I just had to read this book for school, and I have to say, thank you so much for giving it the sporing it deserves. There were so many times I just wanted to throw it against the wall with frustration, but I think the tokenism in this book is one of the worst things about it. Maybe it's just because I've gotten used to all the melodramatic, repetitive Sue stuff from fanfiction, so that didn't stand out to me as much, but really, I can't think of anything else that devotes so much time and energy to being an offensive collection of stereotypes. The fact that the authors think this proves how tolerant they are just makes it that much worse. The treatment of men bothered me, too. It's not just that they're underdeveloped, even. The male characters in this book are pretty much objectified. As far as I remember, Zoey never thinks of any of the boys of her acquaintance as people with their own thoughts and feelings, which makes the whole cliched romance more than a little uncomfortable. Maybe I'm remembering wrongly or she's just that unfeeling in general, but I don't know, I got a bad, misandrist sort of vibe from it.
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The treatment of men bothered me, too. It's not just that they're underdeveloped, even. The male characters in this book are pretty much objectified. As far as I remember, Zoey never thinks of any of the boys of her acquaintance as people with their own thoughts and feelings, which makes the whole cliched romance more than a little uncomfortable. Maybe I'm remembering wrongly or she's just that unfeeling in general, but I don't know, I got a bad, misandrist sort of vibe from it.