The Exact Opposite of Okay by Laura Steven | Book Review
Hey guys, I really, REALLY loved this book and I’m so excited to share my review with you. It’s out now, so make sure you grab a copy! If you’ve already read it, remember to leave your review on retail sites like Amazon!
“Bitches bite back. And men hate that. Society hates that.” – Laura Steven, The Exact Opposite of Okay
The Exact Opposite of Okay by Laura Steven is an eye-opening look into people’s capacity to destroy one another. It explores themes of revenge porn, friendship-zones, entitled boys, trust, victim blaming, slut shaming and so much more. I captures it so well, but it’s not a heavy read, Izzy’s narration is funny and this book had me laughing whilst I was angry on her behalf. I’m pretty sure most women reading this (and a lot of men) will relate to some aspects from their teenage years.
I got to meet Laura at YALC 2017 and snap the pic below. She was SO sweet! I’m so glad I loved her book.
The Exact Opposite of Okay by Laura Steven Published by Electric Monkey on March 8th 2018
Genres: Young Adult
Pages: 352
Goodreads
Izzy O’Neill is an aspiring comic, an impoverished orphan, and a Slut Extraordinaire. Or at least, that’s what the malicious website flying round the school says. Izzy can try all she wants to laugh it off – after all, her sex life, her terms – but when pictures emerge of her doing the dirty with a politician’s son, her life suddenly becomes the centre of a national scandal. Izzy’s never been ashamed of herself before, and she’s not going to start now. But keeping her head up will take everything she has...
Gosh I loved loved LOVED The Exact Opposite of Okay so much, five stars! I stayed up until 4am to finish it and I was reeling when I finished it. I really think this book is going to sing to a lot of people. In this day and age it’s so easy for the things that happened to Izzie to happen to someone. We all have the capacity to do ‘scandalous’ things, but when we see someone else out in the open who’s done something ‘scandalous’ we all get on our high horse and judge. It’s ridiculous and damaging. How can we shame someone for something that’s natural and that many people have also done?
This book also explores this ridiculous notion of the ‘friend-zone’. Gah I hate that trope so much – butt hurt boys who can’t take no for an answer. Who only want to be a part of our lives if they’re in our pants. Laura also explores this notion that people (men often) have where they dote on someone, give them attention, gifts, compliments, support they never asked for… and then get upset/angry when the girl gets creeped out by it. It happens. It’s happened very recently in my circles and honestly it’s just not okay, at all. If someone EVER makes you feel uncomfortable, even if on the surface they’re just being ‘nice’, tell someone, seek help, block them, do what you need to do. We’re all here for each other.
Real talk – I think when I was a teen, I was sometimes flirty with guys I wasn’t interested in because I knew if they were solidly in the ‘friend-zone’ they’d drop me. That’s sad. That’s awful. But it was the only way if I wanted to keep my friends. This book really made me think about that.
I laughed, I cried and I got angry. The best kind of book? You need to pick this up and see for yourself. The sad truth is that these events happen in real life. They do. Girls suffer all the time from it and it needs to be stopped!
“A raw, feminist read that will get your blood boiling whilst you laugh and cry” – Jenniely
I love the structure of The Exact Opposite of Okay! It’s told in a diary entry/blog post format, which was super interesting. It really puts you into the mind of Izzie. It made me a bit twitchy to think of how honest she is on her online blog – there’s no way I’d have had the courage to do that. I’m always careful of what I say and I guess this book explores the reason for it, in a way. We are taken through a journey of realisations by Izzie, that the world is not a safe place. Her actions have consequences, even if they aren’t the ones we would expect or hope for.
It was fast paced and driven, making you desperate to find out what was happening and why.
Usually I do a bit of a review of each character, but I really don’t want to spoil any of this book. So I’m going to do a bit of an overview of the characters.
They are well written, raw and relatable (most of them) and they develop as the book goes on. I’d like to think I was a bit like Izzie when I was younger, tenacious and funny – trying my hand at writing, but I could just be looking back with wishful thinking.
Izzie is funny and full of hilarious one liners, such as the wonderful: “What, pray tell, the fuck?”
The friendships are real and difficult. They’re not this farcical girly best friendship that we often seen in YA, it’s difficult and they have to work to overcome it. I can really see myself in this book, and can see other people in it too. I think it speaks to a lot of young women.
The picture above was taken at YALC and honestly gave me so many laughs. I originally read it as ‘I’d rather have Legs for Fingers’ and honestly me and my other half laugh about it to this day!
If you’ve read The Exact Opposite of Okay, let’s chat? It was such an amazing book I need more people to talk to about it! One thing we need to take from it is that us girls need to stick together. When sh*t goes down, support one another. Don’t be afraid to reach out. Really and truly, I’m here if you’re ever going through anything difficult that you don’t know who to talk to about. I’ll try my best.
Bitches Bite Back!
10 Comments
I loved this book! It was so nice to read something that wasn’t narrative, and was blog posts!
Yeah I loved that aspect of it 😁
Can’t wait to read this one… !!!
It comes out tomorrow 😁
It’s actually not available on Kindle Store in US.. I’m not sure when I ll b able to get it…😔😔
This sounds like such an important book. I like that it’s written in diary form. I’m definitely going to be checking this one out! Great review! 🙂
This sounds really cool! Almost like The Nowhere Girls by Amy Reed!
I need to read that! I own it but not read it year haha
I have heard SUCH great things about this book. It would be an interesting read 🙂 and so relevant of the times. It’s a problem a lot of teens face now, probably – a problem my generation didn’t really have, because it wasn’t as easy to screw someone over on the internet.
Love your pic, BTW 😀
Fantastic review 🙂
I think the friendships were my favourite part of TEOOO although it was generally shouty awesome.
Cora | http://www.teapartyprincess.co.uk/