I thought this was a really good read. I fell in love with the main character very easily and love watching their growth throughout the book.

Interesting how this was compared to The Poet X because I disagree. It was readable, but it could’ve used a bit more consistency on its many themes.

This book had potential, but unfortunately, I did not get what I thought it was going to be.

I recieved an arc of this book in exchange of my honest opinion of the book. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me the oportunity to do so.

When Ken Z meets a boy from North Kristol (he is from South Kristol) he can’t help but fall for him. As they spend time together in spring break a sort of relationship develops. This relationship will teach a lot to Ken Z, for better or worse.

It took me a really long time to read this book. I recieved it last year and only now i came around to read it. I don’t know why… maybe i wasn’t read, and up until this very moment i was not. I think i just had an epiphany about it.

Let’s start talking about the characters and we’ll get to the story in a bit.

I liked the main character, Ken Z. He was honest. He didn’t have a complete break down over realizing he might like a person of his same sex. Not all of us do. Which i found a little refreshing and relatable.

I can’t say much about other characters in the book. I feel we never fully get to know any of them. Most of the book is just Ken Z and his mind and his “talks” with Oscar Wilde, which were endearing and funny. I enjoyed them very much.

As for the way it was written… I think it’s like a diary. You get to know a lot about the main character and what he thinks about others, but you never get to really know those characters, only the pov of Ken Z.

I did like the writing, the talks with Oscar, the way the author invented new countries for his story and the background of both those places. It is important to the plot, so i even appreciate it more.

I think the author dd a decent job, but the best part is after the warning for spoilers!

So if you don’t want to spoil the book for you that’s it for you! I give the book 3.75- 4 stars, i’m not sure yet.

NOW TO THE SPOILERS, IF YOU CAN CALL THEM THAT;

If i just leave it there, i wasn’t too happy about the book, i gave it 3 stars and felt i was being generous, but then as i was looking for a quote to share with you i found this one:

“Reading is only dangerous to those who are afraid to imagine’ – The importance of being wilde at heart.

I might have been too angry with how the story was going to realize this isn’t just about reading. Writing is also dangerous to those who are afraid to imagine. You may get the wrong expression and offend someone or make them angry as i was with the book.

But then i realized, this can be the way the author wants. This story is about love, but not only that. It doesn’t have to be just about a happy couple. This book could be about loss and learning from it, and it could be perfectly the best book, because that’s the sotry the author wanted to tell.

The book is about trying, giving a shot and maybe failing. Things don’t always go the way we wanted or expected and that is perfectly shown in the book. Ken Z thought things would go his way but it didn’t but the important thing was he tried, he was “wild(e)” and he let his heart give a try.

Now that i understand a bit better and i see the work as it is, it makes sense we don’t know what happened to Ran (this annoyed me for a while after i finished the book). But it makes sense, because we are seeing everything from Ken’s pov and he doesn’t know either. Why would we know if he, the main character, doesn’t?

Now i know i misjudged the book and i’ll happily give it 4 stars

THIS REVIEW WILL BE POSTED TO MY BLOG NEXT SUNDAY

Interesting as its synopsis may sound, this book reeks of poorly-written plot and toxic personality. What is interesting in this book, though, is its revolving story with Oscar Wilde. As much as I disliked the original plot of the book, the lessons you learn from its sub-plot is really great.

This is a queer, YA contemporary romance that explores dealing with your first heartbreak and getting through to the other side. Ken is a seventeen year old boy who quickly falls for a mysterious boy who disappears without explanation and, using poetry and the words of his hero, Oscar Wilde, Ken finds a way to get through his heartbreak to find love on the other side.

I was disappointed that I couldn't get through the first few chapters of this one. I wasn't a huge fan of the writing, and it just kept annoying me. I wish I couldn't gotten farther with it.

I am still surprised, but I just didn't connect with The Importance of Being Wilde at Heart. It ended up being a DNF for me.

Thank you NetGalley and Publisher for the early copy!

I checked out the first few chapters and could not connect with the writing. I decided to put it down.

I knew I would love this book as soon as I read the title and description. What's not to love about Oscar Wilde? It was sweet and everything you could ask for from a queer YA book.

A very sweet and artsy, if not especially original, tale of a gay boy's first romance—but when the majority of conversation in books about gay boys revolves around books by women, it's very needed. The author's background in poetry gives the book much more beautiful language than many other books, and the different styles he uses throughout create a less typical reading experience than a straightforward novel would have. All in all, a promising debut.

