Two Second Review
★★★★☆ // 4 s t a r s
In the most basic sense, Only Mostly Devastated is a super easy to read, super gay book about Ollie, a boy who moves to North Carolina "for a year" to be with his Aunt, and Will, the jock that Ollie met over the summer and just so happened to fall head-over-heels for. This is crazy fluffy, but also had many important themes littered throughout which we love.
The Book
Trigger Warnings: biphobia, body shaming, death (of a family member), homophobia, toxic masculinity (does that count as a tw…?)
Release Date: March 3, 2020
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Genre(s): YA, Contemporary, LGBTQIA+, Romance
Series?: no
Page Count: 304
Premise:
Summer love…gone so fast.
Will Tavares is the dream summer fling―he's fun, affectionate, kind―but just when Ollie thinks he's found his Happily Ever After, summer vacation ends and Will stops texting Ollie back. Now Ollie is one prince short of his fairy tale ending, and to complicate the fairy tale further, a family emergency sees Ollie uprooted and enrolled at a new school across the country. Which he minds a little less when he realizes it's the same school Will goes to…except Ollie finds that the sweet, comfortably queer guy he knew from summer isn't the same one attending Collinswood High. This Will is a class clown, closeted―and, to be honest, a bit of a jerk.
Ollie has no intention of pining after a guy who clearly isn't ready for a relationship, especially since this new, bro-y jock version of Will seems to go from hot to cold every other week. But then Will starts "coincidentally" popping up in every area of Ollie's life, from music class to the lunch table, and Ollie finds his resolve weakening.
The last time he gave Will his heart, Will handed it back to him trampled and battered. Ollie would have to be an idiot to trust him with it again.
Right? Right.
Review
Articulating thoughts about this book is the hardest thing considering I spent half my time listening to this and squealing. Ollie was a super endearing MC and like way too relatable at times it was frankly annoying (in the best way possible, of course). Will on the other hand, was actually annoying at times and, to be honest, I hated him for literally treating Ollie like crap sometimes, but then Ollie also took that crap so there's annoyance there too. Other than that, I'd say everything else about this book was near perfect? And then even the problems I have with it are clearly there for character progression and only help to further the plot so I can't even complain that much.
The side characters! They're so rarely this flushed out and actually have progression in contemporaries. Like, they always have this trait and they're either the funny or annoying best friend throughout, ya know? But Lara! We got progression, we got backstory, we got attached. I fucking love her, like she's my spirit animal dead ass.
The writing was on point, the humor was pretty top-tier, and I'm probably three seconds away from reading every book by Sophie Gonzales now…
❝ Like, 'me, gay, what? Nah, that’s just a side effect of alcohol. Blurry
vision, inability to walk straight, sudden insatiable desire to undress
other girls. Wait, that doesn’t happen to everyone? Weird.' ❞
All in all, Only Mostly Devastated is a pretty elite choice for a fluffy as crap book that also happens to be gay af.
Tropes…
— high school romance
— meet to love to wHat yOu'Re bAcK? (read: two people meet, spend a bunch of time together, one is supposed to leave, and all of sudden they're staying and have a bunch of dilemmas)
Read…If You Liked…
Boyfriend Material (bc it's literally one of the most hilarious books ever and also holds a special place in my heart for helping destress before an ap exam lmao)
Watch…If You Liked…
Lemonade Mouth (the band practices in a basement, what more do you need)
Love, Simon (only putting this here because i've watched the movie but haven't actually read the book oops)
Grease (bc goodreads says so)
ADD ONLY MOSTLY DEVASTATED TO YOUR GOODREADS SHELF
random q to drop comments <3
What's a contemporary you can read over and over, and never tire of?
(ik this isn't really what most would consider a contemp but i adore The Foxhole
Court and another slightly more contempy one: If We Were Villains)
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