Publisher: Amulet Books
Page Count: 310
First of all, huge shout out to my cousin, because she technically bought this book back when she visited me in Canada. Because she went off on a world tour (making her sound like a rock star and being totally fine with it), she didn’t want to bring it along and left it with me instead. Due to my inability to not buy books during my stay abroad, I was able to ship it back to Austria with my other stuff, where I finally had the time to dive into this epic tale. Long story short, this read was sponsored by my lovely cousin – thank you!
To begin with, this book was laugh out loud funny! And sometimes that is exactly what you need in life. I am not saying it doesn’t have numerous kick-ass action sequences and even some thought provoking conversations, but I am sure that whenever I will think back about The Epic Crush of Genie Lo, I will think about its amazing humor.
I went into this book knowing very little about the plot. I was aware that there was some Chinese folklore and mythology involved, but I would be lying if I told you I knew much about that either. All I did know with a certainty was that a lot of my friends and mutuals in the book community loved reading it and had a blast. I am always wary of diving into books where the hype is real (which explains why I often read them with quite the delay to everyone else), but I am all the more happy when the hype was completely justified.
Everything was very witty and straightforward from start to finish. You were either on board with Genie’s hilariously charming but also angry voice or you weren’t and I was definitely there for all of that. The characters in general all stood out with their own personality traits, with Quentin and Genie’s interactions being weird and awkward while simultaneously amazing. (Again, I laughed out loud a lot!)
Finally, I really enjoyed seeing some parental involvement (still far too rare in YA for my taste), getting a better look at Genie’s cultural background and experiencing some real struggle to balance her demon-hunting with life/love/friendship/school/extracurriculars, because let’s face it, some book heroes just make it seem way too easy.
Fazit: 4/5 stars! Can’t wait to see where future installments will lead!
Have you read The Epic Crush of Genie Lo? Did you like it? Would you want to pick it up if you haven’t read it yet?
Life and Other Disasters 
Yay!! So happy you enjoyed it! I gave it the same rating as well, although I loved it, it wasn’t quite a 5 star read for me. My review is going up tomorrow!!
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Oh yay! Can’t wait to read your more detailed thoughts 😀 also glad we agree on the rating. I really did enjoy it a lot and I couldn’t even put my finger on it, but in the end 5 stars just didn’t feel right. Still, so much fun, right?
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Yeah definitely still loads of fun. Can’t wait for the next one 🙂
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Ahh I’m so glad to hear you enjoyed that one and most importantly, that it lived up to the hype for you. This book has been everywhere and praised by everyone a little while ago, but… I still haven’t read it either. You make it sound like a really funny and adventurous kind of book somehow, though, and yay for parents being present, I am ALL FOR THAT. I think I’ll have to read that one someday 🙂
Lovely review, Kat! ❤
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I knooooow! Everyone talked about it and I was like “what do I do if I don’t like it!?!?!?” but thankfully it wasn’t the case. Instead it was a lot of fun 😊
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Great review for this book Kat, and oh I’m so glad you enjoyed it as well. I’ve seen a couple of other glowing reviews for The Epic Crush of Genie Lo and with every one I read I’m more and more determined to get around to it myself eventually. 🙂 I have a weakness for books that are laugh out loud funny (despite the strange looks I’ll get reading them on the train into work) and Genie sounds like an incredible character so hopefully I’ll be able to get to this one soon.
Again great review! 😀 ❤
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Thanks, Beth! I’ve earned the occasional strange look for laughing in public as well haha but it adds another layer of fun somehow.
I really hope you’ll enjoy Genie Lo’s story as well if you end up reading it.
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I always think the likelihood of me ever seeing the same people on the train again is rare, so who cares if they think I’m weird! 😀
Thanks Kat.
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Hahaha I wish I could say the same, but for a while I was a commuter and I had to take the train for an hour because I worked at the airport. If you start working at the same time every day and there’s only one train going where you are going, faces tend to repeat itself haha
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See on my train it gets so busy, and everyone’s paying attention to their own thing I could be in the same carriage as one of my family members and I’d never know it! 😀
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Okay wow! Haha mine was not that busy, at least not for the majority of the time.
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In that case I’d definitely say you were lucky there, but it doesn’t bother me too much because I normally do get a seat on the trains no matter how busy. 🙂
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I adored this book! Genie Lo was quite a character, and I am so excited that we are getting more!!!
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Right!?!?! I don’t know why exactly, but I didn’t know it was a series before reading it. So, I am really glad there’s more too!
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I don’t think it was originally a series, but I remember another blogger telling me about a tweet where Yee said there would be more. Maybe they had to see how the first book did? The ending is absolutely perfect for continuing the story.
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Ooooh, that’s good to know and would explain a lot of why I was confused about that whole series-thing. Thanks for clearing that up! Sales probably did have something to do with the continuation.
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