More a 3.5.

From the bestselling author of Dear Martin comes a new story of old friendships, new crushes and the path to self-discovery and it’s good.

It’s a realistic book, and the characters really do feel like they connect together throughout this book, Jupe’s and Coop’s relationship is a really well built one that works well in this book and the building plot between the two allows for the two characters to work well in this book.

Though I’m not a fan of the writing style within this book and certain things that are put in this book (the biphobia for example, I don’t feel is really called out in this book at all for example) the plot does feel like it could happen in this book in a high school even though I feel like this book could have explored so much more (looking at you polyamory).

It’s a great book with a strong YA story that has a pretty feel good ending.

I have complicated feelings about this book. Odd One Out was my first read by Nic Stone and it sounded like a fun and diverse contemporary and I’m all here for that. If I had a great time reading it overall, I also had some issues with it.

Told from three point of views in three different parts, Odd One Out alternates between Courtney, a straight black teenager in love with his best friend, Jupiter ; Rae, a biracial Korean/Irish teenager new to the city and questioning her sexuality ; and Jupiter, a biracial black character with two dads, who is into girls. I absolutely loved the diverse cast of this book and how each of them had their own, individual voices thorough the book. I enjoyed them all – I feel like I could relate a bit more and find bits of myself in Rae, but I also really liked Courtney’s voice. I had some issues with Jupiter, though, where some of her actions infuriated me a little bit, to be honest. I also had a small issue with her chapters’ writing, where the narration switched from “you” to “I”.

One thing I appreciated about this book is how complex it was: it showed the complexities of relationships, sexuality, feelings, it deals with labels and talks about how confusing it can be and how it’s okay to be questioning it, to change, to grow, too and I appreciated that so much, because we really need these kind of books.

All of that being said, I had some issues with the way things were handled in this pretty complex love triangle. I had so much trouble with Jupiter’s attitude and her actions at times, though I could try to understand it, I just… I had trouble with it all. I’m not going to expand too much on other points, regarding some biphobia and some lines that just felt wrong and just, never called-out. On that topic, I’d invite you to read Destiny’s review of Odd One Out (https://howlinglibraries.com/2018/10/13/odd-one-out/), as well as Kathy’s review of the book (https://booksandmunches.com/2018/10/22/review-odd-one-out/), too. Both reviews are #ownvoices reviews regarding the bisexual aspects of the story and their point of views and issues on that book are important to read, too 🙂

Overall, Odd One Out was still a book I enjoyed reading – it was a quick, entertaining read and I liked the questioning rep a lot, too, but I unfortunately can’t close my eyes on some issues and therefore can’t rate it higher.

Odd One Out is a coming-of-age story which explores friendship, love and self-discovery. Through her telling of the story, Nic Stone triumphs with her representation of race and sexuality, the complex nature of discovering who we truly are and the reality that is the fluidity of labels.

Courtney and Jupiter have been best friends for years. From the outset, we learn that Coop feels something more in spite of Jupiter’s attraction to girls. However, circumstances grow to become more cumbersome when Jupiter’s new best friend Rae comes to dinner. Not before long, two becomes three and the group dynamic shifts. Attractions blossom and soon, we have what is the epitome of the complicated love triangle. Oh how it was riveting to read. Friendships turn into crushes, crushes turn into secrets and secrets ultimately lead to heartbreak, tension and betrayal.

Stone seamlessly writes from each of the characters’ perspectives, the three of them endowed with their own distinctive character traits. Courtney the big shot basketballer with a heart of gold, Rae the walking-talking dictionary, and Jupiter the Freddy Mercury super fan. They’re raw, real and relatable. Even Coop’s two best guy pals Brit and Golly charmed me with their witty one liners and cool-boy idiolects.

‘now I can feel a wave of crap-I-have-to-fix-it word vomit roiling in my gut.’

This is one messy story. Nonetheless, this chaos encapsulates the reality of attraction and the confusing nature of labels. Stone portrays characters’ feelings so well that it reminds me of how stressful crushes can be: the mind games, the overthinking, the ‘what if’s.

Reading this story, you will be in a perpetual state of confliction. All the characters are so loveable that you’ll want them all to be happy. However, in this story, things don’t always go as hoped. There’s love, there’s loss, there’s heartbreak moments to heart-warming scenes. It’s messy and it’s true.

You’ll be gripped to the pages as you anticipate how the dynamic will pan out. This book truly is for everyone. It’s witty, relevant and perfectly explores the frustrating path of self-discovery. I couldn’t recommend this more!

Thanks to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster UK for providing me with an eARC to read this in exchange for an honest review.

This was … disappointing.

Don't get me wrong: Odd One Out is easily one of the most diverse and honest books I've ever read. I was so excited to read about these three protagonists of colour, two of which are questioning their sexual identities. And there's so much important stuff in this book – about labels especially, how sometimes you might choose a label for yourself that doesn't fit anymore when you learn more about yourself, and how this can be pretty terrifying.

On the other hand … the author tried to do too much in one book. In only 300 pages, three stories are told. Even though their lives are intricately intertwined, Courtney, Jupiter and Rae are still very different from each other, come from different backgrounds and struggle with different issues, and for a hundred pages each, we're stuck in their heads. But it never felt like I really got to know them. It was just messy, always and for ever so very messy, and I couldn't shake the feeling that all the drama could've been lessened, if not resolved, had they just talked to each other. (Seriously, though – why is no one talking to each other e v e r.) I always felt like their friendship – which was described as a pretty big, intimate thing – wasn't really genuine, because they kept lying to each other, or at the very least omitting pretty much all their true feelings. The side characters and families were two-dimensional at best, and I struggled to keep them apart.

While I loved the book for talking openly about identity struggles and sexuality in general, and while it did have some good moments, in the end it was just not enough. The plot fell flat, the characters fell flat, at times it felt uncomfortably preachy, and at the end … I was caught between "It's finally over" and "I'm already forgetting the names of the characters". Odd One Out is diverse, and quirky, and I quite like the resolution, but apart from that, it was rather unsatisfactory. 2.5 stars.

A beautifully written story/book. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.
Thank you to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster UK for giving me the opportunity to read Odd One Out in exchange for my honest unbiased review.

I really enjoyed reading Dear Martin a lot, so when I saw Odd One Out was up for reviewing, I immediately went for it.
Again, I was pleasantly surprised. The story flows beautifully while it combats some very modern issues. Nic Stone really understands well what is living today and knows how to portray this into words.