Today’s review is of Scarlett Epstein Hates it Here by Anna Brewslaw! Read this weeks past reviews: Shatter Me, Wild Swans, Lady Renegades, The Darkest Corners, and Defender. This book came out yesterday, so look out for it! An ARC was very kindly providing by Penguin Teen @ NetGalley.
Stars: ★★★★
Cover Rating: 7/10, I love the font!
“Sometimes my entire high school experience feels like being the onlly one who already knows the end of a movie, when everyone else you’re going with is so excited to see how it will end. Spoiler alert: a 20 percent discount at Target.”
This is one of the funniest books i’ve read all year. Scarlett is witty, judgemental, and freaking hilarious. This is a book for fangirls, or anyone who wants to laugh.
When her favorite tv show, Lycanthrope High, is cancelled, Scarlett is devastated. While many of her online friends want to stop writing fanfiction for Lycanthrope and move on to other shows, Scarlett doesn’t want to let go. One of them recommends that she continues Lycanthrope High using her own characters.
Scarlett takes the challenge, but finds that she’s at a loss for inspiration. How does she create her own characters when she’s so used to using ones that already existed? So that’s exactly what she does: she writes fanfiction using people from her school. The stars of it being Ashley, the queen bee who hates her guts (one of the most overused tropes), the popular boy who she used to be friends with in middle school (who she has a crush on) and herself.
My favorite character in this book is definitley Ruth, Scarlett’s 73 year old feminist pot smoking neighbor. Just take a look at this quote from one of their conversations:
“‘…what’s your teacher’s name?’
‘Mr. Radford.’
‘What’s he like?’
‘Uh, young.’ I thought. ‘Enthusiastic.’
‘You should do him!’ She said it with the same tone of wholesome encouragement you’d use to say You should do yoga! or You should visit Lake Placid!”
Avery, her other best friend, is twin sisters with Ashley, the popular girl mentioned earlier. This is the one flaw I find with this book. I am so sick of people using the “popular girls” trope, especially when they hate an “unpopular girl.” It’s cringey and extremely overused.
Besides that, I don’t have any other criticism. I loved the characters and Scarlett’s fanfiction was so much fun to read. Anna Breslaw’s sparkling debut is one you don’t want to miss. I want more!
xx, Sophie
book wish 
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