Book Review :: Only Mostly Devastated, by Sophie Gonzales

Only Mostly Devastated by Sophie Gonzales
ISBN: 1444956485
Published by Hachette, Hodder & Stoughton
on 2020-03-03
Genres: Young Adult, Contemporary
Pages: 281
Source: Hachette Publishing NZ
Find at Hachette NZ
Goodreads

When Ollie meets his dream guy, Will, over summer break, he thinks he’s found his Happily Ever After. But once summer’s ended, Will stops texting him back, and Ollie finds himself one prince short of a fairytale ending. To complicate the fairytale further, a family emergency sees Ollie uprooted and enrolled at a new school across the country—Will’s school—where Ollie finds that the sweet, affectionate and 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. But as Will starts ‘coincidentally’ popping up in every area of Ollie’s life, from music class to the lunch table, 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.

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My thoughts on Only Mostly Devastated

Sophie Gonzales isn’t an author I’ve read before, but with the promise that if I like Simon Vs the Homo-sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli then I’d like this book, I was looking forward to reading it. But did it live up to that statement, paired with being a re-imagining of Grease?

It did.

When a classic summer flings takes an interesting turn, Will and Ollie end up in the same school, but not all is like those long summer days anymore. As Ollie tries to fit into the new school, tries to make new friends, helps look after a sick aunt by baby sitting her children/the cousins, Will isn’t as open to continuing their relationship as Ollie is. The story follows them as the work through what life after summer-break looks like, as well as family drama, high school and all that comes with, and navigating what it’s like to be a teen in love.

“It’ll get easier. That’s the beautiful thing about the universe. It puts you through trials, but it never gives you anything you can’t handle. We grow from these things.”

In many ways it was your classic Young Adult romance novel. Teens meet, fall in love, but oh no something/s happen and it’s not all roses, but don’t worry, it all works out in the end. It was very predictable, but that worked okay for this story I think. I really enjoyed reading Only Mostly Devastated and managed to read it in just a few hours. The side-characters were your classic American high school stereotypes, with a few additional surprises and twists thrown in to zhoosh it up a little bit.

I remember reading the description long before I read Only Mostly Devastated and looking forward to the ‘re-imagining of Grease’ aspect of it, but by the time I managed to pick up this book I had forgotten that detail so wasn’t really paying attention to any similarities. I only remembered when writing up this review, so I’ve been trying to think back to the story to see if it did actually feel like Grease or not. In hindsight, it did a little bit. There was this two-sides, two-worlds colliding type vibe, the girls and the guys, the summer-loving-happened-so-fast idea … but when I was reading it, it didn’t feel to Grease-like. Which may be good, or that may be bad. I’ll let you decide when you read it.

Overall, I did like this story by Sophie Gonzales. It was a fun quick read at only 281 pages, and a cute YA read.

Have you read Only Mostly Devastated? What did you think?

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I received this book from Hachette NZ in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my thoughts, and all opinions are my own.