Add on Goodreads

Quick Info
Other People’s Butterflies

• title: Other People’s Butterflies
• author: Cora Ruskin
• publisher: Art Over Chaos Publishing
• release date: 22. June 2021
• series: Standalone
• genre: contemporary, YA
• diversity: none
• content warnings: mention of eating disorder, mention of suicide, (cyber) bullying, friend zone
• rating: 3/5 Stars

Blurb
Other People’s Butterflies

Gwen Foster has never been kissed. But when she gets the chance to finally see what all the hype is about, it’s with her best friend’s crush. Embroiled in relationship drama she doesn’t understand, and ostracized from her friend group, Gwen escapes the angst by using her favorite femme fatale as a role model… and makes snooping on her classmates her new pastime.

Gwen’s detective work appears to be going well, until an unknown social media account starts spilling all the scandalous personal details she’s uncovered. Now this wannabe spy must stop whoever is behind it before everyone’s dirty laundry is aired, and Gwen is forced to finish high school without any friends.

Other People’s Butterflies is a coming-of-age contemporary mystery about not needing to find your first love – but yourself – and how to mend the relationships that matter to you.

The Queer’s Review

This is your typical YA novel but with an aroace main character.

The first being alright while the latter needs to happen way more often. I do have a slight problem with that rep though, because Gwen makes an aphobic joke-y remark that bothered me quite a lot. Not every ace person is sex-repulsed, y’know?

There’s another remark that bothered me, this time an unsensible one about an off-page suicide due to cyber bullying.

That being said, let’s talk about the story itself. I couldn’t have cared less for Gwen and I was actually sad and disappointed about how her story turned out and around.

Especially the ending felt rushed and unrealistic. Just like that, that’s it? The only thing I felt was Gwen’s want-to-be-romantic-interest, even though he kinda fell into the “don’t friend zone me” talk. Which… sadly, realistic. At least he evolved away from that.

So, why did I end up rating Other People’s Butterflies 3 stars when I could’ve given 2?

Bookish Thoughts

Even though the story was flat and didn’t leave an impact on me – aside from ranting in my head about the remarks I mentioned above – as well as not caring at all about the MC and kinda hating her, the writing itself was fine to read. It was tell don’t show though but it did flow and reading Cora Ruskin’s debut novel wasn’t a hardship. I just won’t read this particular book again.

Disclaimer

I received a free ARC in exchange for an honest review. Thank you.