I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I cried a bit when reading this book because it opened an old wound.
Love, Heather is painful, emotional, upsetting and it's really good.
This book hits me hard. Unputdownable, unforgettable, and too real.

This for me is a book I could not finish, I started it and tought the story seemed interesting, but unfortunatly, it rapidly lost my interest, I had trouble followinf the story line.

Having grown up loving the movie Heathers, I thought for sure I would immediately love a book based on a similar premise. I did fly through this book, which is a big part of why it got 3 stars. Unfortunately, I didn't love it after all was said and done. While I did love the twist and didn't see that coming, the ending was underwhelming for me. Also, it got hard to follow around the time everyone joined in on the "Love, Heather" movement. Characters were left with unresolved issues and it just felt like in the race to get to the ending, things were left out and rushed. Overall I enjoyed the read, but I didn't love it like I thought I would.

I will eventually feature this on my IG and blog. I've been on a break from posting because of the racial tension in the US. I feel at this point it's more important for POC and BIPOC authors to have the spotlight than it is for my own content.

This plot was so disturbing, maybe it affected me more because I am a mother and it pains me to see a child buckle under peer pressure. Are children out there so ruthless ? Who is to blame ? The parents, the school or the system ?

Stevie's story began well, a sweet girl with a best friend starting school. A single mother who is fun to hang out with. So far so good. And then everything changes. Her mother is too busy for her, her best friend alienates her, her mentor is involved in his own issues and there is no one to support her the time she is bullied. Painful catcalls, pranks, online trolling.. she has to face them all, ALONE.

Until Dee comes into the picture. Dee is like a vigilante, who is setting out to give justice to those who bully. And Stevie knows she has to help Dee teach everyone a lesson. But she feels Dee is crossing the lines and she is not comfortable in accompanying Dee on her revenge actions. Can she stop Dee ? Who is Dee ?

The end could have been so much worse, and that realization troubles me because we have seen such cases happening across the world. School and college are meant to be educative but fun, but children these days are under so much pressure. Bullying destroys innocent lives. The scars never heal, many lives are altered forever. I wish everyone, especially the adults, actively participates in their child's lives. Teach them compassion, teach them forgiveness, teach them strength and most of all, just be there for them.

That being said, I liked the way the story was written. Real-time struggles of peer pressure depicted very well. Each and every relation was given a good phase and slowly moves to isolation/ignorance. Dee's character was something that gave Stevie strength and the end where Stevie has to fight before she loses herself to Dee is also very moving.

My heart is heavy and I hope all children live a carefree childhood before they face the pressures of adulthood.

Love, Heather Review

I don’t normally read YA anymore but this one interested me. I found it very well written and relatable. I haven’t been 14 in a very long time but I do remember it. I liked Stevie as a character, she was well thought out and honest. I think it definitely shows how bullying is getting out of control. I definitely recommend this to those who are fans of YA that deal with heavier subject matter.

Stevie never meant for things to go this far. When she and Dee--defiant, bold, indestructible Dee--started all this, there was a purpose to their acts of vengeance: to put the bullies of Woepine High School back in their place. And three months ago, Stevie believed they deserved it. Once her best friend turned on her, the rest of the school followed. Stevie was alone and unprotected with a target on her back. Online, it was worse.

It was Dee's idea to get them all back with a few clever pranks, signing each act Love, Heather--an homage to her favorite 80's revenge flick. Despite herself, Stevie can't help getting caught up in the payback, reveling in every minute of suffering. And for a while, it works: it seems the meek have inherited the school.

But when anonymous students begin joining in, punishing perceived slights with increasingly violent ferocity, the line between villain and vigilante begins to blur. As friends turn on each other and the administration scrambles to regain control, it becomes clear: whatever Dee and Stevie started has gained a mind--and teeth--of its own. And when it finally swallows them whole, one will reemerge changed, with a plan for one final, terrifying act of revenge.

