There are not enough rating stars to express how much I LOOOOOOVE this book!!!!!! I laughed out loud, I cried, I ran to tell a friend what I'd just read, and I didn't put it down until I had devoured it from cover to cover. There is a passage in the book about how someone loves another so deeply, he wants to close the space between them, literally open their hearts to each other, and connect blood vessel for blood vessel, so that they become one. I truly feel that's what THIS book did for every 20+ year old, that it linked us heart to heart. This is a book for anyone who understood themselves in an academic setting, then got to the end and were unsure still of who they were or how to live their lives. This is a love story to any fledgling adulthood who's had their heart broken by failing their own expectations, and needs to take a breather before finding themselves again.

AND the Harry Potter subversions, holy Humdrum! The brilliant braiding of Chamber of Secrets and Deathly Hallows: What if, when our heroes were the least sure of themselves and in the direst of straights, they stole a car and went on a road trip, to save the day but also to find themselves. Of course Luna Lovegood is a wellness hippie from Cali, and OF COURSE Tom Riddle is a the leader of a wellness cult that's actually a boys club of Big Pharma baddies! OF COURSE The Chamber of Secrets is a laboratory! OF COURSE Lupin/Snape is a vampire mentor who may or may not betray our heroes (no spoilers here! ;)). OF COURSE the Muggle world has conspiracy theorists who go searching for proof of magic!!! Ugh, Shephard was the perfect Huffleclaw addition to the golden trio: His genuine kindness and interest in people was sooo refreshing! He was like the best of Colin Creevey, Neville Longbottom and Newt Scamander mashed together. UGH, the glimpse of what the Fantastic Beasts movies SHOULD HAVE been about: How magic is not limited to wizards, and Newt/Shephard knows/discovers all these other fantastic beasts/beings across America, as our heroes learn from them how to live well! AHHH!!!! The love, the LOVE I FEEL for this book, how it continues to be smarter than its predecessor, and speak truths from the heart that I/we needed to hear.

Being yourself is hard. Accepting love from other people when you don't yet love yourself, is hard. Redirecting your life at a crossroads is hard! But all the magic you need is inside you. Thank you Rainbow Rowell, for giving us this story, and for making us feel Seen.