breedawnwriter's reviews
222 reviews

I have no words. I sobbed through the end. I aspire to write like Cassandra. The ending is my favorite. I don’t know what else to say. Incredible book—the perfect ending to this perfect series.

Wow, this one has so many plot twists that made this a quick, fast-paced read. I couldn’t put it down.

There are some rather intense descriptions/images in this one though, so make sure you check trigger warnings first.

I absolutely love this book. 

The characters were great, it has my favorite trope of childhood-best-friends-to-lovers, and it features a hot kpop idol. Basically a book made for me👀

I have no complaints, and I love pretty much everything about this book.

"I'm content being loved and appreciated by the few people who I love and appreciate. That's enough for me."

This was the kpop book of my dreams! I didn't read XOXO before reading this one, but I think this one works as a standalone. If you've already read XOXO, I imagine this one would be a really cute spinoff.

What I Loved:
- The way adult problems are differentiated from teenager problems. This is a pretty subtle point that comes out more toward the end, but it's something I really appreciated. A lot of novels don't take the time to let the characters discover that some problems are meant for adults, while other problems are okay for teenagers to solve. I'm being vague to avoid spoilers, but I hope this makes sense.
- The romance, obviously. I know some people felt like Sori and Nathaniel have zero chemistry, but I'm not one of them. I absolutely adored every interaction that they had. Their relationship was so complicated and I love that it didn't turn toxic or co-dependent.
- Sori and Jenny's friendship. I guess they're enemies in XOXO, but in ASAP, they're practically besties. I do wish there was a little more of their friendship on-page, but I really did love them.
- The focus on found family. This was not something I noticed happening until the very end, and it was a lovely little surprise.
- The high stakes. If a YA novel doesn't actually have life-or-death stakes, then you better find a way to make the stakes FEEL like life-or-death. And Oh delivered on this beautifully.
- The kpop references. There was exactly one BTS reference, and that was enough for me.

What I Didn't Love:
- The overall lack of plot? Sometimes it felt like we were just hopping from scene to scene without a clear end-point. I don't necessarily know how to explain this, but there did seem to be a lack of overarching structure to the story that I think could have really elevated it just a bit more.

Overall, this is a really fluffy, light novel about friendship, second chances, the kpop industry, broken families, found families, and what it means to grow up. I would highly recommend to anyone who's looking for their next kpop or found family book.

I received an ARC from HarperTeen in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

I had to return it to the library and life got crazy. Nothing against the book, though. I may even pick it back up at some point.

This series has my heart now.

I love how this one went further into the personal repercussions of being a bully. Shoya isn’t a bully anymore—but does that matter to anyone else? How do you move forward when your past has defined everything for you for so long? How do you learn to forgive yourself when you believe you don’t deserve it?

These are just some of the incredibly important and powerful questions that this sequel asks. I can’t wait to see how the characters develop even more in the third book.

"I wanted to be back home where everything was normal and right. Where the world was still revolving and everything was fine. And alive."

I really enjoyed this book. It has some flaws, which we'll discuss in a moment, but it portrays grief in a way that resonated with me deeply.

What I Liked
- Lena's growth. Obviously character growth is important to any story. But stories that use grief as the primary way for a character to grow have my heart forever. Lena's just as messed up at the end of the story as she is at the beginning. But what changes is her priorities. She realizes what's important and what's not. She goes from caring solely about superficial things and ignoring what matters to caring deeply about those who are important to her and recognizing how precious every single moment is.
- The way grief is portrayed. I've read a fair amount of novels that feature grief, and this one did it really well. Lena's not done grieving at the end of the novel, and that's a realistic choice by the author. Grief is not a one-size-fits-all, and I appreciate that Armentrout portrayed the different ways that grief impacts people. Lena and her friends react very differently to grief, and that representation matters to me.
- The childhood-best-friends-to-lovers trope. This is by far my favorite trope, and it was executed beautifully.

What I Didn't Like
- Lena's lack of internal conflict and motivation. For the first third of the book, Lena doesn't really have anything driving her. She's in avoidance of most of her problems, which is important to know, but it doesn't really drive the story forward. I totally get why the author had to spend so much time showing us where Lena's at in the beginning, but it takes about 1/3 of the book to get to the inciting incident, which feels like a pretty big pacing problem to me.
- The sexual content. This isn't strictly a dislike for me, but it is flirting right on the edge of problematic for me (I don't like reading spice, so the sexual content was just barely within the bounds of what I personally am okay with). I wanted to point this out since I know a lot of my followers and friends also don't read spice, so just be aware that there are some sexual scenes with passionate kissing, touching, and sexual content in general.

Overall, this is a great book for people who like best-friends-to-lovers, stories that deal with grief, and beautifully executed themes.

Miyo's trauma is portrayed in such a breathtaking and honest way. I think that's my favorite part of these books, even more so than the slowburn romance.

This was just as cute as the first one. Super fluffy, sweet, and just endearing.

"You're still the one who started it, aren't you? What right does the boy who bullied Shoko have to judge his friends?"

I don't usually give manga five stars. Because they're so short, the pacing can so easily feel rushed, which makes it hard to feel fully satisfied.

But A Silent Voice is different.

This manga is powerful. It has meaning. It carries so much more weight than I would have ever expected a manga to carry.

This is a story about bullying. That's how it's marketed, anyway. But, I would say it's a story about mistakes. A story about wanting to be redeemed. A story about this innate desire we all have to be forgiven when we do not deserve it.

When we know that we don't deserve it.

This story leaves off on a cliffhanger that has me ready to drive to my library while sick to try and get my hands on the sequel. (Don't worry, I'm not actually going to do that.) But this is a purposeful, intentionally written story with illustrations that bring so much of the story to life. 

The way a child's actions can come back to hurt him isn't always discussed in the YA area, even though it should be. And Yoshitoki Oima has crafted a masterpiece that, I'm sure, will go on to push these boundaries for years to come.