I am BI!!!
I was up for a fun read when I picked up The Brightsiders. I was hoping for something light and fun, but it wasn’t really. It was more of a dramatic story.
Book Review: The Brightsiders by Jen Wilde
Rating:
Title & Author: The Brightsiders by Jen Wilde
Genre: Contemporary, Romance
Release date: May 22 2018
Series: Standalone
Publisher: Swoon Reads
Synopsis
A teen rockstar has to navigate family, love, coming out, and life in the spotlight after being labeled the latest celebrity trainwreck in Jen Wilde’s quirky and utterly relatable novel.
As a rock star drummer in the hit band The Brightsiders, Emmy King’s life should be perfect. But there’s nothing the paparazzi love more than watching a celebrity crash and burn. When a night of partying lands Emmy in hospital and her girlfriend in jail, she’s branded the latest tabloid train wreck.
Luckily, Emmy has her friends and bandmates, including the super-swoonworthy Alfie, to help her pick up the pieces of her life. She knows hooking up with a band member is exactly the kind of trouble she should be avoiding, and yet Emmy and Alfie Just. Keep. Kissing.
Will the inevitable fallout turn her into a clickbait scandal (again)? Or will she find the strength to stand on her own?
I give The Brightsiders by Jen Wilde three out of five reads because it wasn’t as much fun and light as I had wished for or what the back suggested.
Emmy is a curious girl, she is bi but nobody knows. She doesn’t know how to tell her band/friends or her fans. She goes with a girl who is completely wrong for her, the girl makes Emmy pay for everything and messes the girl up. Makes her the train wreck she never wanted to be. Only after she really starts looking at what she wants and where she wants to go she chooses the right things.
I got annoyed with the characters of Alfie, is still don’t know whether it is a boy or a girl. And soon started to blur together with other characters. I can’t remember whether Alfie was the person that wanted to be called ‘they’ or if it was someone else. They do a lot for Emmy, but when those two get together there is a lot of kissing involved.
The rest of the band is a bit in the background. I know that Emmy also has a sister who cares for her, where her parents are also only out for her money.
I literally feel this novel is a book on how not to party and have lgbtq relationships. Emmy comes out at some point and then the whole story starts to revolve around that fact and she gets everything she wants. I got the impression the novel tries to instill confidence in young women, but it is mostly tell them ‘you first have to fuck up bad, then everything will be okay and you will get everything you want.’ Not a thing I would want to teach my kids.
Overall I think the story has potential but it wasn’t the greatest execution. I barely cared for this novel and really wanted it done.
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For now, let books enrich your life!