My Mechanical Romance
Ratings23
Average rating3.7
rating- 4.5/5
{thank you to Netgalley, Holiday house and Alexene Farol Follmuth for providing me an eARC of the book in exchange for an honest review!}
publishing date- 31st may 2022
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“Because she surprises me, because she makes me laugh, and because this, whatever it is, with her, is the only thing I ever do that's easy. Because wherever I am, I want her closeby.”
Hands down the best ARC i've received till date, no kidding.
Like the author just SERVEDwoc in STEM and academic rivals to lovers with no warning whatsoever. Did I mention it's also dual pov???? It's definitely making it to my ‘Books i will pay you to read' shelf (The title isn't literal, i'm broke.)
PREMISE
[b:My Mechanical Romance|58857822|My Mechanical Romance|Alexene Farol Follmuth|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1635340383l/58857822.SX50.jpg|92714618] follows Bel who enrols into a new high school. She's fun, easy-going and doesn't know what she's going to do about college. Applications? extracurriculars? nope. However, when she accidentally reveals her talent for engineering, she is forced to join the school's robotics club by her teacher. Enter Mateo (Teo) Luna, captain of the club. He is focused, dedicated and knows exactly what he wants to do. Teo cares too much about Nationals, while Bel does not. But as they begin to spend more time with each other, they realise they've built more than just a combat-ready robot for the championship: they've made space for each other and themselves.
(review may contain spoilers after this point)
THOUGHTS
I absolutely loved this book. The writing style felt very casual that helped the narrative of the book. The plot and the characters were extremely well developed and felt three dimensional and realistic throughout. The friendship dynamics were also really well done. Every single character felt complex, realistic and had their own form of development. Bel had actual problems and thoughts that weren't limited to the male protagonist. Her parents going through a divorce, not knowing what she wanted to do with her life, feeling alone, etc. Teo despite being more privileged than Bel, also had his own set of problems. The evolution of their relationship also felt very natural and was so much fun to read. The side characters felt fleshed out despite little description. Can we please talk about Neelam. Absolutely loved her. Her whole dynamic with Bel seemed super natural, even during the animosity. (no typical mean girl bull-crap. because let's be real, we don't have those in real life after middle school.)
Coming back to Bel and Teo's relationship. my heart. my absolute fucking heart. Teo's pov about Bel>>>. Honestly this is the standard. The quote I put in the beginning of my review is my absolute favourite but was the only quotable one bahahah. the rest is so normal which again, I LOVE SO MUCH. Give me all the normalcy in romantic relationships and i will absolutely devour it.
“Oh my god shut u-“ And then he pulls me in and kisses me”
“He rifles his hair and oh no, oh no, oh no. It looks so soft”“he walks away with a smile and oh no, oh no, oh no. I am definitely in it now.”See what i meant about lack of quotable hfjfkfjg moments? But here I am quoting them anyway so eh.
The pacing of the book was also really well done. Despite it being generally on the slower side, I was completely invested and didn't want the pace to be faster, at any point.
Last but not the least, the ending was perfect. The author already had me in a chokehold by this point, but the epilogue just made everything better.
The only problem I think people might find with it is the technical jargon. The plot does have a lot of physics terms. I love learning new things and eat that shit up. But i could see how a lot of people might not like this. However, I do want to say that Bel doesn't use a lot of terms until much later, so for most part of the book, things are also explained in simplistic terms.
Another problem I had was, easing myself into the author's writing style. I found that [a:Alexene Farol Follmuth|21814879|Alexene Farol Follmuth|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] / [a:Olivie Blake|16225393|Olivie Blake|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1558925167p2/16225393.jpg] writes in continuous sentences? Like she uses longer sentences than most authors do. My brain took a chapter or two to get used to this, but I devoured the book once I did.
Both of these are reasons are why I gave this 4.5 stars, however that's just me being annoyingly analytical and it could easily be a 5 star read.
Finally, I think the reason I enjoyed this book the most, was because I found comfort in the problems faced by Bel being a woc in STEM. I'm a south asian girl, in sciences and despite being from a country where everybody is essentially brown, there is a large amount of discrimination based on colour here and needless to say, TONS of sexism. I've never felt more understood tbh. My kindle is FILLED with notes because I would aggressively highlight everything i related to.
“the equal credit we have to fight for, the perception that we are less than we are. The microagressions, the gatekeeping, the dismissal we face sometimes, in our low moments we may mistake for being the truth. But even if that's how our story begins, that's not where it ends.”I loved that most instances of sexism in the books aren't blaringly obvious. The intricate way these instances are written in the book also stood out to me, for eg: something as simple as the conversations with Mac, to extreme cases like Richardson (yes people like these exist). It felt extremely realistic and are things that have happened to every other woman at some point in life.
“And you don't understand how hard it is to be a girl competing with boys who don't even realise that they unlike us, are perceived as more competent no matter what they do.”
“know they're a part of this even if- especially if-they choose to say nothing.”
[b:My Mechanical Romance|58857822|My Mechanical Romance|Alexene Farol Follmuth|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1635340383l/58857822.SX50.jpg|92714618] has easily made it to my favourites and I'm definitely getting a physical copy as soon as it comes out. Please. go. read. this. book. as SOON as it comes out. you're definitely missing out if you don't.
preorder (or order, based on when you're reading this review) here: https://www.amazon.com/Mechanical-Romance-Alexene-Farol-Follmuth/dp/0823450104