a quick read to get through. She also does what most LGBTQ+ YA reads don't, which is give space for a minor queer character to expand on their sexuality and feelings instead of solely putting the focus on the main characters. This novel is relatable and, even though a retelling, a story completely of its own.

The publisher and Netgalley provided me with an ARC of this title in exchange for an honest review.

This was a sweet coming of age story that tackles some tough issues. Gonzales' writing style conveys the events with a straight forward, no-nonsense style and the character development of the two protagonists is solid. I loved the frequent references to pop culture, especially the comparison to the heroine of Labyrinth. They increased the readability and relatability of the story.

Like the Grease plot from which it is loosely drawn, this is an expose on how teens deal with summer love interests that suddenly become part of their "normal" life. The relationship issues between Ollie and his summer love, Will, are fully fleshed out, and readers will appreciate the realistic take on the issues young same-sex couples can face.

I thought there were a couple of superficial elements in the plot, namely the roles played by the minor characters. They primarily seemed to exist as props for social commentary, not as a fully executed supporting cast.

YA readers will enjoy this unique take on an iconic movie.