This book is one of the best books I’ve read in a long time. It’s so rich, but subtle. It’s very insightful too. Nic Stone always delivers!
It’s a must read.

This book is ok, its a little messy for my taste but I feel like the message it was trying to give is very important. I just didn't love the execution. That being said I do love the authors other work and I would recommend giving it a read.

There are lots of really great aspects of this novel in terms of diversity and representation - and some not so great, bi-erasure/phobia being one of the most concerning. Also, worthy issues aside, the story itself, while compelling, does verge on the ridiculous at points. It's basically a love triangle with added sexual identity issues. However, it is written in a way that is less 'young people grappling with emerging sexuality' and more 'horny teens perving on/groping each other'. There are also a few other things that make the scenario just outside the range of my suspension of disbelief. The twists and the tension did keep me reading but it all got a little overcooked at the end and the momentum dissipated. For all the plot's messiness, the wrap-up seemed too simplistic, predictable, rushed and flat. For me, I was left with the feeling that this was nowhere near as progressive and insightful as it thought it was. Entertaining but far from perfect in terms of the issues it juggled.

Unfortunately I no longer wish to review this book as the first few chapters did not reel me in. Thank you for the opportunity.

This was a great story with a slow burn romance between the 3 main characters. We get to know the characters personalities straight away so it’s easy to read about these likeable characters.

Themes - teenage relationships, sexuality, families
Likes - realistic speech/narration (clear difference for each of the main characters), parents aren't conveniently absent
Dislikes - lack of communication
Other - diverse (sexuality, ethnicity, parents), slightly weird mystery element, interesting chapter titles

Odd One Out is told through three perspectives: Courtney who is in love with his lesbian best friend, Jupiter. New girl Rae who kind of loves both of them, and Jupiter who thinks she likes Rae but really likes Courtney.

One of the things I didn't like was the way Courtney appeared to have a sense of ownership over Jupiter as if, despite her being unobtainable, she is meant to be his

Thank you to NetGalley, Simon and Schuster UK Children's and Nic Stone for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I would like to thank the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for a review.
I will be honest, this has been on my netgalley shelf for some time now but I ended up falling behind on ARCS, so I am having to refrain from requesting new ones until I am up to date.

This novel is told in 3 different sections and 3 different characters perspectives.

Courtney “Coop” Cooper
Dumped. Again. And normally I wouldn’t mind. But right now, my best friend and source of solace, Jupiter Sanchez, is ignoring me to text some girl.

Rae Evelyn Chin
I assumed “new girl” would be synonymous with “pariah,” but Jupiter and Courtney make me feel like I’m right where I belong. I also want to kiss him. And her. Which is . . . perplexing.

Jupiter Charity-Sanchez
The only thing worse than losing the girl you love to a boy is losing her to your boy. That means losing him, too. I have to make a move. . . .

One story.
Three sides.
No easy answers.

*Yes I did have to borrow that from Goodreads.

Ok so, I wanted to give this a higher rating, the internal suffering that both Rae and Jupiter were going through was actually heart breaking. I could see this being something that many adolescents could relate to.

But I did have to drop it to a 3 because I just could not agree with Coop being “in love” with his best friend despite knowing she wasn’t interested in the male gender.
It is one thing to have a crush and then find out that you aren’t their type, but to constantly fantasise about her is creepy.
I myself have had a crush on someone but when he came out and started openly dating men, I didn’t continue to think “oh well maybe one day he’ll change his mind”.

My favourite perspective to read from was definitely Jupiter’s, she was so well written, and you could see just how much she was struggling with her feelings, especially after labelling herself as one sexuality for so long, it was very realistic to see the confusion she was feeling and then the worry about how people would react towards her.

Sexuality definitely isn’t black and white, and I am so glad that Jupiter spoke up for herself and tried to explain her decision to her peers.

They definitely weren’t all perfect friends, there was a lot of leading each other on, lying to each other, using one and other, but they did manage to come out the other side better people (I’m not condoning their actions and wouldn’t recommend following in their footsteps).

This is definitely a coming of age story that I think people of all ages could relate to, even when thinking back to their own teen years.

I'd read Dear Martin and desperately wanted to read another book by this author! I was not let down!

Some key points I'd like to note;
- Once again you see things in a different light, and the author is able to do that in such an effective way
- All of the diversity!
- I love this writing style, it's just so easy to read
- The characters, MY GOD I loved them!

Overall I really did enjoy this.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing an Arc!

