Book Review | Reasons Why Punk 57 by Penelope Douglas is Famous on BookTok 🌶

I don’t know what I did, but it had to be something, because when you find everyone hates you, it’s not them. It’s you.

In the meantime, there’s a new guy in school, Masen who’s getting at Ryen’s nerves all the time. Ryen, the perfect and popular girl, the cheerleader with no space for brains, is determined to get back at Masen for all the shame he puts her through, only to develop feelings for him. Duh.

Eventually we all have to weigh what we want more. 

CHARACTERS

I love how this book is relatable to a lot of people especially high schoolers. There are some books I would’ve enjoyed more if I read it at a younger age but in this case, I can still relate to Ryen a lot. I love how she’s not the typical nice and timid main girl. She’s mean and a bitch to a lot of people. But as the story progressed, we get to see how much she changed and finally embracing her true self and accept her as who she is. For me, the transition doesn’t feel forced and the pace is right.

Masen on the other hand, is a red flag. If you know one in real life, RUN. He was horrible and despicable to Ryen for no reason in the beginning. No matter how many times he justified his actions, I will forever hate him for it. At one point, he was manipulative toward Ryen. I hated how Ryen had to take all the blame. Even so, Masen can be sweet sometimes. He has two sides like a coin. Sometimes he says just the right thing to make everything okay and the next he’s threatening you with a pair of scissors. Literally.

I have no life there if you’re not in it. You’re part of everything good I’ve ever done.

The side characters; Ryen’s group of friends are horrible. They are the popular clique at school who got away with everything. I enjoy the drama between Ryen and Lyla. The way they hate each other and stab behind their backs. It was a wrong thing to do but I’m here for the drama. chews popcorn

My favourite side character would be Ten and J.D. I love Ten because he seems like a genuine nice guy and he was always by Ryen’s side no matter what but at the same time he can be fun too without crossing the line. 

RELATIONSHIP

There are many kinds of relationships being discussed in Punk 57 other than the romance between Misha and Ryen. It deals about friendship and the relationship with family. 

In the story, Ryen had been distant from her older sister and mother ever since she became popular. In a way, she hated her sister for reminding her how lonely she used to be. I love that towards the end of the book, Ryen had started to spend more time with them even though it was only briefly mentioned.

I wish I got to see more between Misha and his father. Their relationship became rocky after a tragedy and being men, they’re both too ego to handle their grief openly. But in the end, Misha came around and we can see how he actually cared about the only family he had left. 

I can’t wait to live all the days I’m going to live with her.

Speaking about relationship, despite having a good chemistry between Misha and Ryen, their relationship is toxic and abusive. Especially in the beginning. Towards the middle of the book, there are A LOT of hot interactions between them. And even the way they settled a conflict involves skin to skin contact which really did not solve the conflict at all. But there are times when I found them cute like when Ryen helped Misha wrote songs together, when Misha performed on stage at prom singing a song for Ryen and when Ryen passive aggressively hinting for Misha to ask her to prom. That’s why they frustrated me so much because I don’t want to root for them because it’s toxic but they’re cute too.

WRITING STYLE 

I would totally recommend this if you’re looking for a fast read because the writing style is pretty straightforward and it was written in the first POV. The chapters alternate between Ryen and Misha’s POV. So, the reading experience feels more natural and easy.

Rate: ★★★★☆