This a great story that involves so many issues that affect young people today. Stevie has a best friend named Lottie, they have grown up together and now they are 14 and things are beginning to change. They both start hanging out with the "popular" crowd, but Lottie seems to be bonding a lot more with them than Stevie is. Slowly Lottie starts spending more time with these girls, and Stevie is left feeling alone. The popular kids start bullying Stevie, and she feels completely isolated at school, but her savior appears in a punk-rock girl named Dee. Suddenly Stevie and Dee are thick as thieves, and they think it is time that the popular kids get a taste of their own medicine, a type of vigilante justice. How far is too far when it comes to retaliation and bullying? And it raises the most important question.... "was it really that bad?". Great read with a lot of relevant material for young adults, they honestly should be teaching this book in schools. Highly recommend!

Wow. I was not expecting to love this book as much as I did! Books like this are why I love YA. The characters were so well fleshed out, with so much emotional depth. This story has been done similarly many times, but Love, Heather tops them all for me. I did not see that final twist coming at all!

Man, what can I say about this book? I seriously read it in one sitting. I pretty much stayed up all night because I couldn’t stop reading. This was a book full of crazy pranks, revenge, and twists. I could have never guessed what the truth was, and I feel like I am pretty good and figured out what is going to happen. This book was an insanely wild ride that you won’t be able to put down.

We follow a girl named Stevie who is dealing with having her best friend since forever, make new friends with some of the popular girls. Stevie, as a lot of young girls, deals with jealousy and is scared that she is losing her best friend. She has no idea how to deal with it and just wants everything to go back to normal. She tries to fit in with the new group, but she just isn’t clicking. Then she is accused of something and the rumors get out of hand at school. She starts getting bullied in school, badly. I felt so bad for Stevie. I cried a lot with her and got angry with her.

In comes Dee. A girl she has seen around at school but has always intimidated her. Dee befriends Stevie and is the total opposite of her. Dee doesn’t give a crap about anything or anyone. And she encourages Stevie to do the same. And they decided to take the school by storm with their revenge. There is a lot of talk about the movie Heathers, which I have never seen but want to after reading this book.

I recommend this book for sure. It’s a fast read, very intense, but worth it.

Right, this definitely isn’t something you should judge a book on, but I really, really loved our protagonist, Stevie, and wanted to be mates with her from the first couple of pages of this novel. Petrou writes her film-smart, teenaged protagonist with such a nuanced sense of the excitement and loneliness that comes with being a young teenager. This book – really cleverly – feels like a movie; with all of these snapshots of small-town life that just sort of fill you up from the inside. Laurie Petrou has somehow, inexplicably, managed to transform that longing you have to belong when you’re fourteen into a setting, which is absolutely incredible and highly commendable.

The plot itself is a little predictable, but when the premise of your novel is that it’s based on the overdone plots in old high school revenge films, you will run into some tired tropes that everyone’s kind of expecting. It doesn’t detract from the story too much.

Love, Heather is a little too ambitious. A couple of exciting premises and ideas are dropped prematurely to better help the story’s existing themes flow a little smoother.

Honestly, this novel seems like it was rushed towards the end. The first half is fantastic, this slow burn that takes a deep dive into bullying in the modern age. But it feels like Petrou got a little bored and wanted to pack in the final parts of the novel so she could write in her twists (which are, admittedly, completely disarming and unexpected, but also kind of jarringly underdeveloped). I thought, as I was starting to read this novel, that I was reading one of the best pieces in a long time. The author is clearly extremely talented and basically has the art of rearranging words down to a tee, but the pace and plot left a little to be desired; perhaps another hundred pages or so.

Love, Heather is a sort of coming-of-age, finding-your-place novel that feels a bit like a hug from a friend, but this one packs a punch with its strong characters. Give it a read for the incredible wordsmithery and ridiculously relatable characters, but be wary of a rushed and disappointing ending.

I will not be able to review this book! I won’t be be able to finish this book due to the content. It had a lot of potential but I did not work for me.

First of all, thanks to NetGalley for approving my request and sending me an eARC in exchange for a honest review.
You have to know English isn’t my first language, so feel free to correct me if I make some mistakes while writing this review.


4,5 stars.

TRIGGER WARNINGS: bullying, cyberbullying, sexual harassment, slit-shaming, toxic female friendships, toxic masculinity, transphobic language.

