This book is fun and mostly light, which is great, and there were moments where I was really into it, but there were also moments where I wasn’t. It didn’t quite hit for me, to be entirely honest, but I’m certain plenty of people would love it.

What I like:
* I love the sapphic energy in this book, always a plus
* I like August’s detective-y background; there’s a great scene where she uses her detective skills on passengers on the train
* I like that there is the found family/friendship element that takes this book beyond just romance
* I like that August is a loner/inexperienced with relationships and learns how to love and be loved (platonically and romantically)
* I like that we get to spend a lot of time with August’s relationship with her mom
* I actually think it is quite fun that Nico is a psychic. The whole seance bit was hilarious.


What I don’t:
* There is something performative about the queerness in this book that I don’t love. It’s not all of it, it’s just there are moments where, for example, a character feels the need to declare he is pansexual when we learn about his current relationship lest we for a moment consider he may not be queer when we find out he has a girlfriend- it feels like the author wants us to know how queer everyone is and isn’t it wonderful! And it is wonderful to have this big queer family, it just feels very, like, queerness is everything and aren’t you glad nobody in this book isn’t queer? On the other hand, I think Nico’s transness is handled really well. So it’s a mixed bag for me.
* Similarly, the nostalgia for 1970s activism feels exactly that: nostalgic. It’s not that the book doesn’t deal with homophobia from that period/doesn’t hit some of the darkness, it’s just that it feels a bit like a sanitized and simplistic version of history. A little rich that a book with a bisexual protagonist written by a bisexual author conveniently forgets to mention the biphobia (and transphobia) coming from within the queer community in 1970s activism, or just general factions or infighting you find in any movement. It is presented as a perfect history with clear heroes, Jane obviously being one of them, and that rubs me the wrong way
* I don’t love destiny narratives, that one is on me
* The sci-fi-y time slip element is fun, but it also gets over explainy at times and is, well, cheesy; (spoiler) to be entirely honest, I think I would have liked it better if Jane had gone back to the 1970s…
* There is an overarching feeling of tumblr wokeness that I just don’t love (by this I mean performative virtue signaling); I did not feel this way about Red, White, and Royal Blue, but maybe it was just more appropriate in that context.

I’m sure a lot of people will find this fun and relatable, it just doesn’t hit for me.