Thank you NetGalley for the ARC! I liked the idea of the artist and fan (I'll read pretty much anything that ties in with manga - so great cover). I really enjoyed this book and the characters who had real problems and personalities and not perfect insta-love. A good read.

One of the best books by this author that I've ever read. I adored almost every part of it. There were times that I ached, other times I swooned. While I wish there had been more steam, something more at the very end to make this feel perfect as a whole, I completely enjoyed reading this story.

Both MC's were captivating in their own way and the way the story progressed felt so very real. It wasn't always easy, but that's one thing that made the story so believable. At no moment was I taken out of the story, it all flowed well together in a way this author excels.

All the feels, all the little things that drew the MC's together is what drew me in deeper and deeper until I wasn't ready to end the book. It was a long read with a lot of slow-burn deliciousness and well-worth the time it took to savor.

Xander Fairchild is a senior art student at Benten College and seriously mad. His sophomore year art mural was defaced by a couple of pledges to Delta Sig, a fraternity on campus. Xander makes no habit of socializing with people in general, and he’s not happy about the golden boy of Delta Sig, Skylar Stone, trying to make reparations that would be suitable to Xander. There is no acceptable repair, to Xander’s mind, and he wants nothing to do with all that mess, fraternities, or Skylar.

Skylar isn’t satisfied unless he’s pleased everyone, including his generally disapproving father, his ambitious mother, or the administration at Benten College. When Xander says he’d rather have his art destroyed than repaired, Skylar’s confused why his charm isn’t working. And, he’s captivated by both Xander and his art, which leans toward a Japanese style. In fact, it’s very much informed by Japanese manga, which is a style of story art we’d called comic book. Xander writes the campus manga, which, because there’s a lot of Japanese influence in this college’s history and founding, is a story of adventure and enlightenment and has Buddhist and Japanese themes.

Xander is an out, gay man who’s never had a boyfriend, because that would mean he had to get emotionally and physically close to someone. His closest…friend…is a genderfluid character named Zelda. This makes Xander a bit nervous, because his senior project isn’t only about his art, it’s about him advertising his show, and building an online platform to promote his “brand.” Skylar, on the other hand, dates all the beautiful people, but connects with none of them. As a business major, he’s very much capable at networking online and IRL. As a way to not only make good with Xander, but to also get close to him and his art, Skylar offers to make advertising Xander’s show a part of his senior project. It’s an offer that Xander’s advisor will not allow him to refuse.

It’s hard for Xander not to be sucked into Skylar’s golden glow, but the closer he gets, the more he sees the shiny veneer that Skylar wears to keep everyone at a distance. They build a rapport that is initially founded on their mutual love of manga—and grows as each of them feels more comfortable to be more vulnerable. Xander discusses the apathy of his family, and Skylar reveals he’s not really sure about his sexuality. That he’s a gray-asexual, and it scares Skylar, who thinks he’ll never find a true partner.

For these two, the intimacy is mostly emotion based. I’m no expert on the spectrum of gray-asexual arousal. I’ve read several of these type of books; I’ve found them compelling for their emotional complexity, not their intimate moments. Skylar and Xander are able to find a level of intimacy that suits them and involves some aspects of touching, nudity, and occasional kissing. Their bond is heart oriented, and they support one another without reservation. As Skylar begins to pull away from the demands of his indifferent family, he cleaves to Xander. And Xander is unwilling to accept the scraps of interest he gets from his mother, filtered through his stepfather’s disgust. So, they make a family for themselves, including Zelda and a couple of other comrades, along with the quirky professor emeritus who owns the home where Xander rents an upstairs apartment. They have a deep connection to the Japanese influence of the college, which may be culture-appropriating, but I have many friends who absolutely adore manga, and that has acted as a gateway to further appreciation of Japanese culture. That’s a bit what I experienced in reading this book.

I loved how their support, as a couple and as a group, enabled this collected family to have a far better experience in college and life than was possible before. The end is a happy place, and Xander is far less antisocial by the end, than he was in the beginning.

I chose this book for our Judge a Book By Its Cover Week because the cover is amazing. It’s a manga of Xander (the dark haired one) and Skylar, the well-dressed golden boy dazzled by the cherry blossom petals. I absolutely love it, and the art fits the book so perfectly. It’s young and bright and playful, and that’s how Xander and Skylar are, once they commit to being friends and eventual partners.

Ultimately, Antisocial by Heidi Cullinan is a story about finding your place in the world, finding a family and friends who love and accept you for who you are, and discovering a love that knows no bounds...

With thanks to Netgalley for allowing me to review this book.

Antisocial by Heidi Cullinan is a suoer cute love story that I really enjoyed.

I had started this book fully thinking that it was a mew book....unfortunately I DNF'd it about 30% in as I just couldn't get into the story. I had meant to read a a better review at the time in order to fully speak to what didn't work for me but I put it off and now all I can say is it didn't work.

It took me a bit to get into. But once I did, I couldn't put it down. A great story and fascinating characters.

Antisocial is a fantastic novel. I loved everything about it. The characters are fantastic. Xander, grumpy art student and Skylar, the seemingly happy go lucky guy. Heidi did an amazing job with this two guys. Skylar especially. I found his character fascinating. He journey of self discovery is beautiful. You would think that Skylar would be the protector of the sensitive artist but it’s totally flipped in this case. Xander goes all out to protect Skylar and to make his dreams come true. This book is full of Heidi love of manga and aspects of Japanese culture and religion. As someone who know almost nothing about that I think she did a good job making sure the reader didn’t feel lost or overwhelmed. A great story that I highly recommend.