Saying somenthing more than what the blurb already says could potentially be a spoiler. You don't want that, do you?

Stevie is a freshmen in a jungle called high school. She's got her best friend Lottie beside her, it's true, but Lottie is hanging out with the cool kids and every time she tries to fit with them, Stevie falls flat on her jokes like she's trying maybe too hard to be funny or friendly.
I've been there, so I know what it's like.

Then it comes the day Lottie turns her back on her and with Lottie so does the entire school.
Stevie is bullied in school and online on social media, her father is living somewhere else with another woman and her mother is too busy dating around, hoping to rebuild a new romantic life for herself.
Stevie is alone, depressed, angry and terrified.

Dee seems the only one who wants to be her friend: she has the same passion Stevie has for movies and she's all about revenge and social justice - the only way for the bullies to learn the consequences of their actions is to let them taste their own medicine on their own skin.

Stevie and Dee start a series of pranks to punish the major bullies in school, but soon everyone feels entitled to do the same in retaliation for the minimum offence.
When is it too far? What is the point that makes you say you've crossed the line?


It was so easy for me to understand Stevie because I was bullied my entire adolescence - I still rememeber those who caused me a panic attack at fourteen when I was on the bus going home from school.
All her feelings were something I felt myself when I was her age and I don't deny I fantasized many times about revenge and making them hurt like I was hurting. But I didn't have the means or maybe I wasn't tough enough.

The author did an excellent job with Stevie and the world where she lives in.
Through Stevie, she tackles themes such as bullying, consent, toxic masculinity, social justice, education, female friendships, the way adults tend to underestimate bullying and pain.
Stevie is so relatable if you ever experienced even a little bit of bullying - you won't be able to put down this book. It's painful and it hurts, but it's so realistic you can't help yourself from turning the pages.

That plot-twist I didn't really see it coming - and now I understand the weight of certain phrases.
I only wish the ending were a little bit longer, to really see the consequences after the climax - not just for Stevie, but for those directly involved.

Still, this book is a necessary reading and I'm so grateful social media didn't exist when I was a teenager.

The bullied turn into the bullies. A twist on a typical trope. An emotional, entertaining, disturbing nail biter. A great read from beginning to end, keeping me entertained throughout.

“The high school cafeteria. The great leveler of high school movies. It’s where the entire mass of beauties and weirdos come together to eat and do so much more: try to fit in, wish lunch would end, laugh with friends or stare at people they have crushes on. It is universally different and the same…”

…

“Nothing really seems to be happening, but everything matters.”

Things at Woepine high school have gotten out of control. What started as a few harmless pranks to get back at few bullies and ruthless popular kids, quickly turned into a full-on war where anyone could be next. It wasn’t just the Haves vs. the Have Nots anymore, anyone can be a target and anyone could be taken down. But things weren’t supposed to go this far. Dee said that they just needed to be taught a lesson. That once they knew what it felt like to be cast aside and stepped on, that it would end. But Dee took things too far, and Stevie let her. But when Stevie finally becomes the target of a callous prank at a party, it is everyone who will feel the force of this final act of revenge.

“No one will tell. No one says anything.

I didn’t do anything, they’re thinking.

They did everything.

They did nothing.”

This Heathers re-imagining shares a theme with the 1988 film of taking down bullies and giving them a taste of their own medicine, but that’s where the similarities end. Love, Heather is a gritty story about the complicated workings of teenage life in high school, and what drives a human to unspeakable acts when threatened or cast out by their peers. It touches on incredibly important issues of bullying, rape culture, social media witch hunts and the effects of social isolation. I came into this story expecting a lighthearted contemporary packed with drama and some epic payback, but what I got was a punch to the gut and a wicked threat to my tear ducts.

“The only thing this school has ever made me feel is different. Weird. A Freak. I tried to fit in, and then I tried to change that place, and neither worked. And so, I’ll do things my way. I am an artist. A Maker. I’m not like anyone else. I am different.”

For most of this book, I was reveling in the creative pranks that went from juvenile to borderline felony-worthy. I love an underdog story. One where a quiet or less socially-inclined individual (or individuals) rises up to put an arrogant bully in their place. To show them what it feels like to have their physical and spiritual identity shredded to pieces because it doesn’t fit into a specific social construct. It’s a feeling most of us can identify with and have experienced, so naturally, I love when the “Weirdo” or “loner” rises up.

