This was a clever idea, with some genuinally funny and thought-provoking moments, and some horror and suspense. But it frequently crossed the line from social satire to ridiculous, which took me out of the story. This is not a terrible read, but it's not a great one. ( )

As an earlier reviewer said, if you don't like this book it's because you didn't / wouldn't like Heathers or Mean Girls. If those movies didn't work for you, or if satire generally isn't your thing, you'll probably want to skip this book. On the other hand, if you loved Heathers and/or Mean Girls then sprint, don't run, to your nearest available copy of Kens. Myriad lols guaranteed.

I'm actually one of about three people who never got into Mean Girls, I think because Heathers got it so right the first time that a reboot felt superfluous to me. Now I stand corrected though. Kens is incredible. It somehow manages to update countless, beloved Heathers references and make them even more hilarious (for example, "I did not want her dead, I just want my high school to be a nice place" becomes "I didn't want him dead, I just wanted him to stop being retweeted"). At the same time, I think anyone with a dark streak in their sense of humor will appreciate this book, whether they've seen Heathers/Mean Girls or not. Kens is both a tribute and completely its own masterpiece. Like Heathers, this book steals the word "edgy" back from the realm of meaningless marketing fluff; it's edgy in the sense that over and over again, I thought, "I can't believe he actually just went there," and then couldn't wait to see where the author would fearlessly go next. It's (unsurprisingly) a ballsy book, and as a result, Kens addresses some issues largely unexplored in YA or adult fiction - like how consumer culture seems to influence, if not control, how we treat each other. issues I think will hit home, and hard, for any reader old enough to fear being chewed up and spit out by social media. One of the central, painful truths of this book is that sometimes your worst enemies are within your own minority. I've seen LGBT+ friends who aren't white cis "Ken" material having to deal with being second-class citizens within what should be their own community; having dealt with analogous issues with regard to race, I think a whole lot of minority readers and invested allies will feel some legit validation reading this book. So many kids are made to feel like Tommy does, that the only right way to be gay is to conform to the few gay archetypes larger society accepts. It's an issue I've thought about a lot, and yet I could definitely not express it in such a powerful, hilarious, and chilling way as this book does. In short, Kens is on point. On the skin-deep level, the gut-level, and every level in between. I honestly wish I could just quote the book ad nauseum until you're convinced to read it, but I lent my copy to a friend immediately after finishing it due to my need to fangirl out about it with someone asap. So just trust me - if you think "reality is TV" accurately describes American culture in 2018, and you've got a corkscrew for a sense of humor, read this book. ( )

I tried but I could not get past the first chapter in this book. Obviously this book was not written for me, but by the description the book sounded interesting and I thought I would enjoy it. Maybe one day I will try to pick this up again and give it a fair chance.

I really was excited about this book. But then I received it and saw the list of quirky, You-Tuber phrases at the beginning and my heart sank a little. I tried to get through this book and I really appreciated where Reid was going and what he was trying to accomplish with this book but it didn't ring true for me. I couldn't finish it but then again, I am not the target audience. I think a teenager would find this far more appealing and wry than an adult would.

The writing isn't bad, it's just... lazy. I hope Reid refines his style and keeps pushing forward in his career. ( )

I'm a cis het mom and Raziel Reid didn't write this book for me. He wrote it for my very gay teen son. And my very gay teen son loved this book. It's a little bit skanky and a little bit irreverent and a whole lotta gay, in a world where YA books are just barely starting to be published for young gay men, and where the books that -are- published are usually a little too PG, at best. Maybe because I first heard my son laughing with delight as he read this novel, before reading it myself, I grew inclined to love everything about it. I was grateful to its author for writing it and to Penguin Teen for publishing it.

If you are delighted by the audacity of a young author putting himself sucking a tootsie pop on the cover of his own novel then you are likely to love what is under the covers just as much. ( )