(3.5 Stars)
This book took many more turns than I ever thought it would.
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Love, Heather is about a movie loving, YouTube channel hosting girl named Stevie who sadly has gone through what many teenagers have experienced: bullying. Once her best friend turns on her and it seems that the entire school hates her, she finds refuge in the spunky, IDGAF girl named Dee. Dee decides to take matters in her own hands and they become the school’s vigilantes with personalized pranks and the tag line “Love, Heather” on each of them. It starts to get out of control and Stevie then finds herself in the same place as before: not knowing who she is. The story takes a drastic, deadly turn that really makes you think. .
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This book was hard for me to read, which I think was the author’s point. It touches on bullying, transphobia, slut-shaming, and gun violence. While there were a few plot holes in my opinion, I think it is really important to read this. This ending is sadly a reality and it sheds light on problems that are in our schools today. It took unexpected turns and it didn’t have the nice, lovely ending that normally happens in YA. For that, I was thankful. I really enjoyed this piece.

(Also posted on my GR account!)

"...it wasn't that bad, or it was really bad."

Whoa. Just whoa. This book messed me up and it had this intensity that made me had to put it down for a while before coming back because holly crap I got cold all over my body and I was shaking during the climax.

There are a lot to unpack and a lot that I should/could write about, but I couldn't stop endorsing the book enough and is not coherent enough to write anything worthy to judge it.

I'm so gonna buy the book when it's available on BD.

Love, Heather completely caught me off guard but not necessarily all in a good way. What I thought would be a book that was mainly about getting revenge (one of my favorite plots for books) became so much more than that. I really appreciate Petrou’s choice to be brutally honest and not lead us to think that teenagers are just living in rainbows and unicorns. In this book, it’s far from that. The honesty in Love, Heather was at times shocking and at its most intense moments, I struggled to even read through all of it.

The reason why I couldn’t give this book five stars though was because I actually thought the book tackled too many issues and at least in my case, I didn’t like a single character in the book. But I know the point wasn’t to like the characters, including the main character, Stevie.

Besides the bullying itself, there was just so much going on, and while that’s true to real life—teenagers have A LOT going on—I think I would've given this book a higher rating if it had focused on two or three issues instead of several. Having so much to tackle in the book, especially towards the end, made it hard for me to fully consider all of the issues that were there.

One thing, however, that I absolutely loved and that devastated me was the book’s twist! I usually tend to pick up on when a twist’s coming, but this I NEVER even saw coming. It was exhilarating going back to previous chapters to see where the author had left clues, which I’d totally missed.

Laurie Petrou was also so descriptive with her writing of the characters’ emotions, it made me feel them too. When Stevie was angry I was angry, and my blood was even boiling at some of the things that happened to her.

Love, Heather wasn’t a book where I fell in love with the characters or want to read more of anytime soon, but it was an unforgettable one, with a twist that was extremely well done!

Going into this book, I was pretty excited. High school revenge and references to classic eighties films? Count me in. As I was reading though, the book took too long to actually get to all the revenge, and when it got there, it tried to focus on too many other things. It had good concepts and I like the attempt to bring light to some serious topics that are going on right now, but everything felt too watered down because of it. The plot started by focusing on bullying, social media, and sexuality, then focused on the sex ed issue and rape culture then ended with school shootings and mental health. It was all too much. I did feel for Stevie, I really did, but with everything going on, she didn't seem to be the most important thing which was a shame because I think the whole book was supposed to follower her. I do think Love, Heather has some real, valid points but there are too many problems.

Also Dee? She wasn't a real person at all? Maybe I just missed some of the clues, but it seemed too random. That on top of Stevie losing her friend Lottie(for reasons I'm still unclear about), her mom having a new boyfriend, and the environmental club, it was too much.

Good ideas, but it was trying too hard. I think I would've liked it better if it just cut all the issues except for maybe two. As I said at the beginning of this review, there's way too much going on for it to have made any impact.

Oh man. This book is not exactly what I thought it was going to be.

