Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Collection
Publication
Square Fish (2018), Edition: Reprint, 384 pages
Description
In a secret organization that cultivates teenage spies, the stakes are high for two agents, Caden and Dylan, whose mission to compete for a girl destined for great power becomes complicated when Caden finds himself falling in love with his competition.
User reviews
LibraryThing member dk_phoenix
I think that it's really important for readers of this book to approach it in the right frame of mind: It's satire, through and through, lovingly poking fun at the YA romance genre in a way that pays strong tribute to the good aspects, subverts some of the bad aspects, and highlights some of the
The premise is, to start with, absolutely outrageous (go read it! then come back!) and once you've accepted that & are willing to suspend disbelief for the sake of the story... you're ready to dive in and get hooked! The story sets a fairly strong pace that pulls you through the events with little downtime, which is great for a tale that asks you to snort and roll your eyes at the trope subversion that's sometimes overt, sometimes subtle. I know that not everyone will be down with that -- and that's fine, not every book is for every person! -- but I appreciated the author being able to not take the genre too seriously even within his own story.
In the end, I selfishly wished that we'd had a chance to get to know Dyl better -- a few chapters from his perspective would have been awesome! -- but that's another thing that happens a lot of the time in YA... we only see through one person's eyes in a love triangle (not always, but certainly quite often). And can I just say I adore this cover?! It screams "spies!" to me and I freaking love it.
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more ridiculous elements that we've come to expect (and accept!) from teen romance. The premise is, to start with, absolutely outrageous (go read it! then come back!) and once you've accepted that & are willing to suspend disbelief for the sake of the story... you're ready to dive in and get hooked! The story sets a fairly strong pace that pulls you through the events with little downtime, which is great for a tale that asks you to snort and roll your eyes at the trope subversion that's sometimes overt, sometimes subtle. I know that not everyone will be down with that -- and that's fine, not every book is for every person! -- but I appreciated the author being able to not take the genre too seriously even within his own story.
In the end, I selfishly wished that we'd had a chance to get to know Dyl better -- a few chapters from his perspective would have been awesome! -- but that's another thing that happens a lot of the time in YA... we only see through one person's eyes in a love triangle (not always, but certainly quite often). And can I just say I adore this cover?! It screams "spies!" to me and I freaking love it.
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LibraryThing member TracyRowanAuthor
I'm a fan of young adult fiction... when it's done well. This was not done well. The plot is so contrived that I found myself saying repeatedly, "But that makes no sense!" or "For God's sake, why?" Briefly, the story is that young men and women are trained to be Love Interests for important people.
But wait! The group that trains them, some huge conglomerate which has been doing this for centuries we're told, sends two LIs out at a time because it's somehow more efficient. You know how when you've got two guys paying attention to you, you always will pick one to be your lifemate, especially when you're sixteen years old, right? Yeah. And the target here is a young woman who "aced her Mensa tests." What does that even mean? I've known a lot of people who did well on the Mensa test, and with all due respect I have to say that level of intellect alone never made them high achievers. But somehow Juliet's ability to score high on standardized tests makes her potentially so important that the company is willing to invest thousands of dollars of work in her. Because when she chooses one LI, the other is killed.
Yes, you read that right. The guy she doesn't choose is incinerated. Why throw him alive into a furnace? I don't know. To teach him a lesson? And maybe they sprinkle the ashes on their rose bushes. It makes no sense at all to me to throw away years of work and thousands of dollars of investment because of the vagaries of the (teenage) human heart, but what do I know? I'm not an evil corporate genius or anything.
In the end, the entire book seems to be a highly contrived way to get the two boys in bed together. And right there is the reason for the second star. It's refreshing to see this kind of diversity in YA fiction. Props to Dietrich for treating the relationship with respect; it's the single best thing about the book, IMO.
I would honestly have preferred a less overwrought treatment of the subject, but in the end I'm hardly the target audience for this book. Possibly young readers, less familiar with literary tropes, and struggling with their own relationships, will find more resonance here than I did
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Essentially they become spies. Okay, fair enough. That's classic spy stuff right there.But wait! The group that trains them, some huge conglomerate which has been doing this for centuries we're told, sends two LIs out at a time because it's somehow more efficient. You know how when you've got two guys paying attention to you, you always will pick one to be your lifemate, especially when you're sixteen years old, right? Yeah. And the target here is a young woman who "aced her Mensa tests." What does that even mean? I've known a lot of people who did well on the Mensa test, and with all due respect I have to say that level of intellect alone never made them high achievers. But somehow Juliet's ability to score high on standardized tests makes her potentially so important that the company is willing to invest thousands of dollars of work in her. Because when she chooses one LI, the other is killed.
