Foolish Hearts

I NEED MORE

I didn't really know what to expect of this book going in but I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would.

it had short chapters, which helped with my abysmal attention span to get through it faster, and the story was all around heartwarming. Seeing all the characters connect and grow closer to each other, while also not having the relationships grow in a seamless transition made it feel real. There were hiccups and stutters involved, but I think it made the payoff worth it in the end.

Gideon and Claudia ended up being my favorite part of this book, even though arguably I think they got the least screen time, as it were. Their interactions were just so pure and genuine, and you could tell they clicked from the get-go. I was really psyched for them to get together. Gideon is so sweet and deserves the world.

The section where Claudia is talking about how she shouldn't be with Gideon because “she's the type of person people only feel ‘regular' about” broke my entire heart. I can relate to those feelings a little bit and I was relating heavily to her this entire book, so it hit extra hard.

Claudia and Isis's friendship was absolutely adorable, and Gideon and Noah's whole relationship was so heartwarming. This book has a lot of soul.

this book will never stop comforting me.

This is one of the best books I've ever read. THE best Emma mills book. Truly everything I could ever want in a contemporary.??
WHY THIS IS THE BEST THING EVER:
-it is funny af. im not kidding, i laughed out loud at SEVERAL points.
-the dialogue is sharp & witty & entertaining
-its such a happy book but makes me wanna cry at the same time
-THE CHARACTERS the characters THE CHARACTERS i wanna give em all a never-ending hug, every single one of em
-PAIGE AND IRIS, name a better fucking couple i dare you
-this book weirdly made me wanna be a better person??
-it's so tragically underrated
-and it's just instant serotonin
I love this book in such an intrinsic way, i can't even describe it. Going into this, I NEVER imagined it would be so good. Sure it's not a perfect book, hardly anything is, but I will never stop screaming from the rooftops about this.

This is one of the best books I've ever read. THE best Emma mills book. Truly everything I could ever want in a contemporary. 
WHY THIS IS THE BEST THING EVER:
-it is funny af. im not kidding, i laughed out loud at SEVERAL points.
-the dialogue is sharp & witty & entertaining
-its such a happy book but makes me wanna cry at the same time
-THE CHARACTERS the characters THE CHARACTERS i wanna give em all a never-ending hug, every single one of em
-PAIGE AND IRIS, name a better fucking couple i dare you
-this book weirdly made me wanna be a better person??
-it's so tragically underrated
-and it's just instant serotonin
I love this book in such an intrinsic way, i can't even describe it. Going into this, I NEVER imagined it would be so good. Sure it's not a perfect book, hardly anything is, but I will never stop screaming from the rooftops about this.

this book was like a nice warm hug in the middle of a rainstorm

4.5 i love being surprised by books. given the reviews i was pretty sure i'd enjoy this, but i didn't know i'd adore it the way i did. this book defied expectations in so many ways. it skirts around cliches and tropes but manages to bypass them graciously almost every time. we have what could have been a ‘not like other girls' unpopular protagonist, claudia, who actually isn't either of those things. the way that she's not the most popular person in school isn't dramatised - she's still invited to events, she still has friends and people to hang out with, she doesn't eat lunch alone in the bathroom. she just wishes for a little more, a closer friendship, like the one she has with her best friend zoe. zoe, like claudia, and like claudia's brother, older sister and older sister's husband, is super into a world of warcraft-esque game. this is never made fun of, or belittled. it's actually set up to be a really valuable part of the way she keeps in touch with said older sister once she's moved out. after claudia accidentally witnesses the breakup of her school's it-couple, paige and iris (a wlw relationship that mills never feels the need to ‘explain' or justify, but that's just allowed to be), she finds herself having to work with the cold, standoff-ish iris on their school's production of a midsummer night's dream (and we all know i'm always here for shakespeare). claudia has to audition and is sure she won't do well - and she doesn't, but it's never a huge deal. she instead works in the wardrobe department with people who never doubt that that is just as valuable a part of the work as acting. claudia never looks down on them, or looks up at the players. in claudia and iris we get an enemies to friends story that i didn't know i needed, but i needed. it was so well done, the way we find out more about iris and she becomes a fully realised person who's still flawed and who still needs to work on shit, but who's also an avid TION (foolish hearts' staple boy band) fan - another thing that, while the subject of confusion on claudia's part, is never really ridiculed and even becomes an integral part of their friendship. it shows the value and importance of being able to share the things you're passionate about with the people you care about. and it also shows that friendships can manifest in different ways, and you can share one thing with one friend, and another with a second, and that's totally okay. lastly, just because i need to say it and because it was yet another thing that defied expectations: all the guys in this book (to be fair there are like 3) are genuinely so good. claudia's love interest is absolutely lovely - he's funny and always looks out for her without being overbearing, he backs off immediately and without guilt-tripping when she tells him she's not interested, he cares about his friends so incredibly much. having guys in a ya book explicitly say that they love their friends? radical. love it. give me more. anyway this book is heart-warming and sweet and genuinely funny. super recommend.

