Again but Better

Hey guys!

I am definitely on my way to be a consistent bilingual blogger. Cmon I have been posting in English for three weeks in a row now. I was planning on bringing another review for today, but the thing is that I finish this book earlier than the other one and I like my review to be posted in order; meaning that you get the review in the order that I finish the book unleash is something that I need to post right away, but will see about that. 

So for those of you who know me I am pretty sure that you are aware that one of my favorite BookTubers is Christine Riccio. For those of you who don’t know me that well, now you know that I really like Christine. In fact I was quite happy to see that she had come up with a book and that she was going to be a published author. So nothing that I say in this review has noting to do with me not liking her or whatever is just my honest and raw opinion. 

Let's jump into it, and please be calm because this will be a spoiler free review. 

In this story we follow Shane who is going to study a semester abroad. That is pretty standard, I mean at least in Europe I am not sure about the States. The thing is that Shane is pre-med but she is going into a creative writing program, but of course her parents don’t know about that. Also, there is the part in which he hast to do colleague right this time around, because in her school she has no real friends, is not in clubs and has never been kissed. 

So when I first read the sinopsis I was ok with it. Not my usual cup of tea but a book that I think I could enjoy; mostly because of the semester abroad factor. I certainly loved my semester abroad and even wrote a whole blog post about it (if you are interested you can check it out here).  I mean I would do it all over again tif I could and I think pretty much everyone would go on Erasmus or however it is you call it on your countries again. But this book was not about it and it was not that good. 

First and foremost, this book is labeled as a contemporary and with the sinopsis you might come to think it is. But its not! This books has some elements of contemporary YA or New Adult as its characters are on its early twenties; but this book has very big and important element of fantasy. Yes you read that last sentence correctly. 

Lately I have been thinking I might be becoming grumpier because I tend to be very clear about my opinions with books. Especially when it concern the label of it. I get that all its marketing, but please be sure to label the books correctly. And this isn’t the worst case scenario because like 60% of the book is actually contemporary, but the element of fantasy is key to the story so it should be target or just indicated for when people pick up the book. Let's be real here, we all know this book would have gotten the same attention because it´s written by a famous BookTuber very well love by the community. 

I found my self struggling with this book for many reasons and I am so sorry to be saying this but for the majority of the book the writing is actually quite poor and repetitive. And makes the main character to be extremely annoying because all she does is cry. I know being away from home is a whole different experience for each of us and I get that some situations are stressing but the amount of crying or “tear controlling” from this girl are something new to me. This was a huge turn over. 

I like when there are geek references in books. I love when I do get those references because I know the books of whatever iit is that they are talking about, but let me tell you that this was also something that was overly used in the book. I am pretty sure most of the writing was done from marketing perspective, thinking her viewers are the targeted public and if they enjoy her channel they have to enjoy what she likes. And I do love Shadowhunters and Avengers, but imagine how repetive it was that it came I point I wish I was rolling my eyes. And now let all take a minute to thank books for audiobooks which allow us to roll our eyes while still reading.

As i have mention before the book is written in the first person. Usually that is not a problem for me but when the main character, whom of course is also the narrator is a Mary Sue, it is a problem. I don’t like know-it-alls, they get on my nerves. Shane has problems and, yes emotionally she is a mess, but most of her problems comes from her own stupidity. So when something was kind of going wrong for her I was not sad in the slightest. 

The rest of the characters are actually better, but the love interest is a walking cliché. And I am not going to elaborate further into this because think of any cliché you have ever encounter in a male romantic interest and Pilot is the personification of it. 

And since I am talking about clichés let me tell that this book relays very heavily on them. I know clichés exist because they are something the general public enjoys and because they are tropes that help the story to progress but not all the clichés needed to be included in one book. 

It´s true that I eded up rating this book positive. I gave t 3 out of 5 stars. And you might be wondering why. Well the thing is that this book is like 2 different ones being the review that you just read from the first 60% of the book. The fact is that the ending 40% of the book is actually good and like a completely different story. I wont get into specific, because I have said time and time again I would like to make spoilers for anyone.

The fun fact is that if Again but Better was more about the “again” part it would have been an entirely different book with an entirely different opinion. The writing improves a lot from the beginning of the book to the end, so the best chapters regarding writing quality are at the end. The characters evolve, a lot a no because they are older but because they are force into a circustamces that makes them improve and they take it. 

So if this book had taken the first part and make it shorter (a prologue would have just been enough) and have been more focus on the second part it would have been a 4 stars read for me. Instead we have a Marta with mixed feelings. 

Have you read Again but Better yet? What are your thoughts on it? 

See you all next Sunday!