This book was a very enjoyable read! I was chanting "Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!" At certain points. I am not kidding that I was jealous of the Copic pens in this one.

I don't think this book was needed to be this long. The bad thing was I actually felt while reading it that it is going quite long and this shouldn't have benn the case. It took me some time to get into the book but once I got in, it was enjoyable. But again, came a point when it started feeling like a strecthed and boring read.

My favorite part of the book were of course Skylar and Xavier. I adored their relationship. I try finding books with good lgtbq+ representation and this book had it. I liked how good both were in their relationship. The author did a good job with the growth of their relationship. The manga stuff in the book was little too much for me. I like reading Mnaga comics but seeing it actually in a book? All the info went straight over my head.

I think this book is beautifully written and had a great love story too, but it wasn't for me. I wish it was a little shorter and I hadn't felt bored.

I love the rep that this story has, and i am SO HERE for LGBT+ rep mixed with a good old enemies to lovers story!! I genuinely had such a good time reading this book and i can’t wait to get my hands on a physical copy!

Antisocial is an LGBT romance novel between two boys named Xander and Skylar. While neither boy seems to like the other at first they grow quite close and develop one of the most beautiful M/M romance I have ever seen, worthy of being on the same level as Adam Silvera. BONUS - the manga styled cover of Antisocial is BEAUTIFUL!

This was an incredibly sweet and interesting book! I could barely put it down. I loved the amount of LGBT representation in this as well! Overall, a stunning book.

Xander Fairchild isn't a fan of people in general but preppy frat boys in particular. So, when Skylar Stone asks Xander to be the subject of his school assignment, Xander would rather hide in his art and be left alone. But Skylar, smitten completely by Xander's art, manages to break through that hard outer shell and the pair grow closer over the course of the summer.

Despite the initial enjoyment of our two main leads coming together, this story limped through to the conclusion. Halfway through, this book became work; including minute detail into side plots and endless fan worship of Japanese culture, manga, and anime. I wanted to like this; especially with the added exploration of "grey sexuality" or asexuality but yikes, the slog to get to the end was merciless. I give this book a 2 out of 5 for making me feel like I was doing homework.

i received an advance reader copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

this is hard to review as many other people are taking umbrage at certain ways in which sexuality is being presented... if you take that aside and maybe.... ugh, still difficult. i liked it, i really did. i liked the characters and how they interacted and the Japanese anime parts and i really liked a lot of it. but i can see where people are coming with when they hate a lot of the presentation too.

I really enjoyed this book. I think it maybe could have been about 100 pages shorter and got the same point across, but it was still good. I really enjoyed all the rep in this book. Xander and Skylar were perfect together. I really loved Xander's acceptance and patience with Skylar.

For as quickly as I absorbed this book, I wish I had gotten the chance to read it sooner. It was phenomenal.

From the second I read the dedication, I knew I would love this book.

Antisocial is not a perfect book, but it is one I thoroughly enjoyed. Xander and Skylar were two very interesting narrators, whose voices were distinct and individual. I also adored them when they were together and shipped them so hard!!

Cullinan's writing was just superb as she really described everything - particularly Xander's art - well. I especially loved how the art assisted in the development of Xander and Skylar's relationship. Very interesting.

I won't be giving this book the full 5 stars only because there were some moments I became bored and distracted - this book is almost 500 pages long! That's massive for a contemporary romance - and also because I know some ace readers were upset by the representation in the novel. There were also a couple scenes that felt almost fetishising of the Japanese culture.

Aside from these instances, this book was quite wonderful, and I intend to reread it sometime this year too.

🌸🌸🌸3,5 stars rounded up 🌸🌸🌸

It's my first book by this author and what a discovery it was. I already have Carry the ocean and now I think I'll move it up in my TBR.

I knew close to nothing about manga or anime or even Japanese culture before starting this book.
I have to admit I got lost with so many details that didn't make sense to me. I kind of wanted the story to focus more on Skylar and Xander. I simply adored these broken characters, both feeling like they didn't fit into the world, both having families who didn't understand or treasure them.

Overall I enjoyed this story. It was long, longer than I expected, and I need to mention that both main characters are in the gray spectrum of sexuality. But for them it wasn't about sex, they just clicked and they understood each other even if they were extremely different. One was an introverted and antisocial artist, the other was overly social and always wearing a mask with a perfect smile.
I think this book was more of a coming of age story, for both of them. In the end they discovered what they really wanted, they faced their fears and followed their dreams.

Oh and the ending was extremely sweet and left me smiling big, imagining Skylar under a rain of cherry flowers.
"Skylar glanced up as the petals fell, then held out his hands, laughing as he caught the flowers. Xander smiled and etched the image onto his heart." 🌸

Copy kindly provided through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.

I loved the beginning of the book, it was so interesting. I also love the idea of writing a book about such diverse characters. At some point so the whole thing becomes so... contrived though. It's no longer flowing but everything is just... complicated. Maybe that's how it really is but it was not joyful to read and after all, shouldn't a novel be entertaining? At the very least?