This is a frustrating book to review. While I was intrigued by the inclusion of Wilde throughout the book, I found that his work distracted from the meat of the novel rather than illuminating a deeper theme or providing a real-world connection. While I personally enjoyed the musings on gender, life, poverty, and war, I don't know why the publisher elected to compare this to Adam Silvera, as I found no major similarities in writing style (I haven't read Elizabeth Acevedo, so I can't say whether or not that comparison holds merit.) I found something lacking in the storytelling (the characters felt less like people and more like mouthpieces for profound ideas) - after reading that the author was initially a playwright, I have to wonder if this book would be better performed. I enjoyed the experience of reading, but my own love of Wilde's work could have clouded my objectivity - i.e., read with caution.

The plot here is exactly what I want from a teen romance. There's instant attraction, sure, and an intense relationship. They fall hard, fast, and deep. And it ends just as suddenly. What I like best is that we never get an explanation for the end of the relationship. The guy simply stops responding. WE have some likely speculation but nothing concrete. I also really like the political exploration. I'd have loved to have seen more exploration of the back stories, the side plots. Linmark has created an intriguing world. I'd have enjoyed spending more time in it.

I have to start by saying that I was really excited about this book! The premise looks absolutely wonderful & exactly the kind of thing that I would be into. It doesn't hurt that the cover is absolutely lovely, too.

And yet.

Turns out, it's just not a book for me. I'm sure there are people who will appreciate the writing style, but for me it felt pretentious and unreal, and just trying so hard to be hip. Even though I'm always looking forward to young adult novels with gay characters, I couldn't connect with the ones we get introduced to here.

Overall I was left with the feeling of disappointment & lowkey boredom, but still, I can see why others would enjoy this.

I really wanted to like The Importance of Being Wilde at Heart, but I feel like I got a very different book than I expected. That made this book really disappointing to me.




The Importance of Being Wilde at Heart CoverWords have always been more than enough for Ken Z, but when he meets Ran at the mall food court, everything changes. Beautiful, mysterious Ran opens the door to a number of firsts for Ken: first kiss, first love. But as quickly as he enters Ken’s life, Ran disappears, and Ken Z is left wondering: Why love at all, if this is where it leads?

Letting it end there would be tragic. So, with the help of his best friends, the comfort of his haikus and lists, and even strange, surreal appearances by his hero, Oscar Wilde, Ken will find that love is worth more than the price of heartbreak. (Goodreads)
Goodreads

I received an eARC of The Importance of Being Wilde at Heart from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
This was recommended for readers of Adam Silvera and Elizabeth Acevedo, so I expected beautiful, heartfelt prose in a contemporary fiction story. With that being said, I did get these things. Sort of.

I did not finish this book because I got two-thirds of the way through it and still was wildly confused about whether this was taking place in our world or not. Our characters live in North and South Kristol, which felt like Korea analogues, but where the only class we really saw was English literature.

It dealt with a lot of heavy topics, but never really brought them anywhere close to a full circle for me. The prose was absolutely stunning and there was a sweet romance at the heart of it, but it just didn’t work for me at all.

Overall, I can’t recommend The Importance of Being Wilde at Heart because it just didn’t make sense.


ABOUT THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING WILDE AT HEART
Title: The Importance of Being Wilde at Heart

Author: R. Zamora Linmark

Publisher: Delacorte Press

Length: 352 Pages

Release Date: August 13, 2019

Rating: Not Recommended

Genre: Young Adult Fiction

Representation: Filipino author, queer man main character, queer man love interest

Great read. The author wrote a story that was interesting and moved at a pace that kept me engaged. The characters were easy to invest in.

DNF reading. What a mess of a book. I tried to read this book 4 separate times and just couldn't get into. Too much going on in this book it makes no sense what so ever. It's a no for me. I do love the cover though. It's bright and colorful.

This is my honest opinion.

Rating 2.5 (because of the cover)

3.5/5 Rounded up to 4.

I adored this book. It was so quirky and wonderful and at the heart so very, very, Wilde-esque.

Ken is a young man who loves Oscar Wilde, lists, Haikus, his mom and his friends. But is there more to life? His world expanded the day he meets Ran, a young man with a Dorian Gray vibe from North Kristol.

This book is made up of Ken's thoughts, whether he's speculating with Oscar Wilde himself, writing a haiku, poem, or list, or showing us insight into his life as a high school senior in South Kristol.

