Ellie's Reviews > Today Tonight Tomorrow

If art isn't already dead, it will be soon. I've never seen an author as hellbent on using a YA novel to spew social justice ideas and identity politics. Propaganda masquerading as a teen romance novel. I think Rowan had a poor attitude and was a far from likable protagonist. If I learned anything from this book, it is that I am honestly concerned for the generation of boys growing up in this era where they are hated, belittled, and made to feel lesser-then all because of their gender. This book is a heartbreaking commentary on a brand of "feminism" that does not want equality, but instead the oppression of the opposite sex.
The main male character, Neil, is called out for "mansplaining" when he is simply talking about something to friends. He immediately becomes silent. He's not allowed to like books by Hemingway or Dickens or Fitzgerald because the writers were white men. (I wasn't even going to write a review until the main character dissed Great Expectations. No one does that on my watch ;) Oh- and I am a girl by the way. College age, too.) In order to be seen as acceptable in this story, Neil has to confess to a liking of romance novels, I guess to somehow cleanse himself of his sin of enjoying Dickens. Rowan likes her school librarian simply because she put more books by women and people of color on the school reading list. If a book is good, why should it matter who wrote it? And, to build up a book, tearing another book or author down should not be necessary. Diversity becomes our weakness instead of our strength when we become so hyper focused on it that we can no longer live our lives with our own interests or fulfillment in mind, because we are so busy worrying that we have not consumed enough entertainment produced by women or people of color or any other group that happens to be trending support at the moment.
The attitudes towards sex were too much on top of everything else in this political cesspool of a book, with Rowan being rather "easy" just because if she has sex she'll be seen as a "slut" but if she doesn't, she'll be seen as a "prude" so she may as well just do what she wants. Why is she concerned with what other people think of her, and why is this okay to teach children? She should be concerned with knowing her own self worth rather than sleeping around and treating sex with a blasé attitude. And, if the author insisted on going down this route, she should have included information on the dangers of STDs/teen pregnancy for all of the young teens who just read this book and now think that sleeping around is perfectly safe. While many teens will do this regardless, there is no need for more external resources to be desensitizing them to potentially harmful and regrettable actions.
Also, the random drug scene where they take some edibles before seeing an exhibit at the zoo seemed a bit unnecessary. Especially considering that they then drove after the incident. Great habits to normalize for teens whose brains are still developing.
Bottom line, if you want to write a book like this, make the characters college students. And, if you want to read this, be prepared for countless "f-bombs" (a few are fine, but this was like, a few on every page at some points) and lots of "toxic masculinity", "mens rights are fake", and "every classic book should be called 'White Man in Peril' because they're all the same." When I saw that this book had such high ratings, I swear a little piece of me nearly died. It's 2020. We can do better. Is this the politically correct, male-hating society that we want to build for future generations? For the love of God, not every book has to be a modern political statement. I'll stick with Charles Dickens.