The bullied becomes the bullies in this dark read by Laurie Petrou. This book is a slow burn that leads to a dark area that I wasn't really expecting, even though I feel like I should have been.

Stevie and Lottie have been best friends forever, but as things in Lottie's life change, so does Lottie. Suddenly she's hanging out with a new crowd and there's not very much room left for Stevie.

When things become bad for Stevie at school, she slowly finds a new group of friends. And that's when things take a turn for the dark.

At first Stevie and her friends choose to just do some harmless pranks to get back at the kids who have done the bullying. But soon things change and it's clear that someone's out for revenge.

I will warn you all that although this book is good it isn't for the faint of heart. In fact it's violent and sort of in the 13 Reasons Why vein. So read with caution.

Love, Heather is a unique book and truly its own. The characters are interesting and go through some difficult things.

Love,Heather was an okay read for me.

I actually DNFed it at 70 pages because the narration felt off and I didn't connect with either of the characters.

But, DNFing for me is not something I like and so I decided to log in to Goodreads and check what others thought about it. And the 4s and 5 star ratings, definitely prompted me to give it one more chance.

So, I started the book again with an open mind. I still couldn't connect with any character except the MC and she too wasn't someone I was much fond of. But I loved how the plot played out.

The narration somewhat got better and pulled me in and the twist was absolutely out of the blue.

Stevie likes her world the way it is - she's got her best friend Lottie, her mom, and life is good. She has a YouTube channel of movie commentary on old-school flicks that she doesn't really publicize. But when Lottie starts hanging out with the popular girls, and turns on Stevie when they do, Stevie becomes a social pariah.

As her world spirals out of control, she makes a new friend, Dee, who shares some of Stevie's affinity for old movies. In particular, the girls relate to Heathers and the idea of taking revenge against the popular kids. Dee eventually convinces Stevie that they should take some retaliatory action against those popular students, signing their pranks "Love, Heather."

But the pranks don't make things better - in fact, they seem to get worse. And author Laurie Petrou takes the reader down a rabbit hole of suspense and surprise, to a twist ending one would never suspect.

Stevie as a character is easy to love and pity - you just want to help her make things better every time something happens to make her feel worse. Add in the female-to-male transition of Lottie's former mom, who is now "Pete" and Stevie's homeroom teacher, and Petrou really touches on a lot of sensitive issues throughout this book in a well-developed novel.

Stevie's first year of high school isn't going as planned; as if being 14 wasn't already difficult enough, her mom has started dating again, and she is slowly losing her best friend to a clique of popular kids who seem determined to humiliate and ostracize her. As her loved ones start to drift away from her, Stevie finds herself drawn in by enigmatic new girl Dee, who shares her love of teen revenge films. Together, the two start serving justice as they see fit, but it quickly starts to spiral out of control.

Petrou tackles a lot in this book, including YA staples such as difficult parental relationships and friendships falling apart, to more complicated topics like parents publicly transitioning and bullying, of both the online and in real life varieties. And it is deftly handled, for the most part: some of the social justice discourse seems plucked straight from tumblr, but that feels authentic for the age and hey, sometimes these things need to be as subtle as a brick to the head in order to be properly heard.

It's been a bit since I was 14, but I thought this book's strongest asset was how well it captured that feeling of "sort-of-still-a-kid, sort-of-kind-of-a-young-adult, completely at sea and miserable but also elated and ready to take on the world" dichotomy of being a teen. This passage, though a bit more tell-than-show, summed it up well:

"Every joke is hilarious; every shitty thing that happens to any one of us is a tragedy. I suffer terrible bouts of FOMO when I can't meet up with them. We are all up in each other's social media; we compliment one another's pics with a range of fire and heart emojis because we are the most gorgeous, hilarious, brilliant, and strong creatures any of us has ever encountered."

That, to me, is the essence of teenage friendships and relationships: all-powerful and consuming. So it makes sense when Stevie falls so far off the track with Dee so quickly, because that's how it is when you're 14.

