Review: The Wrong Kind of Weird by James Ramos

I received this book for free from Bookish First, the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

The Wrong Kind of Weird by James Ramos
Published by Inkyard Press on January 3, 2023
Genres: YA Contemporary Romance
Pages: 320
Source: Bookish First, the publisher
Format: Hardcover
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My Rating:

Blurb:

“Sweet, snarky, and delightfully dorky.” —Elise Bryant, author of Happily Ever Afters 

Cameron Carson has a secret. A secret with the power to break apart his friend group.

Cameron Carson, member of the Geeks and Nerds United (GANU) club, has been secretly hooking up with student council president, cheerleader, theater enthusiast, and all-around queen bee Karla Ortega since the summer. The one problem—what was meant to be a summer fling between coffee shop coworkers has now evolved into a clandestine senior-year entanglement, where Karla isn’t intending on blending their friend groups anytime soon, or at all.

Enter Mackenzie Briggs, who isn’t afraid to be herself or wear her heart on her sleeve. When Cameron finds himself unexpectedly bonding with Mackenzie and repeatedly snubbed in public by Karla, he starts to wonder who he can truly consider a friend and who might have the potential to become more…

My Review

This one sounded like a lot of fun. I have my own nerdy obsessions, so while I didn’t quite get a lot of the things Cameron talked about in this, I definitely understood his passion for them! The story was really good, and I like how the author took several different things in the story to help play out with the meaning that Cameron, as well as other characters in the book, were supposed to learn in the end. I liked all the characters and how they were made to be real and not just caricatures of the “mean girl” type or the tough jock, etc. Again, this flowed perfectly into the theme that Cameron touched on several times about not judging based on appearances or first impressions, or even how people might have acted in public.

Now, I do have one complaint. The cover. It’s a really nice, cover, don’t get me wrong, and I don’t always assume characters will look exactly correct on the cover, but I’m pretty sure the story said that Karla had dark hair. And who I assume is Karla on the cover has blonde hair, so that was a mess up for me. I get the point they were probably trying to go for with how Karla was portrayed as miss popularity/student council president, etc., but that’s a bit of a stereotype and confused me a bit as I read as well.

Otherwise a great book that I can’t wait to share with my students!