![Cover image of The Love Interest by Helen Comerford. Against a purple, pink, orange, and yellow graphic sky, struck through with a single bolt of lightning, a superhero floats. He is of broadly East Asian appearance, with dark hair, a warm, deep-olive complexion, and almond, up-tilted eyes. He wears a black catsuit-style uniform, distinguished by a red V-shaped panel by over his neck and collarbones, and calf-high red boots. He gazes at a girl in the foreground of the image. The girl is black, with a medium skin-tone, and a natural Afro. She stands in a cock-hipped pose, arms crossed over her middle. She wears jeans, an orange belt, a white t-shirt, and a pink zip-up hooded jacket worn undone. She smirks, and a little annoyed, but not haughty. Between them, positioned so it does not obscure either figure, is the title of the book [The Love Interest] in a simple, white, sans serif font. The V in 'Love' and the er in 'Interest' are seperated / kocked off balance by the the lightning strike. At the very top of the image, also in a simple font, although this time in the same rich purple as part of the sunset, is the author's name : Helen Comerford.](https://eebonnerauthor.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/image-2.png?w=300)
Big thank you to NetGalley, Bloomsbury, and Helen Comerford for a Galley of this in return for an honest review.
I am not sure how I feel about The Love Interest. I think this was a lot of fun, and by the time I got to the end I was really eager to find out what happens. I enjoyed the unconventional, very comic book, use of font size and bold to indicate feeling, volume, and severity of things. I almost wish they had taken this further, I think it is super creative and really differentiates this from other books on the market. More than that, I think it would have been a really impactful, visual clue, as to the appropriate age range for this book.
This is YA, and it is very very much YA. I would say this actually reminded me a lot of some Middle Grade works I have read. This to me read quite young, and I think the way Jenna goes about most things would annoy an older readership quite quickly. This was a Galley, and I was already invested in the story, so I felt that I should finish it. As a rule, this is younger than I would generally read, and I think is very much YA aimed at teens, rather than YA that is geared equally towards adult readers. That isn’t a bad thing, but I do think that adult readers of YA might not enjoy this as much as they hope!
I thought the plot was good, no glaring holes, some surprises. I thought the representation of mental health, and the discussions of some feminism basics was good. This felt like a very accessible, appropriate way to introduce those ideas, that would be understandable for Middle-Grade-To-YA readers, and inoffensive for older solidly-YA readers.
Overall, good fun. I give this 3.5 stars. Nothing revolutionary, but still a solid, well written, YA romp.
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