Overall, a solid novel that suffered from a few pacing issues and, to me, a frustrating ending, but definitely worth a look. 3.5/5

The bullied become the bullies in this dark and timely drama.

“It’s people like us against the world, Stevie.” I roll my eyes and mutter, “You don’t even know me.” “Sure I do. You and me? We’re the same.”

Omggggg I hate not being able to say anything that would spoil this book. It's like holding onto a secret you've been told, just waiting for it to inevitably get out so you have others to say omggggg with.

The author has done a stellar job at capturing the gut-wrenching toll that bullying takes on a freshman girl named Stevie, both at school and on social media.

Stevie is relatable and likable, her thoughts are realistic, her pain is palpable. Everybody in her life lets her down leading to a downward spiral into desperation and despair.

This is a fast read, a one-sitting type of book. It's easy to get wrapped up in Stevie's life. The pacing of a story can make or break a book for me and Petrou has mastered the art.

If the book is so good, why not five stars? I'm glad you asked.

I felt like the ending was rushed. Very rushed. This book could easily take on another 50 pages and give the readers a deeper delve into the psyche of Stevie as she is propelled towards the dramatic ending.

Additionally, the story wraps up too neatly. This book sorta kinda might maybe glamorize revenge and suggest that the effect of such actions results in negligible consequences. Not just for the MC but for the peripheral characters as well.

I cannot imagine growing up in the current digital age. I've no doubt I would have been lured and kidnapped by a perv posing as a hot guy.


* Note to the Author: Sally Field wasn't in the movie Terms of Endearment. That's Shirley MacLaine.


** I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. **

With a touch of 80s nostalgia and an October release date, this is one harrowing tale that will be devoured quickly.

High school student, Stevie is being bullied by the popular kids at school and life is increasingly unbearable. When she meets Dee they set up a plan to get revenge inspired by 80s classic movie Heathers. But the Love, Heather pranks are taking on a life of their own and the stakes are getting higher.

Bullying, rape culture, sexuality and gender, mental health and the power of social media are all explored in a novel which is both thrilling and thought-provoking.
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Thank you @netgalley for the advanced copy in return for an honest review.

Four hating the guts of every kind of bullying, darkest, agitating, nail biter, disturbing but also educative, complicated, emotions all over the place, cannot gather my thoughts, I’m mumbling strange words, I think this book made me learn Gibberish stars!

“The test of courage comes when we are in the minority. The test of tolerance comes when we are in the majority.”

I think this might be the best book which should be read by not only YAs but also by their parents as well. It’s provocative, unconventional, realistic, harsh, painful, gut wrenching but definitely each word is written on those pages hits harder than fists. They’re effective, emotional, strong, transforming, embracing.

If you watch Michael Lehmann’s movie Heathers, you may remember J.D. ‘s line( the character who played by Christian Slater): “ The only place different social types can genuinely get along with each other is in heaven”.

That’s the great summary about dealing differences with the others and learning to live peacefully together.
But as humans, our first trial at high school doesn’t teach how to behave, learn to respect our peers’ rights and communicate with them with words instead of fists or any kind bullying ( from cyber to verbal), it means we failed at the beginning.

On this book, we’re firstly introduced to Stevie who seems like a high school student, but she’s more looking like a survivor in the jungle where is full of wild, disrespectful, furious animals in human form. First she started to drift apart from her best friend Lottie. Then she fast-friended with Dee.

Both of them know that turning their faces other way around when you’re witnessing bullying makes you the partner of crime so they decide to take an action. And they come up with a plan to solve their problem which goes viral and gets out of control, drag them to the dangerous place.

Mostly this book froze my blood, sobered me up, frightened me a lot because it was not the fiction, there are so many real life articles telling us stories like that ( some of them may be more terrifying)

It was an amazing, fast-pacing, attention capturing reading. I consumed it at one seat.

