Title: Only on the Weekends
Author: Dean Atta
Publisher: HarperCollins
Publication date: May 24, 2022
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Summary
Growing up, Mack has always been a hopeless romantic. Probably because of the films he grew up watching. For the longest time, he’s had a crush on Karim. When Karim becomes his boyfriend, Mack can’t believe his luck. Their connection is so strong, it has to be true love.
However, their relationship is about to get tested when Mack’s dad, a famous movie director, gets a job in Scotland. Now, they’ll have to try long distance and only see each other on weekends. When Mack meets Finlay on his father’s set, they have an instant connection. As their relationship grows, how long should he wait to tell Karim? And what happens when both his lives collide?
Review: Only on the Weekends
Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins for an advanced copy of Only on the Weekends to review! The Black Flamingo is definitely one of my favorite novels in verse, so I was excited to see Dean Atta wrote another book. And I’m happy to say that this one doesn’t disappoint!
You might think that a novel in verse can’t get quite the same emotional effect and character development as a prose novel. Dean Atta is here to prove you wrong! There was so much emotional nuance in this book, especially as Mack tries to figure out who he is. While at first he doesn’t want to go to Scotland, it’s in Scotland he kind of feels like he can be himself. But he also doesn’t know how to reconcile that with his relationship with Karim. There’s so much complexity there told in fewer sentences, and it’s actually really beautiful.
Outside of the romance, we also get to see Mack grow in his relationship with his dad. He gets to see him more while they are in Scotland, and they get to work on their relationship. Seeing them work stuff out helped to grow Mack’s character as well as his dad’s. Incorporating how both of them dealt with the loss of Mack’s mother and their miscommunication through it all. Atta is really a master at emotions.
The only reason this isn’t getting 5 stars is because the pacing felt a tad off to me. I think the middle act could have been made a bit shorter so we could have seen more in the resolution at the end. I wanted to see how the characters got to breath after everything went down. But other than that, this is absolutely a deep, character-driven story that will hook you from the beginning.
4.5/5 stars