'89 Walls - Katie Pearson

Goodreads summary:

College is not in the cards for Seth. He spends his minimum wage on groceries and fakes happiness to distract his mom from the MS they both know will kill her. It’s agony to carry around a frayed love note for a girl who’s both out of his league and beneath his dignity.

Quinn’s finishing high school on top. But that cynical, liberal guy in her social studies class makes her doubt her old assumptions. Challenging the rules now, though, would a) squander her last summer at home, b) antagonize her conservative dad, and c) make her a hypocrite.

Seth and Quinn’s passionate new romance takes them both by surprise. They keep it a secret: it’s too early to make plans and too late not to care. But it’s 1989. As politics suddenly get personal, they find themselves fighting bare-fisted for their beliefs—and each other—in the clear light of day.


My review:

3.5/5

I have very mixed feelings towards this book. I could relate a lot to Quinn, yet sometimes I couldn't understand her at all. I thought the classes and the discussions were amazing and if there's one thing I learned from this book, it's that I love politics and that I would really enjoy being in a debate club - even if Quinn despised it.

However, I didn't really care about the characters' relationship. I can't really point out what is lacking in this book, but I couldn't get in the story at some times and it really felt like what it was: me, reading a book. I love to immerge myself completly in a storyline and care for the characters, but there's something about the way it's written that made it impossible for me. This is my main negative point about this book, because it was a recurrent one. Also, not everything made sense, in the way that some actions felt precipitated and unrealistic.

I still enjoyed reading this book, but I think there is some work to do related to the way actions are described.

(Thank you NetGalley for providing me with a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.)

I also did an interview with the author, which you can find here.