It was during the pandemic and during the Black Lives Matter protests that the books by Kacen Callender got loads of attention. I’ve checked them all out and they one by one sounded interesting to me. However, it only took me a few more years to finally pick one up. This book happened to be This Is Kind of an Epic Love Story, one of Callender’s older books. Was I still as intrigued as I was back then?

Title: This Is Kind of an Epic Love Story
Author: Kacen Callender
Publish date: October 30, 2018
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
ISBN: 9780062820242
Number of pages: 304
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary

A fresh, charming rom-com perfect for fans of Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda and Boy Meets Boy about Nathan Bird, who has sworn off happy endings but is sorely tested when his former best friend, Ollie, moves back to town.
Nathan Bird doesn’t believe in happy endings.
Although he’s the ultimate film buff and an aspiring screenwriter, Nate’s seen the demise of too many relationships to believe that happy endings exist in real life.
Playing it safe to avoid a broken heart has been his MO ever since his father died and left his mom to unravel—but this strategy is not without fault. His best-friend-turned-girlfriend-turned-best-friend-again, Florence, is set on making sure Nate finds someone else. And in a twist that is rom-com-worthy, someone does come along: Oliver James Hernández, his childhood best friend.
After a painful mix-up when they were little, Nate finally has the chance to tell Ollie the truth about his feelings. But can Nate find the courage to pursue his own happily ever after?

This story follows Nate, who has been in a relationship with his best friend Florence. Since they broke up, they still are best friends. On the first day of the new school year, it happens Oliver James has returned to town. Nate is conflicted about what to do. They were childhood best friends, but something happened and Nate ruined it all. He finally has the chance to make it up to Ollie, but is he brave enough to do so or will guilt always be eating at him?

This book contains queer rep, as well as deaf rep. Ollie has turnt deaf after becoming ill. I can’t judge the rep because I have no way in doing so. For me, the rep is done right, but You’d better check out other people’s reviews to get a better insight in this. Besides this rep, the characters are okay. To me, they are not really special, just ordinary teenagers wwith different backgrounds. These different backgrounds however, aren’t explored at all. They were just there. That’s how it should be, don’t get me wrong, but not exploring them made the story quite shallow in my opinion. Maybe I’m too much of an advanced reader for a book like this. Nate’s mother is really overprotective, something that annoyed me though. I know she deals with trauma still, but she’s projecting it on her son’s life and I just couldn’t deal with it.

The writing and the plot are not spectacular either. This novel is very character driven, so that explains a lot. It’s a good book for a younger audience. It reads fast and therefore I could finish it quickly whenever I picked it up. However, that’s about it. I was not that intrigued or invested and I enjoyed it so so.

This Is Kind of an Epic Love Story by Kacen Callender is clearly targeted towards the younger reader. I felt too much advanced to enjoy this book. The characters, writing and plot were not intriguing enough for me. I think this book has been on my TBR foor way too long and therefore I couldn’t enjoy it like I would have done, had I picked it up earlier. Nowadays, I’ve read better LGBTQIA+ books. Don’t get me wrong, It’s not the book, it’s me.