But let me tell you, this book goes from “Tuesday afternoon read” to “sitting in your room alone, staring off into the darkness for hours contemplating your feelings” really quickly.

Throughout the story there are little hints as to how our main character, Stevie, feels about her friends and her home life. Her parents are divorced and she lives with her mother, who she feels is a close friend to her. They would spend so much time together watching movies and talking, and when her mother suddenly gets a new boyfriend, Stevie is brushed to the side. At home, she feels forgotten and isolated. Gone are her coveted mother-daughter moments of bonding. But to make matters worse, Stevie’s best friend turns on her as well. Lottie and her go from being inseparable, to barely speaking, in yet another case of Stevie being left behind. Lottie is inducted into a crowd of more popular kids, but they deem Stevie to be less than worthy of a position among them. They begin to bully Stevie, and Lottie sits back and does nothing to defend her friend. Stevie is left alone with no one to turn to, and no one to have her back.

“I try to be myself, but no one wants that.”

But when Dee enters the picture, everything changes. Dee is everything that Stevie isn’t. She is sure of herself and her beliefs. Her convictions are strongly rooted inside her and she speaks her mind. She is fearless, strong, assured, alluring and infectious. And she sees Stevie and takes her under her wing, giving her a hand to hold onto. A voice to speak through and a friend to confide in.

“I hid from you, but you found me.”

She gives Stevie the confidence to take charge and make a difference in her life, and so together, they begin the “Love, Heather” movement: a series of pranks that are left with a message saying “Love, Heather”, to those who have hurt others or deserve a little payback. And just as fast, other kids in the school begin adopting the signature and performing their own acts of rebellion against the people who have wronged them. Eventually, the entire school is flipped upside down and nobody is safe.

It feels like this author dipped their hands into my heart and head and pulled out every spec of heartbreak, fear and social guideline that I ever found myself in. Laurie Petrou perfectly showcases the strange nuances in teenage life. The pressure to feel included and seen by your peers. The irrational importance of high school etiquette of what to say, think, and wear. She highlights the minuscule things we would latch onto and obsess over – a strategically placed period in a text or seeing someone from your school and pretending you don’t know each other. The struggles to fit in and the awkward encounters in this story feel so real and raw, and it left me feeling anxious with flashbacks from my own experiences in high school.

Even if you have never seen or heard of the movie Heathers, I beg you to read this book. Give it to a teenager or a sibling, or just read it yourself and basque in the memories of how torturous teenage life was. But above all, remember this message and speak up when others are being bullied.

Sometimes all someone needs is a knowledge that they matter.

I felt it tried to take on too much. Some of the story seemed unrealistic. I also don't understand the ending for Dee. It is filled with lessons and morals though, and definitely a topic that needs to be talked about.

*I received an eARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own. *

When I first read the premise of this book I was excited. "Heathers" was one of my favorite movies, and I thought that the plot had promise. Now that I have finished it, I can say that it fell a little flat to me. I couldn't sympathize with the main character, Stevie, even though she was definitely the victim in this scenario. The fact that not a single person in her life bothered to listen to her, including her mom, sort of made me hate everyone in the book. None of the characters was particularly likeable, which doesn't make for a good book for me. I was sightly amused by the "pranks" that were going on around the school, but the premise of the book made it sound like they got awful and violent-- when it wasn't really THAT bad until the end. I saw the "twist" coming from a mile away, and sort of had to force myself to finish the book. It wasn't the worst thing I've ever read, but it isn't something I would read again or even recommend.

As a teacher I know how overused the word "bullying" has become. Everything someone doesn't like is now labeled as "bullying" which has diluted the real meaning of the word. This book is about bullying. Real bullying. Stevie falls on the wrong side of the cool kids. She saw who they were and didn't really care until she was the target. That's important to point out because many characters and many people do not give real bullying any weight until they or someone they care about is the target. Stevie watches as her once best friend stands by and allows the treatment she receives.

