Review first posted live on Rather Be Reading Blog --

For reasons I can’t completely grasp (even after I finished it a week ago), I felt strongly connected to Jesse and Emily’s relationship. At times, I wanted to just throw the book across the room because the dread, the ache, the excitement between the two was so real to me. It felt like I was experiencing it myself. That would be thanks to author Madeleine George, who I was delighted to find out is a playwright living right in my backyard (NYC). It’s really no surprise. She writes with a stark simplicity that I quite liked and her character development was very strong. The plot moved at a reasonable pace, and every word seemed very deliberate. I’m not normally a fan of books that don’t offer a ton of dialogue but I found myself very intrigued with the inner thoughts of these characters. If I walked into any crowded room, I felt I could easily uncover Jesse and Emily, even if I hardly “heard” them speak.

Jesse is the kind of character I love. She is brave. And while she has a strong sense of who she is, she is also incredibly flawed. This is important to me as a reader and a human being. Her secret hook-ups with Emily definitely start to take a toll. She worries about what this means about the kind of person she is. She’s falling for a person that her family may not approve of, someone who may not ever want to hold her hand in public. But she allows herself to dream that impossible dream, as so many of us do. No matter how painful the truth is, and how much deep down, we know what we might be doing is wrong. All of these emotions surrounding their relationship were so incredibly vivid, especially when we learn what Emily is feeling… or not.

Emily is so proper, and so much about appearances and doing the right thing, I almost felt like she was campaigning to be the next President of the United States. She was not a person who let her guard down. She worried about moving forward and getting ahead, and taking charge and keeping things in order. So she must have felt really messed up that she was feeling such affection for Jesse and enjoyed making out with her. At times she even allowed herself to dream about making this relationship something more. I enjoyed those times because, otherwise, Emily came off as a cold person. And I could relate to Jesse feeling so crazed about the whole thing because the two didn’t communicate about their feelings, their fears, or what everything meant. (That would have made me crazy. I like to talk everything out and know what every move means.)

So here we have these two characters narrating alternate chapters, and then Esther turns up. She and Jesse end up becoming friends, bonding over their mothers and accepting their differences and their interests in meaningful work. I liked her character, but I’m not sure of the conscious decision to give her 2 chapters out of the entire book. I felt we could have easily found out these tidbits about her from Jesse’s point of view for sure. Structurally, it didn’t work for me, and emotionally, I was more invested in Jesse and Emily especially once the Starmart conflict comes into play. Similarly to TESSA MASTERSON WILL GO TO PROM, we have another situation where a big business is attempting to take over local businesses. The catch? This is the same business Emily recruited to sponsor their latest school dance. Much comes into question for Emily and Jesse when this situation blows up at school. So much so that this conflict becomes the driving force behind the movement of the plot, and not so much their relationship – which I liked a lot.

In the end though, and quite surprising to me, only one of these characters comes full circle in their journey. One character changes. I don’t necessarily agree with that decision. The ending certainly snuck up on me; I could have used more resolution in several aspects of the book. All in all, I love how this book was written, and I was more than happy to read an LGBT that chronicles the lives of 3 such different people. It teaches us that you can’t always choose who you love, and perhaps, it teaches us even more about acceptance.

This book falls somewhere between 2.5 and 3 stars for me. I thought it was fairly well written, although the Esther chapters seemed completely random and unnecessary. I'm just not usually very excited about books with agendas, and this novel had several. And a few of the characters were a bit extreme in their "archetypes" (read: stereotypes). For example - a conservative, born again Christian who just so happens to work for a Walmart-esque corporation that wants to come in and ruin every local business owner and whose wife has resorted to poisoning and blow torching innocent bunnies because they keep getting into her garden. Really??? I did like Jesse, though.

I'm not really sure how I feel about this book. It didn't really go as I expected. But it wasn't bad. I kind of wish it didn't end where it did though. I feel like a lot of things still weren't resolved. But I guess that kind of makes it like no one was wrong.

It didn't really tug on my heart, but I enjoyed it fine.

i tried to like this book, but it just wasn't good

I'm pretty impressed with this novel. The characters were fascinating, and while I've never really known anyone like any of these people (except maybe Michael), they felt real anyway. The story was told with a wonderful delicacy, and the alternate viewpoints were an excellent choice, as they allowed the reader to see the layers and details of the story that we would have missed if only one viewpoint were shared. The end was bittersweet, which is probably for the best in a story like this (but still, probably more sweet than bitter). Do yourself a favor and read this book.

The book was okay. The queer representation was great, but it did feel a little like the characters played into stereotypes. I didn’t actually hate that the ending wasn’t happy, because I think it was a good ending for Jesse, but nothing was really resolved for Emily, and she ended the book with pretty much identical problems to when the book started. For queer readers, especially teens, who read the book identifying with Emily, I don’t think the book would be as powerful as for those who identify more with Jesse. I think seeing Emily treated with a little more compassion or any of the characters being a little more well-rounded would have made it all that much better. There was also a lot of stuff with the activists and vice principal that was implied but not fully revealed.

I have to say I liked this book a lot. I basically read it straight through. I seem to be in the minority here though. I really enjoyed the characters and thought they felt realistic, and both Emily and Jesse had perspectives that made sense for them. I didnt see Emily as a villain, but Jesse's description of her as supernormal feels accurate to me and regarding her depressing choices. I didnt feel the book had enough of a resolution, it sort of just ended. I dont want unrealistic amounts of tidying up, but it could have done more.

After reading a bunch of frankly bad queer ya lit by cishet authors obsessed with Drama and queer-based violence, it was very obvious to me this author was gay, and that made it really refreshing. It's an ordinary sort of story queer kids dont get a lot of.

The author is also a really good writer in terms of style. The 3rd person stuff was great.. the 1st person felt kiddish but I assume that was because of the characters. I would read more by her, but I think I would like a more complex or weighty plot next time.

Btw I didnt find the characters to be charicatures. I have known plenty of people like these people lol. And to the one reviewer who criticized "gay best friend" trope, dude all I can say is that that doesnt count when the other friend is also queer. Queer people stick together. Honestly I can only think of one friend in my life who isnt queer. Real queer people are friends primarily with other queer people in my experience. Just in my life, my two best friends close to my age from home are trans, my best friend locally is bi, and one of my other good friends locally is pan. This is normal.

I think this is a book queer people would like more than straight people.

Fun and humorous read; I liked the different voices/perspectives and I loved the adult characters as well as the teen protagonists--the parents, teachers and mentors were very well drawn. Felt at home/nostalgic with the activist family setting.