Yes, you read that right. The guy she doesn't choose is incinerated. Why throw him alive into a furnace? I don't know. To teach him a lesson? And maybe they sprinkle the ashes on their rose bushes. It makes no sense at all to me to throw away years of work and thousands of dollars of investment because of the vagaries of the (teenage) human heart, but what do I know? I'm not an evil corporate genius or anything.
In the end, the entire book seems to be a highly contrived way to get the two boys in bed together. And right there is the reason for the second star. It's refreshing to see this kind of diversity in YA fiction. Props to Dietrich for treating the relationship with respect; it's the single best thing about the book, IMO.
I would honestly have preferred a less overwrought treatment of the subject, but in the end I'm hardly the target audience for this book. Possibly young readers, less familiar with literary tropes, and struggling with their own relationships, will find more resonance here than I did
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LibraryThing member JRlibrary
First of all, the things I didn't like.
I know this is petty but I absolutely despised the name of the secret organization that created Dyl and Caden; Love Interest Corporation. I also couldn't accept that the people would be called something as bland as Love Interests. I had this feeling that the
I also couldn't see Caden's self-realization as a believable one. It just came across as phoney to me - as if the author just desperately wanted to support homosexual readers by including a character to whom they could relate. While I appreciated the attempt, it didn't work for me.
I also didn't like the confusion regarding what happened to a failed love interest. On page 364 Craike reveals that unchosen interests DONT get killed, and Caden says he realizes he's telling the truth, but earlier in the book Caden talked about the incinerator and hearing the screams so now I'm not trusting the narrator. Which is the truth? Do they kill the unchosen or not? :-( I don't like not knowing.
And I don't like not ever knowing HOW they selected their targets. Juliet is a HIGH SCHOOL student! How did they figure out she is going to be someone of importance one day?
What I did like was the idea of someone plotting to manipulate the beginning of a relationship in order to potentially cash in on information gleaned at some later date. That was an interesting idea. I also liked the idea of puppet master script writers telling the boys what to do and say, so the character of Kaylee, and less directly Judy, were interesting to me as well.
I also like that it is a stand alone book because lately it seems like there are just too many series out there where a group of teens takes on an evil organization and the series drags on forever.
Lastly, being a romantic, I liked that Dyl came to his senses and ended up with the person who made him happy.
I know this is petty but I absolutely despised the name of the secret organization that created Dyl and Caden; Love Interest Corporation. I also couldn't accept that the people would be called something as bland as Love Interests. I had this feeling that the
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name had been written into the draft as a place holder and then someone said, "Hey, it's not so bad. Let's just leave it."I also couldn't see Caden's self-realization as a believable one. It just came across as phoney to me - as if the author just desperately wanted to support homosexual readers by including a character to whom they could relate. While I appreciated the attempt, it didn't work for me.
I also didn't like the confusion regarding what happened to a failed love interest. On page 364 Craike reveals that unchosen interests DONT get killed, and Caden says he realizes he's telling the truth, but earlier in the book Caden talked about the incinerator and hearing the screams so now I'm not trusting the narrator. Which is the truth? Do they kill the unchosen or not? :-( I don't like not knowing.
And I don't like not ever knowing HOW they selected their targets. Juliet is a HIGH SCHOOL student! How did they figure out she is going to be someone of importance one day?
What I did like was the idea of someone plotting to manipulate the beginning of a relationship in order to potentially cash in on information gleaned at some later date. That was an interesting idea. I also liked the idea of puppet master script writers telling the boys what to do and say, so the character of Kaylee, and less directly Judy, were interesting to me as well.
I also like that it is a stand alone book because lately it seems like there are just too many series out there where a group of teens takes on an evil organization and the series drags on forever.
Lastly, being a romantic, I liked that Dyl came to his senses and ended up with the person who made him happy.
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LibraryThing member Sheila1957
2 spies are chosen to compete as the Love Interest for Juliet who has been deemed important enough that her future secrets/experiments will be sold to the highest bidder by an underground company. Caden and Dylan are chosen--one Nice and one Bad. Whichever one does not win Juliet will die.
