I was ecstatic when I received an email asking if I wanted to read and review the latest McQuiston novel. I loved Red, White, and Royal Blue, just like everyone else, and even really enjoyed One Last Stop, even if less people loved that one. Also, I was curious what McQuiston's YA debut would read like, and how it would compare to the other two.

Admittedly, it did take me longer to get into this book at first, even though I did end up enjoying it a lot later. It felt quite derivative at first, like the John Green novels that the MC sometimes joked about, and it reminded me a lot of other books I had read before. Another big difference is that for most of the book, the main character and love interest don't really interact, since this book is about finding that love interest after she's disappeared. It makes for a much different dynamic and romantic set-up than the other two, and you learn a lot about the characters from past events, rather than new ones.

There's also a large cast when all the friends are accounted for, and it took a while to figure out who everyone was, and what they were like, because the MC mainly spends time with new characters, or by herself solving the mystery. So while the cast is as large as McQuiston's other books, the main character feels more isolated, and I didn't enjoy the story as much because of it. I also found myself frustrated by Chloe every once in a while, but I also get she's a teenager who's suddenly wrapped up in a mystery (and is slowly getting more and more obsessed with it), so some of her reactions and choices were logical from that frame.

However, as this book continued on, I found myself enjoying it more and more. Chloe became less isolated and the side characters started playing a larger role, and I found I enjoyed them a lot. I also feel like there were some important discussions going on about queerness and religion, and how it isn't as black and white as it's made to seem. There's plenty of bigotry and homophobia due to the religion present in the book, which is tough to read about at points, but I think the book handled it well in the end, and was able to isolate extremism from religion as a whole. I also like the angle the book took on the hometown, and how the characters learned that it wasn't all bad, just because a few parts of it were really messed up. It became about finding love and joy in where you are, where you can, and seeing how that can change your perspective.

I definitely feel like I would have been more obsessed with this had I been 15-17, so in that sense, I feel like this is a great book for the group it targets. I overall did still really enjoy it, and can't wait to see what the rest of the world thinks when it officially releases!