Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for sending me an e-ARC of this book, and I apologize for my late review.

This book unfortunately did not work for me. Although it was beautifully written (most of the book), the main female protagonist was awful. I get that sometimes it works... not liking the MC I mean... but this was not the case. She encouraged not once but twice to two different people to kill themselves, that does not have a justification. A big no for me. No matter the age, no matter the context, we cannot keep joking around this topic, nothing excuses it. This would have triggered me awfully five years ago, today it just gave some flashbacks and then I continued my day, but you cannot know how your audience is going to react. I truly hope that little sentence was removed on the final draft or that a content warning was added on the beggining of those two chapters.

Wishing the author the best in future projects. Thanks again for the opportunity.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ecopy for my kindle. This book was super cute. I loved the MCs. How we, I wanted more conflict. The writing style was great. Overall, it was a super cute read.

Well, I had mixed feelings about this one. I usually don't mind reading books with unlikeable protagonists but they should have some character growth or some understanding in the end. But here that was missing. As much as this could have been a realistic portrayal of teens(yes, they do dumb stuff and are quite confused about life), but I didn't really see what the author was trying to point out? I felt like we could have seen more because there was lots of potential for it! It just left me feeling disappointed.

This was a quite okay book, a bit hard to get into it, and I did not really enjoyed the narration nor the main character— she was shallow, a bit rude. The love story side was well done, and I admire the cover,
If you go into it knowing nothing, I think you might like the book!

I was such a sucker for this cover and the synopsis. I thought that this was going to be a super cute and fun read that would just give me a break from some more dense reading that I had been doing.

Unfortunately, Slingshot was a read that I wish I could forget. There are some things that are in bad taste when it comes to this story that I just can not get behind. For example our main character, who is 15, is in love with her teacher. Yeah, I feel like that whole “trope” is so overplayed and outdated these days. It’s also just not pleasant to read about when you are the age of the teacher and then imagine the fact that a 15 year old is obsessed with you? No thanks, it makes me extremely uncomfortable.

Another fact about this books is that it is just so unrealistic. The dialogue being the main culprit. These teenagers talk about topics that weren’t even on my mind until I was out of my college experience and they are fifteen!

I wanted to like this one so much. I feel like the author has more talent up their sleeve and I would like to read more in the future but this one was just not it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for allowing me to read this before release in exchange for my honest reviews!

I'm currently clearing out all of the books that were published in 2019-21 from my title feedback view!

I was excited to read this book after reading the blurb about itself, but sadly I wasn't able to finish it. There wasn't any one thing that turned me off, It just wasn't catching my interest. I wish I had time to try to read again, but there are just too many amazing books coming out that I won't kid myself. Thank you to the Publisher and to NetGalley for the opportunity to red this book in exchange for a review.

It’s interesting reading other reviews for Slingshot and seeing the things that offended people. Swearing, fixation on relationships and sex, melodrama. I’m sure it’s very dependent on where you went to school and who you surrounded yourself with, but this was definitely something like my experience in high school. I was by no means the same as Grace, but I could relate and/or knew people who were like this in high school.

It’s the teenage condition to believe the world revolves around you – some people grow out of it, others don’t – but Grace really isn’t that weird for not considering other people’s perspectives. In corporations, they’re still making employees do courses on empathy, yet there are reviewers who clearly think every 15 year old should have a wider world-view. Teenagers by nature are selfish, have self-esteem issues, and are often faking it until they make it (out of high school that is). Yes, there are some moments of utter clarity, where characters provide meaningful insight that make them seem “older” and that’s realistic too. Again, depends on your experiences in life.

The swearing was not that bad. I (and a large chunk of my classmates) swore more as pissed off 13 year olds than half the high school kids do in this book. Sex? I know a girl who got pregnant in 10th grade. Kids are having it (which is why we honestly need better sex-ed, just throwing that out there). Also, the rumours? Absolutely realistic (though depressing how people attacked each other so easily in high school over seemingly nothing). I felt like none of these things took away from the point of the book, and honestly made the experience fairly authentic.

Okay, I’ve never seen the “I’m in love with my teacher” plot so blown up, but again, teenagers. It happens. The teacher was super professional about it, spoke to Grace rationally, and stopped it where it started. It’s even acknowledged later by the MC herself that it was blown out of proportion and felt like a lot at the time.

The one thing I found weird was the lack of consequences Grace experienced for her actions against said teacher though. I respect that he was being patient and, in the same way as I am through this review, acknowledging that she’s 15 and put him on a pedestal, but sir. There really should’ve been a few more lines drawn there.

As a whole, while I didn’t love the overall melodrama – because I’m 27 and so far removed from drama it gives me a headache now – I did find the characters to be fairly well developed, they have strong individual voices, and I liked the support system Grace builds for herself over time as she learns and grows. I did feel like this book was missing diversity among its characters, but I also don’t know how much diversity I really expect from rural Florida, so. As books go, I feel like this was pretty solid in terms of character development and plot. You get what you came for and more, and I enjoyed it!