Only two things I didn’t like too much:
Too much teenage drama parts repeat themselves and the FAMOUS, MERCILESS, WTF TWIST! Yeap, my mouth still open, I never ever see that coming so the author did a great job. But I wish she did that a little before. Because there are so many juicy elements over there and you want to read more about them.

Laurie Petrou is definitely a talented, well-rounded author who brings our attention to one of the most terrible facts about bullying, mental health, destructive effects of technology and rape culture. She did a great job and

I’m so satisfied to read her words and witness her gifted writing.

1Thank you Crooked Lane Books and NetGalley to share this brilliant book with me in exchange my honest review.

I really enjoyed the first 85% of this book so very much as it detailed the school life of Stevie who is on the verge of entering one of the popular cliques at school with her best friend Lottie when she makes a faux pas, and even her best friend of many years disowns her. That’s when the bullying begins. This is a very timely book as it discusses trans, transphobia, bullying, and school shootings. The book excelled in making teens sound like teens and having Stevie deal with bullying in a very realistic way for teens today (both in school and online).

But everything changes for Stevie when she befriends the loner, Dee who encourages her to rise up against the bullies and exact revenge. Soon, other kids are taking notice and the popular clique is getting what they deserve, although the author does explore the premise of the grey area where sometimes revenge becomes another form of bullying.

For anyone who has watched teen revenge movies ala Mean Girls, Heathers, and Carrie, you’ll love this book and cheer for our cinephile protagonist Stevie and Dee as they defy the high school hierarchy. My only issue with the book was that it got way too preachy towards the end of it. The message it was trying to convey was an important one, but it somehow sounded more like an after school special and so it took me out of the story.

I’m also confused by the fact that everyone keeps referring to this book as a thriller. First of all, we all know who started the Love, Heather revenge and nobody dies (I’m pretty sure there should be murder for a book to be considered a thriller, or at least a threat of murder, but that’s just me). Secondly, I’m getting really fed up with the plot twists for all books lately seem to be some form of mental illness. Mental illness shouldn’t be a plot twist, that’s just lazy writing! And lastly, Stevie never takes revenge on the one person that totally deserved it the whole time! Sure, they try to embarrass said person, but they never truly pay for their wrongdoings and that pisses me off when it’s a book about revenge.

I did enjoy the book a lot up to the plot twist and ending. The book is a page-turner because you do want to find out what is going to happen next, but all that climax for such a poor plot twist that was NEVER referenced in the conclusion since the protagonist conveniently decided not to mention it to anyone is what turned me off at the end. Which is sad, because I would’ve ranked this book higher had the last portion of the novel been better or more satisfying.

*Thank you so much to NetGalley and Penguin Random House for the digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

I remember the movie Heathers well, and I guess I went into Petrou's book assuming there'd be more black humor and a little less stomach-churning intensity, at least until later in the novel. But no, Stevie's descent into hell begins pretty much right from the start and keeps on getting worse. For me, what also made her ordeal so hard to read was the fact she was so young. That already in her first year, at the tender age of 14, she's having to navigate high school waters easily as dangerous as the shallows off Amity Island. This was a tough book to read, but an important one. It goes a long way in illustrating the destructive toll--especially in the social-media age--that bullying can take. I will not be forgetting "Love, Heather" anytime soon.

Love, Heather was a read that drew me in because of the cover, but I was surprised with how the book turned out. It actually took me a few hours to write this review because I felt like I needed an exhale and clear my mind.

This book talks about many issues that young adults face in this contemporary world, especially in high school. To be honest, it still amazes how teens can be so mean and cruel. Where do they get all that angst and anger?

Stevie, the main character, is childhood bestfriends with Lottie, but finds they are drifting apart after they were suddenly adopted by a cool Mean Girls-ish clique and school. Stevie struggles with maintaining a friendship without being overtly clingy, and spectacularly fails.

Things only get worse when Stevie gets bullied in school, which even gets worse online. Her former friend, Lottie, turned her back on her and she had no one else.

