My favourite part of today was being so immersed in the book I was reading. I’ve been trying to get back on that reading wavelength and though I pretended a lot to myself that I was back there. I knew deep down that I wasn’t and was waiting for the perfect book to get me back there. I grew increasingly frustrated and then I thought to myself, what better way to get back into my reading era than a dramatic, high-school rom-com? So, I scrolled earnestly through my e-library and came across this beauty.
Excuse Me While I Ugly Cry by Joya Goffney
This book was released on the 4th of May, 2021. It has twenty-eight chapters and about two hundred and twenty chapters. Deeply immersive so you’re sure to finish it quite quickly. Its genres are young-adult and contemporary romance.
Summary of the Book
Quinn Jackson is an eighteen year old, final-year high school student. She’s an overly enthusiastic list maker and has a red spiral-bound journal where she writes a list of everything. From the days she’s ugly cried, which she’s convinced is something she does at least once a week, to a list of things she could never admit out loud, to all the boys she’d like to kiss. Her lists are her safe space and help her remain sane.
Her world crumbles when she realises that she’s mistakenly exchanged journals with Carter Bennett, the hot black boy who she finds incredibly attractive. She’s nearly hysterical and upon figuring out the mistake they agree to exchange it back the next morning at school. Quinn’s world completely dissolves when an anonymous account posts one of her lists on Instagram and tags all of her schoolmates. The person also blackmails her into facing seven of her worst fears otherwise the entire content of her journal will be revealed to the school.
Quinn is mortified and desperately accepts Carter’s help to find out who has the book and how to meet his blackmail requirements. In doing this, Quinn learns valuable lessons, how to face her fears, how to stand up for her truths and own up to her lies. And thrown up in the mix of the drama and the lessons, there’s Carter and just maybe, these two can find themselves in a world of love, so warningly sweet.
My Review and Rating
The first thing I appreciate about this book is the imperfections of the protagonist. In a lot of books in the rom-com genre, the protagonists are portrayed as flawless or nearly so. The fact that she wasn’t acing her classes at school, had ugly secrets and cried even uglier made her more realistic to me. Like a normal, relatable, everyday person.
I also loved how much it resonated with me. While I’m not particularly enthusiastic about lists, even though they do hold some appeal to me, I could relate to keeping a journal and relate with it landing in the wrong hands once. It was hands down one of the worst moments of my life as a high schooler. So, I guess that was why I was particularly interested in how the story would turn out.
I loved that I was kicking my feet in this novel. I’ve ached for kicking feet scenes and ones where you’re mandated as a reader to close the novel a bit and take in everything that is happening. Even scream a “What the heck is she doing?” in between scenes. The plotting was good. The characters were flawed and working to be better. And the ending is even more satisfactory.
What I did not love about the book was the climax. It felt a little too soon to me. I mean there wasn’t so much mystery since I had my suspects but I expected that moment where everything fell into place to be more suspense-filled and not come so soon. But then again, I was reading the book at such speed, it may just as well be my fault. Regardless, the climax was short-lived in my opinion and wasn’t nearly as satisfying as it should have been. It is Joya Goffney’s debut book though so I can thoroughly understand and appreciate near-perfections like this.
Again, and this might be inconsequential but I didn’t like how Matt pushed to the curb. If you read the book, you may understand. But the fact that the relationship he had with Quinn wasn’t fully explored or given the closure it deserved grated on me, especially because the feelings she’d expressed about him had been quite strong.
But overall, I loved the themes that were explored in the book. Subtle and not-so-subtle racial discrimination, love, trust, family, self-acceptance but to mention a few. A truly lovely book without a doubt. Giving it a 4.3 rating. Extra points for reawakening that scintillating feeling that comes with reading fresh, untainted high school love. Totally recommend it to my book-loving friends.
Jhymi🖤
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