Plot: 3.5/5
Characters: 4/5
World Building: 3.5/5
Writing: 4/5
Pacing: 5/5
Overall: 4/5
GoodReads Rating: 3.13/5

TW: Smoking, mention of suicide

eARC gifted via NetGalley by Wednesday Books via St. Martin’s Press in exchange for an honest review.

I was a little emotional after finishing this story. Didn't think I would like it this much. It's sweet but does have a serious and rough side to it, which makes it so realistic and heartwarming. I did laugh sometimes, it does have some good humor to it.

*thank you to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for providing this ARC*

i was so surprised to love this as much as i did! i read this in a singular sitting while the power was out (gracias por tanto edesur) and honestly, i can think of worse ways to spend the day.
based on this cover i was expecting a dumb, immature, funny little young adult rom-com — and there’s nothing wrong with that! but this was so much better. like, infinite times better.

a list of the good stuff:

- main character is a cynical unhinged psychopath, and i love her. i’m often so put off by the dialogue in y/a novels because, i can confirm as a teenager, that’s just not how we talk and it makes me want to kill someone. but mercedes helnwein nailed it. gracie is the best written young adult character i’ve read in a good while.
- the love interest, wade, is just so swoon-worthy and the way their relationship develops is so realistic in a way that’s refreshing to witness as opposed to the majority of y/a romances.
- the atmosphere worked so well for me. boarding school, floridian storms, the smashing pumpkins, stephen king books, cigarettes.
- the female friendships were EVERYTHING.
- georgina. that’s it that’s the tweet. she’s the star of the show. hilarious.

the not so good:

- don’t let the cover fool you. this book is an angst fest. in a cynical, funny way, but still. and i ate it up, but i feel like it needs a bit of a rebranding, so people don’t go in expecting a full on romance with a HEA.

in conclusion mercedes helnwein ATE and left no crumbs

I stated off this book and my first thought was that it reminded me of a 14 year-old madly written Wattpad story... It just wasn't very good plot-wise. Made me cringe a lot... And just had to DNF because of so. Therefore I can't help but give it a 1 star, even thought the cover shows a story too good - that's not reflected in the plot.

DNF'd at 25%. My apologies. Sounds like Amazon Prime's "Wayne" in terms of troublesome teenage characters, some who are partly unlikeable but you still root for them. This could clean up nicely for that kind of movie/TV series, but I just couldn't like the characters on the page. Sorry!

I have mix feeling about this book I enjoyed the middle of the book but the beginning and end just felt like force drama just put in there for drama and it was kind of meh. Another thing I didn't like was this force love tringle things like come on there really wasn't anything there with the one guy and now... I'll stop i don't want to get in to spoilers. I do like how after everything the MC goes though she finally stands up to her mother who is delusional and her father who is absent and basically a really bad father. I like how we see from the "other family" in a secrets family what would be neat is if the author writes a compan novel about the fathers "real" family over all I just kind of feel Meh about this book I don't love it but i Don't hate it

I kept thinking I would come back to this one, but I just couldn't force myself to do it. I started reading it as soon as access was granted, but the main girl starts the story convinced that she and her teacher are in love. Sorry, as a school librarian, I just can't do it. I wondered if there might be some redeeming quality later, but when I went through my second attempt I got stuck here again.
Sure, another 15 year old girl may have similar feelings or fantasies but I just can't do it.
thank you for the ARC/opportunity.

I'm torn with this one. I absolutely adored Wade. Grace on the other hand, everything about her "I'm not like the other girls, I hate everything and everyone" schtick annoyed the bejeezus out of me. I think this was meant to be in the same vein of John Green romances, but at least most of his characters eventually grow on me, if they aren't likeable from the get-go. Grace never did.

When the pre-romantic platonic relationship between the protagonists is what interests the most, it's evident that the love didn't translate all too well. Everything turned a little melodramatic especially when one takes into account the age of the characters, and while stories centred around emotional teens is always appreciated, the characterisation here is simply not likeable, despite the angst and sadness trying its best to create an atmosphere that conveys passion, and thereby doesn't consequent to any cheering.

This was a good and fun read - such a great setting and characters. Overall I enjoyed the story but would’ve wished for a bit more.

Ugh. This book was a million times longer than it needed to be, and honestly just pretty horrible. The writing was fine, sure, but the story itself was no good. The MC is 15 and incredibly and inappropriately obsessed with her 30-yo teacher, which could be a fairly natural thing, but then she literally loses it and cusses her teacher out because he's in love with his actual, appropriately-aged fiancee. Then the majority of the book focuses on an older girl trying to teach the MC how to have sex with the teacher. It's honestly pretty disgusting.

I really, really disliked this book and absolutely DO NOT recommend.

This book was awkward and cringey and I couldn't finish it because of that. The characters didn't act their age. It just was messy and not well done.

Ready...aim...fire for the heart! At least, that's how Grace feels. She's at a loss after the BIGGEST crush on her biology teacher backfires. With a slingshot in her arsenal and a revenge set out, she doesn't think about meeting a bad boy. But meeting Wade allows Grace to question everything, including who she is.

Slingshot by Mercedes Helnwein is a debut novel that is a "library read." This novel was either take it or leave it... with me, leaving it.