Synopsis:
Overemotional is the first book in a wholesome queer YA fantasy trilogy packed with magic, loveable characters and big plot twists. Perfect for fans of TJ Klune, Rainbow Rowell and Adam Silvera.
Sometimes, emotions can be a little too powerful…
Seventeen-year-old Steven has a big problem… Whenever he feels intense emotions, weird things happen. Like when he kissed a boy for the first time, and the boy’s head literally exploded.
Fleeing to the miserable town of Grunsby-on-Sea, Steven is determined to not hurt anyone else – but he doesn’t count on his best friend Freya, her boyfriend Marcus and American friend Troy following him. And when agents from the mysterious DEMA organisation show up talking about “neutralisation”, Steven realises that Grunsby-on-Sea might not be the safe haven he’d hoped for…
Review:
I’m not sure what I was expecting this book to be but it absolutely was not what I got. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but I’m struggling to choose a rating for this book. The notes I took while reading were mostly about parts I didn’t like (which is what happens for 90% of the books I read). I didn’t hate this book though, it was a decent read, but I do have a few negatives to get out of the way first.
Freya’s first chapter does not make her very likeable. It’s great that she, somehow, tracked down her best friend to make sure he’s ok, but what’s not ok is her trying to get him to confirm his sexuality. This is what she thinks, thankfully she doesn’t say it out loud to him because that would be rude as hell “Classic Percy. Every time I bring up his sexuality, he changes the subject. Let’s review the evidence: One: he has never had a girlfriend nor shown any interest in a girl. Two: he is very well put together…well, usually. Three: over the years, I have watched him get attached to one pretty boy after another and follow them around like a shadow until they turn out to be pricks. And four: he’s always Princess Peach in Mario Kart. That might’ve been so I had to be a short Italian plumber, but it’s pretty damning evidence to me. If he can come out of the closet about his powers, you’d think he could come out of the actual closet too.”
The characters in Overemotional speak like they are much younger than 17/18. The fact that they look so young on the cover doesn’t help either. I thought they were all like 13/14 at most when I picked this up. “He could be a professional smiler or compete in the Smiling Olympics.” is just one of the instances when they sound like children. Steven says this about an older guy he met who then kisses him – that really took me by surprise as the older guy’s age is never determined, I thought he was in his 30’s.
Then other times they talk like they’re old people “And even if someone were trapped in here with provisions, they would have died of starvation sometime around Thatcher’s second term.” I find it hard to believe that someone born in 2003 would reference Margaret Thatcher so casually. I have a feeling this was done to make Freya seem like the ‘wise’ one of the group.
Flipping between characters multiple times during one chapter is a little much. At one point it goes from Troy observing Marcus being upset about his car, to Marcus saying one sentence about how upset he is about his car then back to Troy again. I’d probably enjoy this more, as it feels like I’m getting through chapters quickly, if they weren’t just repeating what the other person has said or done.
I was thinking about DNF’ing Overemotional at around 50% but then all of a sudden it got quite interesting. I do think over halfway through is too late to introduce the laboratory and Leech creature. Especially as before this, no real plot or tension is really built other than them getting chased by a random woman in the amusements. I liked learning about Steven’s powers but the discovery of the lab really elevated this story for me.
After this, I was completely hooked on Overemotional. I needed to know what was going on and why this town was so strange. Thankfully, you do get all an explanation but I’m not sure where another book in this series would go.
Also, this book and series is described as ‘wholesome’ but I definitely wouldn’t give it that label. Freya is constantly trying to out her ‘best friend’, illegal experimentation is a huge part of the story, kidnapping, torture and eugenics are also just a few of the horrific things that take place. So I don’t think it deserves to be called wholesome and should probably come with some content warnings.
I included this book in my November wrap up before I’d written my review. Turns out I didn’t like this book as much as I thought I did. I try not to be too harsh to debut novels as publishing a book is an incredible feat, but this wasn’t the book for me.
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