But I found so much of it to be frustrating, especially being in this boy's head. The sister was probably the best character and I wanted an entire book from her POV.Īnyway, I found this book to be very well written in terms of narrative and characters and just general writing skill Lamar Giles is very talented. I'm trying not to spoil, but I hate the trope of 'I didn't see women as people until my female family member/mom/sister was hurt by men' and this happens twice in this book and I just so was not into it. The pastor just was horrible and never faces real consequences for his actions that were extremely harmful to the children of the congregation.

they were very obviously Black parents, but the mom was taking the son to a church where the pastor was basically abusive and got mad at Del for doing things but still didn't leave the church or even really criticize the very manipulative and dangerous pastor. Here, we're from Del's POV and one of his main friends literally bond for most of the book over the fact that they're basically scheming to get this girl to like Del. But it wasn't from the guy's POV, which I think was its saving grace. I was thinking i'm being harsh, since I love '10 Things I Hate About You' and that's its main plot. I kind of hate 'help me get the girl' plots. Then listening to the men/boys around him talk about girls and women was even more exhausting. There were so many conversations about women and telling women what to do and how women looked and just his general ideas were so irritating and frustrating. But it was just so very 'male' in a way that got on my nerves. This was very obviously written by a man for young men! And that's okay! Like, I've seen lots of women say they loved this, and I'm sure they did, because it's a great book.

He's flawed and is very much a teenage boy, but that's one of the reasons why I couldn't get into it. He was basically obsessed with this girl and would NOT leave her alone. I kind of was irritated with him in the beginning, but it grew to hatred. After 50% in, I hated Del, the main character. It breaks down topics like toxic masculinity for them in a way that isn't an info dump and seems pretty accessible.

I think it's a book that's really important for young men to read. I think this should be on reading lists and in school libraries.

I found myself frustrated that races weren't mentioned before I just decided to assume everyone was Black they talked like it and the culture was there, so it definitely worked. I love Jameer! Also the friend group is very diverse and sweet. I definitely chuckled to myself on certain lines. It's almost four in the morning and I stayed up to finish because I just had to know what was going to happen next. Argh! I have such conflicting feelings about this!

Not So Pure and Simple by Lamar Giles