Cat is a fourteen-year-old with a crush on her best friend and she’s part of the popular girls’ group at school. Which seems to imply following their leader, Siobhan, thoughtlessly and putting up with her bullying. Then Cat crushes on another girl (that part is cute), and with her opens her eyes a tiny bit. Flawed characters make for better stories and these are kids, so you can hope they’ll grow smarter and kinder, whether it’s Siobhan, who, objectively, is a pretentious bully but also one of a few who own their mistakes and apologize sincerely, or Cat. Cat is supremely annoying and self-centred, but she’s also brave and by the end, not only did I think she was sort of endearing, I was also a little in awe of her. She’s a total disaster but who isn’t at her age, and while not all fourteen-year-old kids are messes, some are and they deserve to see themselves in stories too. That said, I’m not sure I would have recommended this book to my child at that age. It may depict somewhat accurately how superficial cliques and teenagers can be but I’m not sure the ending (which I liked) makes all the second-hand embarrassment worth enduring.

I don’t know if I would have read this book to the end if I hadn’t listened to it. The narration made it easier to go through and even fun at times. I never seriously considered DNFing. From what I’ve seen, quite a few other reviewers did, whereas others loved it.

I won’t rate this book, I don’t feel like I’m in a position to. The narration deserves 4⭐️ but I’d probably rate the book itself below 3, but is it because I’m an adult? Would a fourteen-year-old lesbian enjoy reading/listening about Cat? When I read middle-grade/YA books, I read them as the adult I have become, and I review them for adult readers. I know they’re written for children and teenagers but I don’t pretend to know what children and teenagers enjoy, I don’t work with kids, I don’t interact with kids on a regular basis, I have no idea. I review YA for adults who enjoy YA. With this book, I’m out of my depth. Therefore, no rating.

Listen to Never Trust a Gemini:

Libro.fm

amazon

This post contains affiliate links, so I may earn a small commission when you make a purchase through links on this blog at no additional cost to you.