Blog Tour: The Exact Opposite of Okay by Laura Steven (Review + Giveaway!)

Item: The Exact Opposite of Okay
Rating: 4.5
Author: Kaity

Posted June 8, 2019 by Kaity in Book Review, Book Tours, Giveaways, Reviews / 0 Comments

Happy Saturday and welcome to my stop on The Exact Opposite of Okay blog tour!!! This was such a great (but also very heavy) book, and I’m so excited to be a part of the book tour! So read on to find my review, favorite quotes, information about the author and the tour, and a giveaway!!

I received this book for free from Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

The Exact Opposite of Okay by Laura Steven
Published on June 11, 2019 by HarperTeen
Genres: YA, Contemporary
Pages: 352
Format: ARC, eARC
Source: Edelweiss
Add to Goodreads

Bitingly funny and shockingly relevant, The Exact Opposite of Okay is a bold, brave, and necessary read for fans of Louise O'Neill and Jennifer Mathieu.

Eighteen-year-old Izzy O’Neill knows exactly who she is—a loyal friend, an aspiring comedian, and a person who believes that milk shakes and Reese’s peanut butter cups are major food groups. But after she’s caught in a compromising position with the son of a politician, it seems like everyone around her is eager to give her a new label: slut.

Izzy is certain that the whole thing will blow over and she can get back to worrying about how she doesn’t reciprocate her best friend Danny’s feelings for her and wondering how she is ever going to find a way out of their small town. Only it doesn’t.

And while she’s used to laughing her way out of any situation, as she finds herself first the center of high school gossip and then in the middle of a national scandal, it's hard even for her to find humor in the situation.

Izzy may be determined not to let anyone else define who she is, but that proves easier said than done when it seems like everyone has something to say about her.

Review

My Favorite Part

This is such an important book!!! I think everyone should read it at least once. Honestly I think Izzy was the best part of this book. She was so funny, and I’m glad that at least some of the people in her recognized that. Her relationships with the people in her life made sense and evolved naturally (if sometimes unpleasantly). I hope everyone who reads this loves it as much as I do!

My Least Favorite Part

So this was less my least favorite part and more that certain things just didn’t make sense? Like I know this was originally published in the UK and then this year it’s being published in the US and it feels like there were some cultural things that don’t translate that well? For example, Izzy lives in a town that’s so small that there’s no one hiring. Which, okay, obviously there are places like that, but they also have distinct rich and poor sections of town and it just feels like maybe it would make sense somewhere else, but in America… there’s always some fast food restaurant hiring. And if the town is small enough that there aren’t any places like that, there aren’t enough people there to have distinct sections of town. I don’t know, maybe that wouldn’t bother anyone else. The only other thing I didn’t love is that I read to escape the world and see how it could be better, and this was not a good escape book. It reminded me of Exit, Pursued by a Bear by E.K. Johnson, but without the support system? If that makes sense? Idk.

Summing it Up with a GIF

Judging a Book by its Cover

This cover really got my attention. I love the fonts and the colors and the little zipper mouth.

4/5 stars!!!

Favorite Quotes

Author Info

About the Author

Laura Steven is an author, journalist and screenwriter from the northern most town in England. The Exact Opposite of Okay, her YA debut, was published by Egmont in March 2018. The sequel, A Girl Called Shameless, will follow in 2019. As well as mentoring aspiring authors through schemes like Pitch Wars, Laura works for Mslexia, a non-profit organization supporting women writers. She graduated with Distinction from her MA in Creative Writing in 2017, and her TV pilot Clickbait–a mockumentary about journalists at a viral news agency–was a finalist in British Comedy’s 2016 Sitcom Mission. Laura is represented by Suzie Townsend of New Leaf Literary and Media Inc.