Stevie could have handled one or two people saying things about her. She could have handled a few days of it. This was a sustained attack. She had no power and no reprieve. She tried as long as she could. Hanging on the sidelines was Dee. Dee was ready to make them all pay for their attacks, from bullying to assault. Stevie wanted nothing to do with Dee. She just wanted to go on with her life. As the attacks on Stevie escalated to daily personal and cyber attacks and even physical assault, she finally decided to let Dee into her life.

With Dee and a few other fringe and targeted students, Stevie starts to fight back. Fueled by teenage revenge films, like Heathers, Stevie and her friends sign their work Love, Heather. Soon, the signature is showing up on acts Stevie is not involved in. She hopes that she can make people see, but it is getting out of control.

My least favorite part of this was the attempt at a "twist". Is that required by publishers right now? It was completely obvious to the point of distracting. I understand where the author was going with it, but it has been done. The ending and the discussion about bullying, assault, rape culture, and sexual identity all make this a good read for teens and for anyone who works with children.

Thanks to Netgalley, Laurie Petrou, and Crooked Lane Books for the ARC of this book.

I have a lot of feelings about Laurie Petrou's Love, Heather. Love, Heather tells the story of Stevie, a cinephile high schooler who's caught up in a vicious circle of bullying, seemingly instigated by her lifelong best friend. To keep her head above water, she befriends new girl Dee, and things rapidly go downhill from there. Dee is crazy and unpredictable, and in classic 1980s Heathers style, starts pulling insane stunts on the student body to get back at them.

Without going into spoilers, there's a massive twist that the book summary does not prepare you for, which I think people should know going in. This is not the story you think it's going to be, but it is a story you maybe need more than the one the back of the book prepares you for.

Stevie is the daughter of divorced parents, living with her beautician mother, who's practically a serial dater. She spends most of her time dreaming about the days when her parents were together or when she had her mother's time and attention, but really both parents have abandoned her. She's about as latchkey kid as I can imagine. Her only saving grace for years had been her best friend's family, who treated her as one of their own. But when her best friend's mom starts to transition, she's left out in the cold there too, with her best friend turning on her for supporting her transitioning parent.

Then the bullying starts. Stevie gets it worse than anything I can imagine. I can't help but think that Petrou, a Canadian native, leaned in on the story of Amanda Todd, who was similarly tortured through school bullying both in the school and via social media. That Stevie is still standing when she meets Dee is a miracle. Through Dee, she pulls together a small group of friends, as they all prank the school, getting back at their tormentors. Slowly but surely, things spiral far out of control. This is a bit of a morals book, I have to say. Two wrongs clearly don't make a right, and Petrou doesn't let us forget it.

Overall, it's an interesting read. Decisions and choices feel natural and shaped well until the final events, but once you're in it, even that makes its own twisted sort of sense. Petrou has a strong understanding of how bad things really can get in our digital world and how unprotected teens really are against all of it.

Review will be published to website on December 24th, 2019.

A twisted story of revenge that is so nuanced that sometimes you feel like you are underwater waiting for your next breath.

Once in a while you read a book that hits you so hard that you are literally crying over the last chapters especially if you have suffered in some ways as the main character. I want to introduce you to Stevie a young girl who has just started High School in Canada who has a long time friend that is until her friend goes with others and Stevie is subjected to so many acts of bullying. This is the main reason why it got me as I too have suffered from the age of 5-16 and even as a adult. I felt Stevie's pain. The only thing that did confuse me was the title Love Heather and I was thinking why that title then I realised that it was based on the movie classic Heathers. I want to thank the pubishers and Netgalley for letting me read Laurie Petrou's novel Love Heather and think it should be read by all maybe even put on School's reading lists. For this reason there is no doubt in my mind to give this amazing book 5 stars

Rating- 2.5⭐ (closer to a 3 than a 2)

First of all, I'd like to thank Netgalley and Crooked Lane Books for providing me with an e-ARC of this book in exchange of an honest review. All the following opinions are my own.

So. Love, Heather. Right.

