Reviews with content warning for Cursing - Gwen & Art Are Not in Love

Reviews tagging 'Cursing'

Gwen & Art Are Not in Love by Lex Croucher

36 reviews

summerfalkenrath's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This book was everything I wanted it to be! I was so in love with all of the characters and they were all very well rounded and had realistic flaws, habits, desires, and doubts. It made me laugh very often and I was always intrigued by where things were going in every single chapter. There was not a moment of slowness and I was so eager to keep listening ASAP whenever I had to pause for life. Both narrators were very talented and great at portraying the emotions of the whole cast. I felt like the actions of each character felt very realistic and was very happy that a lot of common tropes were evaded during this book. I'm very excited to read more from this author in the future!

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lovosii's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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knlipke's review against another edition

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adventurous funny lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

I love this book sm😭😭 a medieval rom-com with GAYS?! I’m locked in

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lunarlibra's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Yes. YES.
Picked this up on a whim and devoured it. I had such a hard time putting it down! The characters have real flaws that we see them address and grapple with, we have reluctant allies to good friends, we have sapphic yearning, and a group of teenagers coming into their own.
It's so good and so many things, while also being straightforward enough to read (relatively) quickly and even pick up on the crumbs of foreshadowing scattered throughout.
I feel like it's about, in no particular order,:

first love
healing from first love and finding true love
learning to stand up for what you believe in
queer solidarity
(in some ways) queer mentorship, like when you make your first gay friend or when a baby gay learns from people who maybe never had the option to be in the closet
the political and personal importance of coming out of the closet (even if just to yourself)
the power of friendship
learning to be brave
the pain of parental pressures and disappointment
the almost-miraculous feeling of having your first gay kiss (especially after believing you'd never get to experience it)
learning from stories and myths while keeping a keen eye on the present reality
the beauty and strength of platonic relationships!!!
Did I mention the power of friendship?
"changing for love" not in a shallow and misogynistic way, but in the sense of being inspired by someone you respect to work on personal growth

The writing is evocative, funny, and heartfelt. It felt personal to me and like a completely new story.

It would be a 5 stars read for me if not for one of my pet peeves, which is "miscommunication as the source of drama/conflict". It made sense in the context of the characters, and was somewhat short lived, and given how it wound up fitting into the character development of both of the main characters, so I might change my mind and say it is a five-star read after all.
This book gave me the emotion that makes me love reading, and love books. I can't wait to read the author's other works!

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lidia7's review against another edition

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emotional funny inspiring medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

It was mostly lighthearted but the last 15 or so percent of the book were really tense and not lighthearted at all. A major event happens that changes everything including the book itself. Before that the story is fun, mostly easygoing while still exploring harder topics but with stakes that aren't as high as life or death. It felt really affirming to read parts of this book, the way the characters struggle with expectations, freedom, their wants and needs, life's purpose, sexuality. These are all topics that are handled really well and are inspiring but definitely feel very YA which is fine. The last part of the book wasn't necessarily unexpected because the story was slowly getting there; there were hints. Still it escalated in a way I wasn't expecting - it turned out to be way more dark and terrifying than I thought it would be once events were set in motion and it didn't feel like a YA book at all.

The book managed to elicit one squeal out of me and I think the chemistry between the romantic and friendship pairings was really good, especially the latter. I really liked Sidney's and Arthur's friendship. But other friendship developments were really good, too, like Arthur and Gwen, Gwen and Agnes.

Overall, I'm glad to have read this book and I would recommend it for people who are queer or want to understand queer perspectives better. I think this book works best for young adults or for "baby gays" no matter their age. It's also fine for people who enjoy political intrigue, low to no magic, Arthurian inspired fantasy (but not the best if that's the only thing that intrigues you because there's not a lot of that).

I believe this is my second book by the author (I also enjoyed Reputation) and I plan to read all of their fiction books. I'm still unsure if I'll read Infamous because after reading some reviews, I'm not convinced I'd enjoy it. I'll see how I feel about the rest of their books first.

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jg34's review

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adventurous challenging funny slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

I’ll be honest, seeing the cartoon cover and how it was labeled “lighthearted” and “funny”, I assumed this book wouldn’t require much brain power to read (listen to in my case). It was very much just a funny and romantic story for most of it, and I wasn’t totally focused on remembering side characters or political stuff. This was perhaps a mistake.

