Little Imperfections: A Tall Tale of Growing Up Different

Product Information

As always, a copy of this book was provided by the author or publisher in exchange for my honest review. This does not effect my opinion in any way.

The YouTube Shorts series is described as a first-of-its-kind integration. In an interview with YouTube, Montzingo said that he was encouraged to create video companions for his book because he wanted “to do something really creative.” What I loved most about Tiny Imperfections is its honesty in portraying many things because it leads to many emotional moments, but also some highlights of hilarity for good measure--a mother, trying to navigate the next chapter in her life as her daughter prepares for college, the same mother in her day to day life as the director of admissions at a prestigious school. Tiny Imperfections shines with such a luxuriously witty tone, it's impossible for it not to coax at least one smile from its readers. Peet: Up until the pandemic, I was actually in a touring boy band. It was where I thought my career was going to go. And then when COVID happened, everything was shut down and I was like, "Well what am I going to do?" I'm a workaholic and if I can't entertain in person then I guess I'll continue it online. It is sweet, fun, soft, entertaining with easily relatable characters, interesting, moving storyline, three generation’s communication problems. She sees some things in common with her mother. She was dropped off at Aunt Viv’s when she was four. She left her child with Aunt Viv’s while she chased her career goals. But Etta is growing up now and she just wants the best for her. There’s a problem, though. Etta is smart and she wants her to go to a well accredited college and get a good job. All Etta wants to do is dance. She wants to go to Juilliard. Josie is not happy with that but Aunt Viv is on Etta’s side.Right from the get-go, our main character Josie introduces Roan who is in every sense the overused trope of the gay best friend. Let me make something clear: I know that there are gay men out there who fit certain stereotypes very well. They can be flamboyant and love gossip and fashion, and there is NOTHING wrong with being queer and fitting certain queer stereotypes. What I find issue with is when cisgender straight women write a gay character into their story who is the epitome of every stereotype that ever was, and does not contrast them with a more non-conforming gay man. I hate when straight authors will just plop in a gay character for "diversity points" and fit them nicely into an overused and, frankly harmful, trope.

She grew inside me, developed a heart right underneath mine and sometimes I know what she's feeling before she does. Frankly, I thought the gay representation in this story was horrendous. It was painfully, painfully clear that there were no sensitivity readers for this book. What the hell? I seriously question how some of these lines got published. Where do I begin? I suppose I'd like to start out with what I believed were this book's strongest points. The discussion on privilege and class were fascinating, and I thought that they were done with a very humorous but conscious hand. There were a few lines I laughed at and that were genuinely funny, and there were a few characters such as Aunt Viv that I grew to love.

Customer reviews

Peet: That's true. We thought, "Yeah, we could get done in a month and release everything and make a video about it." Because we also did a video version of the book as well, so a lot of illustrations in the book, each chapter is kind of based on the frames that were in the video. Kind of like a new way to experience the book with the video. So a lot of blood, sweat, and tears in this project, but we’re really happy with it.