Title: Firsts
Author: Laurie Elizabeth Flynn
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Release date: January 5th 2016
Find on Goodreads here
My thoughts
Alright. So here's the deal with this book. I read the synopsis a while back and I was sold. Totally and completely sold. Then, reviews began to show up and I was so pumped to read Firsts! Until I actually read it. And was disappointed. Another case of over-hype...
The idea behind First is so original and eye-opening, I have to tilt my hat to Laurie E. Flynn for it. A story about a girl who's promiscuous? A story where the MC isn't all innocent? What is happening with the world? It's evolving, that's what. It is finally becoming real.
The idea behind the character that is Mercedes is a breath of fresh air because the truth is, some girl do have sex before marriage. Shocker, right? What I didn't like was the execution; it's what turned me off while reading.
I couldn't relate to Mercedes. No, not because of her extra cufricular activities, but because of her actual personality. She was always whining about something, or telling herself "alright, this is the last guy. Or maybe not. Yeah, let's just sleep with another one". She was SO annoying! Everyone was being so nice to her and she kept pushing them away! The "I don't want to hurt you excuse"? It's bullshit. Let people make their own decision. They will decide FOR THEMSELVES if they want to be your friend or not.
Though I would have liked to see the author go deeper, slut shaming and double standards was present in this book, which was a major positive.
I'll be honest here for a second, I did judge some girls at school because of what they did. One day, I finally realized that it takes two person to sleep together (duh) and it completely changed my perception on things! If anything, I hope this book opens up people's mind.
To sum everything up, Firsts deals with important subjects such as slut shaming, double standards and promiscuity, but I was hoping for something better. I felt let down by this book, but I still encourage everyone to read, simply for the message it gives to the reader.
Sophie