This was my first Emma Mills book. For some reason, I didn't have especially high expectations going in, but I was pleasantly surprised. It was fun and funny and just plain adorable. If you read multiple books simultaneously like me, this would be a nice contrast to something heavier.

Foolish Hearts is in many ways a typical coming-of-age/romance YA novel. It features a high school theatre production interwoven with plenty of relationship drama. But in other ways, Foolish Hearts does a lot right that a lot of YA either doesn't do justice or just doesn't do. I've got two main examples.

First, the concept of consent. When Claudia rejects Gideon, he hears and accepts her “no,” even though it's not what he expected or wanted to hear. He believes her. He doesn't push back against what she says in the name of “persistence.”
A LOT of pop culture texts put forth this idea that women don't really know what they want. That women should be pursued by men until they're caught and they finally come around, at last worn down by being asked the same question (and having their same answer ignored) over and over again.
This is a weird and creepy message, arguably especially in YA. I liked a male love interest who didn't want to be with someone if she didn't want to be with him. I liked that Gideon took no for an answer. Contrast that dynamic with, say, Edward and Bella in the Twilight books, and you'll see a marked difference.

Second, I liked how Mills incorporated queer identity. I want to preface this by saying that I understand the need for stories about stigma and struggle and displacement and mental health crises and all sorts of other horrific experiences had by LGBTQ youth.
However, I think there's also a need for LGBTQ characters that are not defined by their being LGBTQ. This is what Mills does. She has characters that aren't straight, and those characters just aren't straight, like how other characters aren't gay, and those characters just aren't gay.
Sexuality is not presented as some obtrusive obstacle that inevitably arises as a point of contention or some difficult terrain to navigate. It's just, people are gay, Steven. Iris likes girls, but there's so much more to her than that. She's a dimensional interesting character. Her sexuality isn't all she is. Her sexuality is not diminished or erased, but it's far from the central focus of the book or her character.

I think, aside from just overall being aggressively endearing, these are some key reasons I enjoyed the book so much. Mills writes about love in a way that isn't so boxed in by stifling and sometimes damaging tropes. It's a sweet story about how to treat yourself and others well. It may not be revolutionary, but if a book can make me genuinely like a character named Gideon, it must be doing a lot right.

4 stars Well-rounded story with lgbtq+ and poc side characters. It was my first Emma Mills' book (thanks, Owlcrate!) and to be honest, I didn't think I'd enjoy it as much as I did, mostly because I don't really like Shakespeare, but I was pleasantly surprised!Claudia, the main character, is awesome and she reminded me of me a lot. She's sweet and dorky and extremely awkward at times (like when she brings a plus one to a date), but my favourite character has to be Iris. I completely fell in love with this little grumpy cinnamon roll ^.^I have to mention my utter delight when Iris said: “I'm sorry, I shouldn't have assumed you were straight.” A++