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nbabb's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
iamreadingshh's review against another edition
3.0
A lot going on in this book. Maybe too much, I ended up skimming at times.
mollyg1bbs's review against another edition
emotional
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
The Cassandra Complex follows Cassie as she travels through time to try and mend her relationships, build romantic connections, and attempt to make more sense of the world around her. It is written in a feel-good, bubblegum style that is super digestible and designed to leave you with fleeting satisfaction. It is tied up with the bow of Cassie realising her friends, family are the true things that make her life worth living. I enjoyed the exploration of Cassie's neurodivergence and it added context to her choices regarding time-travel- a desire to be seen as normal and to fit in. Ultimately what I loved about this book was the cast of side characters. As Cassie changes her behaviour as she time-travels. you get to see how each character responds. These responses were well-considered and helped form the side characters into loveable, valuable additions to the novel. I particularly liked the portrayal of female friendships in the story as they did not feel like the typical quirky best friend with no depth.
Ultimately the ending of this book betrays the entire message and theme. In this cheesy style of writing, often the message of the book is much more 'show and tell' than subtly transformative. This book is no different, Cassandra has these epiphanies and explains them to the reader in great detail. We are told repeatedly through her lessons in time travel that Cassie shouldn't be ashamed of who she is, she should live life fully and as herself, and take time to see the best in her friendships. Then the ending completely abandons this for the purpose of ending the book with a bang! It simply does not suit this book and honestly makes the whole thing fall flat.
Also, it does this cheesy thing of breaking the forth wall by Cassandra acknowledging that this is a book? I don't why I hated that so much, but please leave that trope in middle-grade fiction.
Ultimately the ending of this book betrays the entire message and theme. In this cheesy style of writing, often the message of the book is much more 'show and tell' than subtly transformative. This book is no different, Cassandra has these epiphanies and explains them to the reader in great detail. We are told repeatedly through her lessons in time travel that Cassie shouldn't be ashamed of who she is, she should live life fully and as herself, and take time to see the best in her friendships. Then the ending completely abandons this for the purpose of ending the book with a bang! It simply does not suit this book and honestly makes the whole thing fall flat.
Also, it does this cheesy thing of breaking the forth wall by Cassandra acknowledging that this is a book? I don't why I hated that so much, but please leave that trope in middle-grade fiction.
lisavegan's review against another edition
2.0
DNF but did finish the book skimming the rest in order to read enough of it to rate & review it. I couldn’t wait to be done with it even though I liked some things about it. I did sort of like the end so I’m glad I didn’t just stop and neglect to check out what happens.
I enjoy speculative fiction and time travel. I loved the movie Groundhog Day and loved the premise of this book.
However; I found it to be so incredibly tedious. To be fair I am finding it hard to find the right book at the right time this year but for me this book fell short.
I liked the family/sister/parents storyline (however overdramatic it was) and all of the Greek mythology references, in the names and in Cassandra’s thoughts and its importance to her.I ended up liking the female roommate. Yes, the “message” of accepting yourself as you are and expecting that also from others is a good one as is being fine not being neurotypical. There are some quotes that I loved!
What a waste of a gift though. It was one reason I didn’t enjoy the story. I was hoping and thinking that Cassandra would start to do better or do things differently (not Will much, much earlier) but all I can say is that I would think it would be hard to make time travel boring but I was bored. I will add that I don’t often feel bored. Even the “romance” storyline felt boring. I don’t like romance books but this wasn’t even one. Not really. I don’t know exactly what it was. I think that what Cassandra eventually does is interesting though and I wish it hadn’t taken so very long to get there.
Perhaps it was my mood. Other readers who also enjoy Greek mythology, neurodivergent characters, time travel/speculative fiction, just ignore my review. I should have looked at the average rating of this book though before I tried it. It’s not horrible but it’s not as good as most books I read and should not have tried to read it. Many readers loved/liked it but it wasn’t for me. Disappointing because it had a tremendous amount of potential.
I do appreciate how both the author and the main character are autistic.
2-1/2 stars, at least with my current mood
I enjoy speculative fiction and time travel. I loved the movie Groundhog Day and loved the premise of this book.
However; I found it to be so incredibly tedious. To be fair I am finding it hard to find the right book at the right time this year but for me this book fell short.
I liked the family/sister/parents storyline (however overdramatic it was) and all of the Greek mythology references, in the names and in Cassandra’s thoughts and its importance to her.I ended up liking the female roommate. Yes, the “message” of accepting yourself as you are and expecting that also from others is a good one as is being fine not being neurotypical. There are some quotes that I loved!
What a waste of a gift though. It was one reason I didn’t enjoy the story. I was hoping and thinking that Cassandra would start to do better or do things differently (not Will much, much earlier) but all I can say is that I would think it would be hard to make time travel boring but I was bored. I will add that I don’t often feel bored. Even the “romance” storyline felt boring. I don’t like romance books but this wasn’t even one. Not really. I don’t know exactly what it was. I think that what Cassandra eventually does is interesting though and I wish it hadn’t taken so very long to get there.
Perhaps it was my mood. Other readers who also enjoy Greek mythology, neurodivergent characters, time travel/speculative fiction, just ignore my review. I should have looked at the average rating of this book though before I tried it. It’s not horrible but it’s not as good as most books I read and should not have tried to read it. Many readers loved/liked it but it wasn’t for me. Disappointing because it had a tremendous amount of potential.
I do appreciate how both the author and the main character are autistic.
2-1/2 stars, at least with my current mood
bookybanks's review against another edition
adventurous
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
calli_a2z's review against another edition
4.0
I loved the first 3/4 of the book. It's very reminiscent of Oona Out of Order. It combines a lot of my favorite things--strong female character, time traveling, Greek mythology. What I didn't love was the big "reveal" toward the end. It was anticlimactic and unnecessary. I would have preferred if it just skipped to the very end.
michellestoll's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Overall the book was well-written and the character growth was rewarding to see, but lit-fic just isn't my preferred genre, so that's on me for going into it without checking genre.
I liked theautism rep (identified it early on, though it wasn't revealed until much later in the book) but overall this was just not really my cup of tea. I went into this book somewhat blind (it had been recommended to me at some point so I put it on hold at the library & forgot all about it) but for some reason I thought it was a romance. It's not. It's a lit-fic story of self-discovery, which happens to sort of revolve around a romantic relationship. The reason I would definitely NOT classify this as a romance is because there is no "happily ever after" with the romantic interest. Again, not a bad thing, just not what I was expecting.
Not a bad book, just not my favorite genre. It was slow-paced and very character driven, whereas I prefer more plot and a faster pace.
I liked the
Not a bad book, just not my favorite genre. It was slow-paced and very character driven, whereas I prefer more plot and a faster pace.
tbix24's review against another edition
3.0
Fairly quick and mostly enjoyable read. I have a lot in common with the main character so it made it easy to connect to her for me but I could see that not being the case for everyone. The storyline just didn’t grab my interest as much as I would have liked.