I honestly loved this book. I found it really insightful about how fluid things such as sexuality and relationships can be. About how as more people open up and talk, the lines people follow can jump and change and you shouldn't be ashamed about who you are and who you love. The literal love triangle was something that showed me how complicated something as significant as love can truly be, especially when growing up in a time when you are still trying to find yourself. One thing that did throw me a bit was the split narrative, not that it was a bad thing, but I sometimes forgot who's point of view I was reading! I think I was far too engrossed!

A lovely, reassuring book for anyone who's ever felt like labels don't fit their sexuality. Much needed and important for some teens out there, no doubt. The characters were well rounded and distinct from one another and all the POC representation as well as the LGBT representation was wonderful.

There was a lot of focus on the relationships between the characters and it was the best part of the book as it was properly fleshed out and done well, with humour and warmth that made it feel realistic.

It was light on angst despite the premise being that of a love triangle, which was refreshing. There was a lot of discussion of sexuality and it was all very self aware, especially Jupiter's point of view. I did enjoy Coop's inner voice most of the three though.

This was a bit of a messy book for me. I don’t really like love triangles especially not when they’re the central focus of the novel, but this seemed different with people questioning their sexuality, etc, so I was willing to see where Nic Stone went with this. It seems wrong to say it was over the top, but it kind of felt that way.

I also didn’t like the way some of the characters talk - a white boy using the word “dawg” every sentence is just embarrassing. My internal self just cringed is every time. And the fact Coop let him was just daft.

I’ve heard amazing things about Nic Stone and her writing, and her debut novel was so well received but this one just fell flat for me I’m afraid.

It was messy but I feel like the message it was trying to give is very important. I just didn't love the execution.

This is a book about how complicated it is to navigate personhood, relationships, past trauma, identity, social pressure, and basically everything else you might find yourself having to deal with in addition to your daily life as a teen. Books like this are the reason I, in my mid twenties, love reading YA. Because sometimes this "typically teenage" struggle doesn't stop, or (some of it) is delayed until later, and seeing things through the eye of a teen can be both refreshing and healing.

We get three point of views in this book, not in alternating chapters but in three blocks. I wasn't sure about this choice at the beginning but it ended up being both the best and worst thing about the book.

🐣 Courtney "Coop" Cooper - Black teen in love with his best friend, deals with past trauma and loss, intends to keep a promise he made as a kid even though it seems impossible that the conditions will ever be right for that to happen.

🐣 Rae Evelyn Chin - biracial white/Asian new girl at school, people-pleaser, abandonment issues, not as straight as she thought.

🐣 Jupiter Charity-Sanchez - Black out and proud lesbian, adopted daughter of two dads, caught between new and old friendship, number one fan of Queen.

First off, I thought that the POVs served their part of the story well, they also were distinct enough and didn't feel like an excuse to reveal things that the previous POV character didn't know. But as things got messy (more on this later), I couldn't help but feel that, a) I liked each POV less than the previous one; b) things had to be told instead of shown, and I couldn't detect character agency for the previous characters.

Every main non-POV character felt like a plot device that served the current POV character. It was as if only because the focus had shifted on someone else, the other two's ambitions and personalities were forgotten.

By the third and last POV, having previously been in the head of the other two POV characters, I couldn't recognize their actions as their own and they felt only driven by what Jupiter wanted, and worst of all, most of it was just for the sake of drama. Now look, I know everyone makes bad choices and I'm not against that at all. I feel like I need to point this out because I'm aware that there's a tendency to be less forgiving of POC characters as opposed to white ones when they do shitty things. But their actions, combined with the fact that the only POV I was reading from at that point wasn't giving me any reason to sympathize with any of them, made it really hard to enjoy reading the last third of the book, as opposed to the first one which made me laugh and love Courtney so much.

It's kind of hard to explain myself without spoilering anything so I'll leave it that: this book got messier and messier and if you're easily frustrated it could affect your enjoyment by a pretty big factor

A list of things I didn't like paired with things I did like:

• I think having two questioning queer people in one YA book is amazing. The questioning queerness was the strongest point of this book and the reason despite all of its flaws this is a three star for me.

○ While it's great to have different people question and explore their sexuality in different ways, some of the surrounding queerness (in side characters) was sometimes something that didn't sit well with me. For example, a lesbian girl says she doesn't mess with bisexual girls who have "touched the D" or something like that. This is something that might be called out later but not right away and I didn't see the point of this. Another example of something that was personally a bit hurtful to see was the assumption from Jupiter's part that every girl who wanted to "experiment" with her was actually straight. For being so openly against heteronormativity, she sure assumed that straight is the norm.