The reason I requested this book was predominantly the cover. It gave off a very thriller-y vibe and I skimmed the description and it felt really intriguing. Having read the whole book now, I have to say, I am disappointed. While the book is written well and reads very quickly, it just didn't do what it set out to do well, in my opinion.

Trigger Warnings/Content Warnings--Sexual Assault, Bullying, Depression, Familail issues, Transphobia, School Shootings.

The story of Love, Heather is basically what I'd categorise as a YA revenge drama, and I feel like it had so much potential that it just didn't take advantage of. It follows the protagonist, a 14 year named Stevie, as she gets into some weird shit in her freshmen year of high-school. She loses her oldest, best friend, gets bullied, gets assaulted - although it isn't explicitly mentioned that it happens, it is heavily implied- and all this trauma pushes her into a corner where she resorts to drastic actions.

I think what the story set out to do was really great. The author wanted to tell the story of how suffering, when internalised, can cause immense damage to someone, even if it doesn't seem "that bad" to the rest of us. I think the conversation that this book would spark is one that we desperately need to have as a society, and I totally understand that it is not easy to write about trauma of this kind. However, the heartfelt subject matter of a book does not omit it from criticism, in my opinion. A good message intended is not the same as a message well delivered and that's where this book is severely lacking.

It takes the book well over half its entirety to finally dip into the plot, and that was one of the most annoying things about it. I realize the importance of establishing a character dynamic in a story, but it just took too long with this one. A lot of the incitation of the turbulence in the relationship of Lottie and Stevie felt super forced, anyway, so I don't really see why the author couldn't have skipped a few steps ahead in the story. A large majority of the first part of the book was like watching a bad rip off of Mean Girls, except it wasnt even that good. It was just a lot of partying and silly drama between girls and it was just kind of stupid. Also, these characters are supposed to be fourteen, but they definitely act like they're a bunch of 17-18 olds and I had to keep readjusting my brain to the idea that they were literal CHILDREN the whole time. It took me out of the story quite a few times. The inner monologue of the main character is nuanced in a way that a fourteen year old's mind wouldn't be. While the age makes sense for some of the characteristics of Stevie and the others, it doesn't for a majority of what happens in this story. (or maybe I'm just not seeing it because I'm not North American)

The story kind of starts taking shape after the bullying starts, but again, I felt unable to sympathise with the main character, because the way she is depicted just annoyed me. I did not feel bad, I felt like she was being whiny. I don't know if this was intentional - a way to show how teenagers can sometimes amplify their emotions in their heads and that might lead to an explosive reaction under the influence of certain stressors- or if it wasnt, but either way, I couldn't find it in myself to feel sorry for Stevie. I knew what was going on was bad, and I knew she didn't deserve it, but I just couldn't bring myself to care because I couldn't connect with her character at a core level. And that really messed with the experience of reading this novel for me.

Speaking of the "twist" in the book, I mean, REALLY?? Did the author really try to pull a fucking Fight Club in this weird teen drama?? I felt like it was some kind of joke. Again, I'm not discounting the kind of trauma that causes a condition like this in actual, real life people, but the execution of this trope in the book was....bad. There were moments in the novel where Dee interacted with others while Stevie also interacted with them. And it wasn't even in a "maybe it was all in her head" way. They presented opposite opinions to a common friend regarding something. How does that track with the twist? I don't know, man. Also, it just felt like the twist was put in place to tell us how bad the trauma was. It didn't feel natural. It's very hard to take a concept that is as delicate as an alternative personality and inculcate it in a natural way in a story of any kind, especially if you want to keep it a secret till the end. And I just feel like this book was a let down when it came to that. I know the intended reaction was "OH MY GOD she was so broken!" but my reaction was more like

And not in a good way.

I don't have anything bad to say about the relationships depicted in the book. Some dialogue was clunky, and some relationships were weird because of it. The actions of certain characters didn't make any goddamn sense. But these were minor things and minor characters and flaws that were more or less anticipated.

All in all, I just felt like the author tried to take on way too much in terms of the themes she wanted to explore, and did not craft a story that was able to naturally encompass these themes within it. Like I said, the book was actually pretty decently written, but everything else about it was something of a mess. I can totally see how this book might help people, though, but it just wasn't an impactful one for me.