Young love is always wonderful and painful and full of twists and turns and Ken shows us this while combining the fact that for some it's harder than for others. Not just because of orientation but because sometimes it can be hard to let someone in, and sometimes there's no closure other than what you can make yourself.

Loved this read, definitely for fans of Oscar Wilde and speculative/introspective fiction.

Thank you to NetGalley and the Publishers for the opportunity to read this in exchange for my honest review.

What I thought might be a "wrong side of the tracks" story actually had nothing to do with their classism keeping them apart. Ran just... ran. I thought that was a little disappointing. What would become a theme through this book is how it never really unpacks its many themes. The aforementioned classism, homophobia, banned books, government control over access to information, just to name a few, only really get passing mentions and rarely have much to do with the core of the story, which is Ran and Ken Z. It feels like this book tries to do too much in a not inconsiderable 352 pages.

In its essence, this book is about how much it sucks to be ghosted, especially at a young age, and especially at a point in your life where you're just figuring out who you are. Ken Z never shares if he is bi or gay, or any other orientation, but he finds himself attracted to Ran, something he truly never expected. And maybe that's why Ran's disappearance hits him so hard. Ran takes all of Ken Z's options to talk about how he's feeling with him when he never returns from North Kristol. Sure, Ken Z could talk to his friends, but this is something he wanted to do with Ran, to explore with Ran, and to have that taken away and to be left behind without a word at the same time is a crushing experience.

Other reviews are not exaggerating when they say that this book is very cutesy. The first third or so of this book rides the line of being too sugary sweet for my taste, and borders on the ridiculous. It's fun to see a young boy being infatuated for the first time, especially in a more or less "forbidden love" situation, but I also remember being a teenager and just being happy that the guy I liked put on deodorant after gym class. Also, what teenager lives a live with so incredibly little adult supervision? Outside of Mr. Oku and the occasional short appearance by Ken Z's mom, I kept wondering where all the adults were.

I don't understand the comparison to Adam Silvera. It doesn't work. (I can't speak to the comparison to Elizabeth Acevedo, as I have not read The Poet X yet.) That's... a bold claim, and one this book fails to earn.

Overall, this book is like a 2.5 for me. It was readable, but could have used a little more consistency in following through with discussion of its many, many themes. I would have liked to have seen Ran and Ken Z's relationship through a lens that isn't super flowery. I wish the author had dug further into Ken Z, because even by the story's end I just sort of felt "meh" about it all. I didn't feel for Ken Z the way I wanted to. I wanted to ache with him, to feel his anger and confusion, and to heal with him. Instead, I'm left underwhelmed by this work overall. I do hope it finds its fanbase, but I wanted so much more - what the story had the potential to be, what it practically begged to be - than what I got.

DNF at 30%

I'm sorry but no matter how much I tried to get into this book I just couldn't. I always try to finish what I'm reading but this was just too much for me.
The concept for this book was really intriguing but things were really confusing for me and it's just not it for me.

Maybe one day I'll read it through to the end but today is not that day.

thank you to netgalley and the publisher for giving me an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

3 stars

I absolutely loved the writing style of this story and I think that was the only thing that I loved about it. I really wanted to like this book more since I am a HUGE Oscar Wilde fan (not as much as Ken Z but still). I loved the haikus, the vignettes, the conversations between Ken Z and Oscar, but there was something lacking in this storytelling.

I was so frustrated with Ken Z and his friends because they didn’t even try to understand him, and he never gave them a chance to. He skipped out on one movie and suddenly it was the end of the world for them. Ugh.

What also irked me was the way that these characters talked. It felt inauthentic and it annoyed me most of the time. Especially when Cazz used the word “r*tard*d”. I absolutely hated that. What was realistic about this book was the love story between Ran and Ken Z, especially in the setting similar to North and South Korea. I wished we would have seen more of them and see more of Ran’s point of view. I’m sure he had so much going through his head and I really wanted to pick his brain.

While this book definitely had some negatives, I want to look at the positives.

The Oscar Wilde references were EVERYTHING! and I thought it was so cute that they had a book club dedicated to him! The writing style again was my favorite part of this book because it kept me on my toes and it kept me reading. I was never discouraged to read and was never bored of it because of the way the author wrote this book. Not a lot of people prefer it, but I think it was a nice touch to a book dedicated to Oscar Wilde.

All in all, a story with so much potential, but needed work :/ I’m sad that I didn’t enjoy this more, but I did enjoy it!