• The talk about labels came late but it was powerful and important enough to somewhat fix that ending for me. Labels can change and it can be scary to change them or to go without for a bit, regardless of your experiences with your previous labels.

○ This might be me overthinking things, but at some point I felt like a correlation was made between being attracted to one specific gender through attraction to their genitalia, and even discovering said attraction because of uhh...having seen their genitals. This felt cisnormative and I think too much focus was put on body parts.

• All books need as many Queen references as this one.

○ This is not exactly a thing I didn't like (at least until some point) but I need to point out that this is a love triangle, and not the best one I've read, but it's a love triangle among queer teens of color, which is something that I'm glad got its own spot in YA.

So overall, would I recommend this book? It depends on what you're looking for and your tastes (who would have thought?!), and I hope my review gave you an idea whether you might like this or not.

Odd One Out was a complicated novel to rate for me, to say the least.
I am incredibly torn. On one hand, I enjoyed the book despite it going against my every expectations. On the other, I kind of wanted to tear my hair out at some of the scenes, biphobic phrasing and awkward wording.
I don't know if it's Cassandra Clare's influence or what, but I felt like this was going in a polyamorous direction (which I would honestly have loved because I think it's about time YA explores this instead of NA's attempts to turn it into the sex-craze of the century).
So, while I loved the aspect of questioning your sexuality in this story, I also felt a bit baited by the synopsis, like it was lying to get me to read this book? There are also some transphobic comments and biphobia moments that I take serious issue with and that I just - cringed at. Not to mention some of the wording when it came to arousal - "strangeness down in my secret place" reminded me very uncomfortably of Fifty Shades of Grey, so that chapter was a goner for me.
While I enjoyed Jupiter and Coop's perspectives most of the time, Rae just wasn't my cup of tea. But hey, that's not unusual for multiple PoV, there are always some you don't connect with. I did love Coop, though. He was a funy, kind of boy next door character that had his own charm.

All in all, this book was nice but I wouldn't necessarily recommend it to teens who are questioning their sexuality. I do think we need more rep for that in books, but this one had some harmful messages especially concerning being attracted to trans people that I just don't feel are conducive to the whole biphobia problem in our society.

I absolutely loved 'Dear Martin' by Nic Stone, so I was both excited and nervous about reading 'Odd One Out': hoping it would live up to my high expectations but worried it wouldn't.  I shouldn't have worried.

Whilst this book didn't have the strong political themes of the first, it had equally important messages about sexuality and identity. It also had some fantastic characters! With the novel being told from the three perspectives, I was engaged from beginning to end.  I'm not ashamed to admit I completely fell in love with Coop from early on, and was more than once annoyed at the female characters.  But, when it got to Rae's chapter and then Jupiter's, I was obviously given a greater understanding of where they were coming from and why.  Although I still loved Coop until the very end.

I'm not a huge fan of relationship/romance based novels, but the varying perspectives of this book definitely helped sustain my interest and I would definitely recommend it.

I absolutely loved this! It felt so honest and real, and I feel like a lot of people can relate to it. At first I didn’t know what to think but the multiple perspectives definitely added to the story!

I loved Dear Martin, so I hoped that Odd One Out would be equally as great. Unfortunately, I don’t think it is.

While I do think the book does a good job of showing how confused some people are about their sexuality, and there are some funny moments, I think there were a number of problems too. The biggest issue is there are both bi and transphobic comments made, and what could be a teachable moment to show why these comments are hurtful and wrong, instead is not dealt with at all. For a book with LGBT characters it’ very disappointing.

I think the way Nic Stone gave the 3 different characters very different voices was brilliantly done. You could instantly get into the head of the character.

To everyone who's sick and tired of the old overused love triangle trope: stop right there, and pick up this book.

I hate love triangles. They're usually pointless and I don't care if the Chosen-One-heroine chooses the Bad-Boy-with-a-dark-past-and-a-heart-of-gold or the Geeky-Best-Friend-who-was-in-love-with-her-the-whole-time-but-she-was-too-oblivious-to-notice. And this is why I love Nic Stone: her books are modern. She reinvents the love triangle trope, and not just because it's bisexual, but also because all of the characters involved are equal in the plot, and mostly because the triangle is relevant. It's not just about romance, suspense, drama, or anything. Odd One Out is about fitting in, with the others, with your friends, with your family, and the three characters all wonder: "What if the other two get together? How will it impact my place in our group? Will they shut me out? Or be a third wheel?" There's an actual question that will resonate with a lot of teens and adults alike because who has never felt out of place before?

