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This had the potential to be so cute, but ultimately only reminded me why I usually hate American High School romcoms: they are formulaic, perpetuate harmful stereotypes and revolve solely on second hand embarassment and putting the protagonist down.

“Mack snuck a look at the cheerleaders just as Veronica took her place at the top of the pyramid. Time seemed to slow down as the cheerleader swung her long blond ponytail over her shoulder, pompoms high in the air…”
Mackenzie is used to being different from other kids―and to being bullied for not fitting into the rigid social expectations of her Catholic High School. Luckily, Mack’s best friend Lila has her back so school isn’t the total hell it could be. But it’s pretty damn close.
Until something very mysterious happens―Mack becomes a cheerleader magnet. Even she has a hard time believing it. And Lila is not too happy about her friend’s sudden popularity with the cool kids.
Is Mack being set up for an epic fail? Or is she finally headed for acceptance–and maybe even romance…

I received an ARC and reviewed honestly and voluntarily.

Rating: 2 out of 5 stars.

Content warnings include: bullying, homophobia, repeated outing of queer characters against their will, cheating, toxic definition of queerness, religion, homophobic authority figure threatening queer teen, TONS of public humiliation and second hand embarassment.

It wasn’t all bad. There were some cute moments, and particularly towards the end there were some unexpected turns where instead of turning south like I thought they would, it went up in the best way instead.

Those moments sadly were outnumbered by the countless painfully foreseeable instances of humiliation, second hand embarassment and cringe that Mack, the protagonist, went through, facilitated through bullying, homophobia, jealousy drama, or mistakes by her own design. I didn’t mind the fact that I could see it all coming – I minded that they were so overdone and uncomfortable and painful to read.

I felt so bad for Mack most of the time. Her pain and what she goes through didn’t make this a very fun reading experience, even though it was written in a way that suggested it was supposed to be light-hearted.

I also found the blurb to be misleading – I got the impression she would actually befriend the cheerleaders or become part of their friend group, which she didn’t, though I guess that misunderstanding is on me.

Since the book was so short it was however no chore to read. The writing was perfectly fine, though I would have liked to see some scenes more in detail rather than rushed as they were.

There were also a few open ends or unexplained instances that stood out ot me.

Overall this didn’t live up to the potential I saw in it when I first came across it.

You can buy the book here.

~iam