Review: Summer of Supernovas by Darcy Woods

Summer of Supernovas

Author: Darcy Woods

Release: May 10th 2016

Genre: Contemporary, YA

Plot:

When zodiac-obsessed teen Wilamena Carlisle discovers a planetary alignment that won’t repeat for a decade, she’s forced to tackle her greatest astrological fear: The Fifth House—relationships and love. 

But when Wil falls for a sensitive guitar player hailing from the wrong side of the astrology chart, she must decide whether a cosmically doomed love is worth rejecting her dead mother’s legacy and the very system she’s faithfully followed through a lifetime of unfailing belief. 

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Review:

I wanted to like this, I really, really did. And I think I could have, had it not been so peppered with clichés at literally every freaking corner of the damn book. I was smothered by them, you see.

One thing I did really enjoy was the narrative and the writing style. It definitely had character and it mirrored Wilamena's personality quite well, it was funny and charismatic and simply nice. The metaphors were absolutely stunning and poetic. 

And I also sort of liked the protagonist too, I guess. She wasn't flawless and we could definitely see that, which I always appreciate in a well-written character. However, she was a bit on the shallow side and I feel like she definitely could have been fleshed out more, especially because she always makes this dramatic, big deal out of her past because her mother died but that's all that is tragic about her past. Boo hoo. And it's not really better with the other characters because the male lead, Grant, also has tragic, dark secrets from the times before Wilamena, so does her best friend Irina, and so on. Not to mention that the love triangle is between two brothers and Wil. Can you even get any more clichéd than that?

Also, I didn't really like the romances. And then I also did. You see, the thing that bugged me the entire time was the fact that the whole novel takes place within, like, a month. So about three to four weeks, and in that short amount of time, both of the Walker boys fall head over heels in love with Wil and so much so that she's literally all they think about, all they want etc, it completely changes them somehow, this all encompassing love they have for her even though they've known her for approximately two fucking days before they begin sprouting this nonsense about these big feelings for her. It made me SO mad, because I hate rushed stuff. Because honestly, otherwise, I didn't even mind the romances that much. I think the kiss scenes were extremely well-written and the relationships Wil had with either of the boys was cute and chaste and sweet in their own ways. We could have had it all, but I guess it wasn't supposed to be. 

In the end, it was an okay novel. I did enjoy it for the most parts, but aside from the above mentioned problematics, there's also the fact that there's lots of slut-shaming in here and at one point asexuality is considered to be "a medical condition," like??? Where do you get off? I feel like this was a desperate attempt to smush as many stereotypes that teenagers are apparently into in one novel and see how it sells, more or less. Sure, like I said, it also had its good parts, but they sadly didn't outweigh the bad ones.