This book felt like a breath of fresh YA air. I'm obviously a sucker for anything space themed, but that's not even my favourite thing about this novel; it's the protagonist. I just loved how confident Cal is - in himself, his sexuality and his style. It's just really uncommon for a YA character to be so sure of himself and that's incredibly refreshing to read. The first half-ish of the book felt a bit rushed, with everything happening very quickly, but I didn't mind that all too much. I would have wished for a little more character development though.

What I love about this book: - people being flawed and being allowed to be flawed - space and gays - not too forced love story without the drama of labeling - loveable characters - portrayal of mental illnesses as illnesses and not as character flaws or weaknesses What I didn‘t love: - DUDE, CALL DEB BACK!! - people my age being called old - my youth becoming something retro and hipster for the youth of today - kind of a ‚been there, done that‘ feeling In the end it is, what it wants to be - a contemporary YA story with queer characters and space. And I like it. Not every book has to be innovative. Nevertheless it /is/ nice to have a gay couple just being themselves and not „oh-no-i-am-gay“ or „they-won‘t-accept-me-for-who-i-am“ and also to not have yet another comig out story (even though they are important and I live them every once in a while).

I don’t know, this book just wasn’t my cup of tea. The plot wasn’t exactly bad but never managed to really catch my interest. I wasn’t all that fond of the MC. But what really irked me was the pace. The relationship with the LI as well as the depth of their feelings for each other developed way too fast. The story itself was told kinda fast as well and made all interactions (and sometimes even relationships) feel shallow.

2.5/5 Opposed to the ratings of some of the reviewers I follow on here, I am rounding down, because I personally had points that actively lessened my enjoyment of this book. This is really cute, don't get me wrong. And it had things going for itself! There's mental health rep (depression & anxiety), there's a set up for discussions of family, there's a m/m romance! The things I took issue with were: the way social media/online fame were handled (it felt really unrealistic, not just because of INCREDIBLE numbers, but also because it is stressed how hard Cal works on this, but he's never shown working on it, you know?), the way the best-friend subplot was handled, the insta-love between Cal and Leon (in the book's defense, that is already stated on the back, it just reeeeally doesn't work for me personally) and I suppose in general this was more telling than showing. I could imagine this works well for people who rank plot higher than characters. The plot didn't feel fast to me, but it moves along quickly. For me personally the depth was lacking in the characters, there were a lot of possibilities for deep topics (and everything that was said felt respectful indeed), but I was left wanting more reflection; deeper, more complex descriptions and thoughts. As I said, this is definitely a matter of personal taste, this time we just didn't match up well.