This book follows a group of four young queer people - a prince, a princess, a knight, and a rake-ish lord - navigating their relationships, their familial responsibilities, and learning about their sexuality. Figuring out how to be gay in a time where that was unacceptable. While the kindling love stories in here were cute and meaningful, my favorites were our titular characters, Gwen and Arthur. The pair despised each other growing up, but have been betrothed to the other practically since birth. Seeing them grow into friends and confidants was so fun and their banter was unmatched. Arthur is hilarious and the antics they all get into were entertaining.

Now, if that were it, and all the couples figured out a way to be happy with one another and they all lived happily ever after, it would have been perfect and exactly what I had anticipated. It was much more complicated and nuanced and emotional than that.

Aside from the quartet above, there were parents and body guards and lady maids and knights and squires and lords and captains and BIRDS!? and on and on. And I expected if they were particularly important they would come up often enough that I’d be able to follow their story. Not quite!!

This story sprinkles in some political intrigue here and there, but it was all really confusing to me - probably bc I couldn’t remember who was who and how they connected. When our characters start to realize things are getting fishy, you’ll get internal monologue that’s like ‘x person was seen up north the lord y was near but was visiting z and cousin a and person x are now sitting together so they must be colluding’. I had no idea what they were saying or who the good guys were or the bad guys when the climax comes. I could follow what was happening but who betrayed who or whatever? Don’t ask me.

As for the climax, it was about 300x more intense than the rest of the book. You call this lighthearted!!?? So very dramatic and seemed out of no where to me but perhaps if I paid closer attention I could see all the hints leading to the eventual conclusion. To me it was a complete surprise!!

On top of all this, there is history and lore surrounding King Arthur thrown around. I don’t remember much at all about King Arthur from high school.. I know there a round table and a special sword and… that’s about it. So any importance these references had likely went over my head.

In conclusion, I had a good time with this until about 75% in where things got serious and confusing. That is mostly my fault for not paying closer attention and actually thinking about and analyzing the story as it went on. But I think if you are going to have that many minor characters and a unique politic system and history, it should be memorable enough to be able to follow the story more seamlessly. It was not for me and I again was expecting lighthearted. Maybe I’m just dumb, real possibility. I’d consider rereading this in the future to connect all the dots I missed, but I just don’t feel like putting in the effort atm.

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dragonlilly's review

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious sad tense fast-paced

4.0

This story was actually so fun, with characters that get more interesting and enjoyable as the story goes on. I loved the humor between Arthur and Sidney from the start and the audiobook narrator excels at the dialogue and banter, which is most of the story, making the audiobook a good choice. The romance is cute and a there are a lot of funny scenes, but there's a lot more than just romance, and I felt the growing friendship within the story very heartwarming and lovely. We get a really sweet group of friends by the end of the story who have gone through a heck ton of stuff together, including some tragic things, and it all makes sense because of the story's setting. Even the misunderstanding, which I still wasn't a fan of as a general thing, at least made sense within the politics of the story.

The book was written great, and fit the genre and humor very well. I also thought the period discussion when a character experiences a very painful period that makes her almost faint was very notable to me and really cool representation. It addressed the lack of attention by doctors in a way that made sense for the time and setting, but can also parallel to how the modern day isn't much different within the realm of women's health. A super fun and generally lighthearted story, but with a pretty big dark section at the end, and some sad bits throughout but with a inspiring discussion on figuring out what you want in life, allowing yourself to accept that you want it, and then taking the action to achieve it.

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sonatica's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful lighthearted relaxing medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I really loved this book. It took a while for me to really get absorbed by it, but by the second half I just couldn‘t put it down. The characters are lovable but not without their flaws, and the story between them is bittersweet. I had not expected to root so much for their friendship in the end. Very lovely :)

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erikagibson126's review against another edition

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adventurous funny inspiring medium-paced

4.25

lgbtq

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nolanlucy's review against another edition

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funny lighthearted reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

disorganised thoughts!!:

i love that the narrator is kind of in gwen/art's head but not really. it's not like stream of consciousness and it's not boring, everything has character and personality. and so funny too!! in a real way, like pls the dialogue is so fun.

so well written, easy to read but never boring. same with characters, sometimes they're difficult but they're SO loveable. i like how the intensity and serious-ness grew at a rate that was surprising and interesting but not overwhelming or unbelievable.

also diversity! in multiple ways, and it never feels forced. like an Asian lesbian love interest? and she's SO fucking cool?? yes

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