There aren't a lot of questioning characters that I know of, so I'm very glad this book had two. It can be pretty tough, not being able to figure yourself out, and I thought it was handled really well. Of course, I realized why when I read the author's note. I'm very grateful Nic Stone allowed us to see this part of her. Regardless of their sexuality, she crafts endearing characters and I loved them, even (and especially) Brit and Golly. I love me some dudes supporting their "brahs" and I want friends like this, gosh! They're so kind, they give great and honest advice, they support, they don't judge, ... Courtney, Rae and Jupiter are so, so lucky to have them.

I did notice two things I was a bit disappointed about: the first one is Rae, in the sense that she didn't really get to find her place with her family. There was the occasion but it didn't really happen and I felt like it was a missed opportunity to show another group in which she was questioning her place. The other thing was the ending, because I felt one of them had been a bit left out to be the "odd one out". I also need to mention a biphobic comment from a side character that doesn't get challenged. I wish Jupiter had at least thought it wasn't right.

But in the end, it's a very solid book and I'm glad I read it. It confirms Nic Stone is a skilled writer and I'm looking forward to reading whatever she writes next.

Thank you so much to Simon and Schuster UK and Netgalley for allowing me to read this book!

In Nic Stone's latest, we meet Courtney, Jupiter and Rae, three friends who have got a lot to figure out. About each other and about themselves.

One story. Three sides. No easy answers.

Feels sorta cliche to say, but this definitely is a book I wish I had when I was younger. It was real. It was messy. Sometimes it was Real Messy. And I loved every bit of it.

Courtney Cooper and Jupiter Sanchez have been both best friends and neighbours since they were both seven years old. Despite his efforts to hide it, he can't help being hopelessly in love with Jupiter. But a relationship with her is not on the cards and Jupiter has been out of the closet for almost as long as she has known Courtney. When new girl Rae Chin moves to town Courtney thinks he's finally found a girl to fall for that isn't Jupiter. The only problem is, Jupiter is falling for Rae too.

I read Nic's other book Dear Martin earlier this year and absolutely loved it, so, to say I was excited to read Odd One Out would be an understatement. After reading the synopsis I was raring to get into it. However, I don't know if it was because I set my expectations high or not, but this book fell flat for me.

The diversity in Odd One Out was something that I really did enjoy. As someone who is always on the look out for books featuring LGBTQ+ characters and people of colour I was instantly impressed with this. Our three main protagonists were all characters from different ethnicities, and two of them were each questioning their sexualities (which was probably the most realistic thing in this book). There was also some emphasis on labelling yourself. What happens when you realise that the label you chose for yourself doesn't fit who you are anymore? And what if you don't even want to stick a label on who you are? All really important stuff that can tie into real life today.

However, the diversity was probably the only thing that I did enjoy about Odd One Out. I felt that the author tried to fit so much into 300 pages that I couldn't get to know the characters all that well and also, because of this the plot also suffered if truth be told. The plot, in my opinion was rushed and very underwhelming. I thought one of the main plots was going to be about Courtney and Rae's adventure but this was soon forgotten about.

The story itself is told through three POVs of Courtney, Rae and Jupiter. Normally I would love multiple POVs but because everything seemed so rushed I just couldn't appreciate it. Despite being stuck in the minds of these characters for approximately 100 pages each, I never felt like I got to know them all that well - as previously stated. The drama between all three of them was very messy, and could have been resolved if they had all just talked to each other about their feelings. This did make for pretty hard reading. If I was going to say who's POV I liked the most I would probably say Rae - she felt like the most realistic character. Questioning who you are if something that we all have done so I felt like she's the character that readers would be able to relate to the most.

The writing style was also something that I struggled with, which made the reading experience rather uncomfortable. The voices of each character at times just seemed very unrealistic and at times quite cringey and at times I couldn't take it seriously. Also, there were times when action quotes were used to decipt actions such as; *cue pause*. This was quite distracting.

Despite having a fantastic emphasis on diversity, identity and the struggles teenagers face with regards to sexuality, Odd One Out really didn't deliver what I thought it was going to. The plot felt rushed, the characters just weren't fleshed out enough and overall it just felt very unrealistic. Which is such a shame as I really did want to like it.