Stevie finds herself with a new friend, Dee, who is cool, mysterious and doesnt give a flying f*** about what other people think. They started talking about their small world's messed up sense of justice, and were eager to bring it to their own hands, 80s revenge flick style.

It started innocently with small pranks and a signature Love, Heather signature a la the film, Heathers. Suddenly, people in school saw them differently even though things were supposed to be anonymous. Then, slowly, other people joined in. Love, Heather became a series of anonymous instensifying pranks because of their twisted sense of justice.

But this is not the book's entire story. Suddenly, there was a plot twist that blew me away. Everything at the 75% mark until the story's conclusion was so intense that I was really in shock afterwards.

This book teaches so much of the value of mental health, the complexity of friendships and parent-child relationships, and how they can actually mess up a person and the life of people around them.

Kudos to author for that great build up as well as the writing style. Also, it was amazing how she showed that things are not always black and white. That humans, really, are complex and emotional beings.

This book is a strong recommendation for required reading for teenagers, even their parents and guardians. The unique insights are very valuable.

What you see isn't always what you get.
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 was such a strong, powerful story! It's a story that will stick with me for a very long time. An excellent debut!

#LoveHeather #NetGalley
Pub Date: 08 Oct 2019

What made Love, Heather so harrowing is how realistic the events are that lead Stevie to do what she did. How quickly things amongst a group of friends can spiral out of control and how quickly one can find themselves as the outsider, as the bullied one.
And the books also shows what constant bullying and harassing can do to (young) people and this is what made this a really heartbreaking read.
I just didn't completely warm to the writing style and the dialogues - they were sometimes a little too plain for my liking.
Thank you NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for this ebook!

Upon finishing this book, I had to take time to exhale and think. This is a powerful read and will touch on subjects that may be difficult for some.

It is brilliantly written and I beg of everyone to give this book a try. It will resonate with everyone because everyone has been or knows someone who has been bullied in one way or another. The feelings Stevie is bombarded with and the bullying she goes through will hit close to home.

Love, Heather makes us take a step back to wonder if we are part of the solution or the problem when it comes to bullying.

It takes on the breakdown and dissolution of systems. Family, friendships, school, and worse of all, self.

This is a fantastic read and an accurate portrayal of the trials teenagers of today are going through.

The way Laurie Petrou has of making you feel, understand and sympathize with Stevie throughout the story is phenomenal.

The tension in this book kept mounting until it simply exploded! When it did, all my emotions came rushing fourth. This! THIS! Is so worth the read!

A powerful must-read. This author hit the nail on its head with this book.

I received an ARC via NetGalley of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own!

Wow!

Thanks to Netgalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I am a bit blown away but probably shouldn’t be. In some ways you could see the ending to this coming a mile away and in others it was completely unexpected. I was actually pretty much bawling by the end of the book. But I really liked it also because of that. It definitely made me think and feel.

The book is about a girl named Stevie, who, over the course of a year gets bullied by the popular kids in school after her and her best friend start hanging out with them for a while. Though they like her friend better and she does something that makes one of them mad and gets on the outs with them and becomes a target. She then meets a new girl who, like her has a love of old movies and they decide to get back at some of the bullies by pulling pranks and leaving them signed “Love, Heather” like the movie Heathers from the 90’s where two kids get back at all the popular kids by killing them off.

Soon other bullied kids are pulling “Love, Heather” pranks and things begin to get out of hand at the school. There are a lot of side characters and most of the story revolves around things that go on In Stevie’s life and how everyone reacts to her. The thing about the book and these high school bully situations is that we all really like to see the bullies get their due. Because in real life we have all seen it and really they never do, or at least as far as we can see.

That is why movies like Heather’s are so popular and why the pranks take on a life of their own. But in the book as in life, the bullies don’t ever just take things lying down. It all comes to a head and Like I said, it is expected but unexpected and overall it was really worth reading. It wasn’t like anything I have read before and it did surprise me in the end. I know that is a bit wishy washy, but I really don’t want to give away too much. But also want to say I really did like it.