I loved
I loved
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this book. It was suspenseful enough that I was on the edge of my seat up to the end. I wanted to know what would happen to the loser. I also wanted to know if the truth would come out and if rebellion would follow. I was surprised by how it turned out. I loved the characters. This was done as a first person point-of-view through Caden's eyes. The society was interesting that Caden and Dylan lived in before being loosed in the world. I was surprised by the secondary characters. Again not what I expected. This is a keeper! Show Less
LibraryThing member samnreader
So this is part romantic satire, part sci-fi, part sucks you into its own romance.
The satire was generally good but inconsistent, which left me wondering if the author couldn't maintain it or didn't intend to.
The storyline itself I loved, but for whatever reason it felt choppily put together.
Was it fun? Yes. I enjoyed the read, but I think the flow/writing felt choppy.
The satire was generally good but inconsistent, which left me wondering if the author couldn't maintain it or didn't intend to.
The storyline itself I loved, but for whatever reason it felt choppily put together.
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Perhaps it is the narrator having little sense of himself other than survival becoming defined by the people closest to him or he was there all along etc etc. Regardless, there was an issue with flow that i can quite articulate.Was it fun? Yes. I enjoyed the read, but I think the flow/writing felt choppy.
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LibraryThing member readingbeader
Not what I was hoping for, too bad, it sounded good.
LibraryThing member Sammelsurium
Hm. I... enjoyed this book. Tentatively.
The main characters' romance is well-developed and builds at a good pace. The concept of Love Interests works better than you'd think, bringing a lot of interesting tension to the three main characters' relationship, and the novel plays with and subverts the
But when the development of these relationships gets left behind for action scenes and dramatic ultimatums, the story stops working. The last part of the novel depends strongly on the worldbuilding, which is the weakest part of the story. Why does this organization with super-advanced tech only use it to partner up powerful people? Why does this teenage girl use her genius only for inventions that have combat applications? How did these kids raised in batches to be expendable come out anywhere close to well-socialized? The answer, of course, is narrative reasons.
This part of the story is hard to follow, simply because of the sheer amount of un-foreshadowed information being revealed, and a lot of the character and plot development at this point seems like part of an arc that the rest of the book has not been following. It feels like part of an earlier draft.
I was pleasantly surprised by the first 3/4 of this book, and disappointed by the end. I really liked the characters, but their arcs did not come to satisfying ends, and the plot was altogether disjointed. I would recommend it to someone looking for cute, gay, YA romance and a light read. Overall, I enjoyed it, but not as much as I could have.
The main characters' romance is well-developed and builds at a good pace. The concept of Love Interests works better than you'd think, bringing a lot of interesting tension to the three main characters' relationship, and the novel plays with and subverts the
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love triangle trope (and the writing of gay characters in general) in fun ways. I found it interesting that equal focus was put on both the false romance (between the narrating Love Interest and the person he was assigned to) and the endgame one (between the two competing Love Interests), and I like that the girl wasn't villainized and came to be seen as a friend. Overall, the character relationships and romance worked well for me.But when the development of these relationships gets left behind for action scenes and dramatic ultimatums, the story stops working. The last part of the novel depends strongly on the worldbuilding, which is the weakest part of the story. Why does this organization with super-advanced tech only use it to partner up powerful people? Why does this teenage girl use her genius only for inventions that have combat applications? How did these kids raised in batches to be expendable come out anywhere close to well-socialized? The answer, of course, is narrative reasons.
This part of the story is hard to follow, simply because of the sheer amount of un-foreshadowed information being revealed, and a lot of the character and plot development at this point seems like part of an arc that the rest of the book has not been following. It feels like part of an earlier draft.
I was pleasantly surprised by the first 3/4 of this book, and disappointed by the end. I really liked the characters, but their arcs did not come to satisfying ends, and the plot was altogether disjointed. I would recommend it to someone looking for cute, gay, YA romance and a light read. Overall, I enjoyed it, but not as much as I could have.
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Awards
ALA Rainbow Book List (Selection — 2018)
Los Angeles Public Library Best of the Year (Teen — 2017)
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
2017
Physical description
384 p.; 8.2 inches
ISBN
1250158648 / 9781250158642