I read Colleen Hoover's Slammed a week before this so the whole "girl met boy, they like each other, boy turns out to be the teacher"-thing wasn't really as unique, and I might have preferred the more PG-13 version of the teacher-student relationship in Slammed. Perhaps since in the latter, the age difference was a mere three years.
Maisie O'Malley and Evan Wilke's (Mr Wilke) relationship is not a dirty one where the older teacher takes advantage of a young student (despite the numerous times the female protagonist referenced Lolita - I hated those), but a fairly equal romance. Both of them have their own secrets and crosses to bear, so I didn't feel like the male teacher was a father figure. It didn't seem "dirty" like I said before.
I liked the fact that the protagonist is a self-sufficient and a confident young lady - despite her family life and lack of financial possibilities. She is smart and an "old soul": something I think one of the characters even said at one point, perhaps to justify their relationship. She is a self-made woman and doesn't need anyone else's help in that department. Of course, her ways of achieving this aren't always necessarily right but still... It counts, right?
I can't say that I absolutely loved this novel. Everyone raves about the writing and as it was certainly beautiful, I don't think I could award the full five stars purely because of that. The plot had a few dramatic/twist-y moments that felt too cinematic. I'm sure this was purposeful, though! This is a risky subject to cover - teacher-student relationships - which was "worsened" in a way by the noticeable age difference between the two main characters. I think at one point the novel went in an odd direction for me and I just wasn't that invested in it but it didn't really feel "creepy" at any point.
I listened to the audiobook so maybe it was the narrator that had something to do with the three star rating (there are a few other hyped books that I don't love in audiobook form). While I generally liked her - voice-wise she more or less fit the part of a teenager - it seemed to take her a while to get a handle on the character. I wasn't a fan of her narration for the first half of the novel and thus I wasn't a 100% invested in the story.
I think all in all I would give this book 3,5 stars. I don't usually give half a star ratings but this one just fell perfectly between that ambiguous gap of liked but not REALLY liked it. I just didn't connect to any of the characters. Not enough to get really into it.
A lot of people mention the end and the lack of an epilogue. No spoilers! but I thought that it was perfect and an epilogue was not necessary. Usually, I really love epilogues and finding out what happened after the last chapter but in this one - considering the whole feel of the novel - the end was very fitting. This might even bump the rating up at a later point but right now I feel fairly happy with my rating.
Disclaimer: I bought this audiobook myself from Audible.
