I first heard about NOT OTHERWISE SPECIFIED when it was first released, thanks to #YALit twitter's great promotion tool of being a bunch of nerds who are excited about great writing. More recently, I was browsing around my local library and was shocked to find Moskowitz's masterpiece left unattended on the shelves. I immediately snatched it up and promised myself to read fast so the teens this was meant for could have it back.

Because, my friends, NOT OTHERWISE SPECIFIED is so, so good. The story follows Etta Sinclair, a teen who has a Not Otherwise Specified Eating Disorder (because the diagnostic process sucks), who loves ballet (but not ballet's rigid ideas of discipline and being unseen), who is bisexual (but whose former friend group is a bunch of biphobic lesbians called the Disco Dykes), who is black (in a mostly white town), and who is middle class (but her best friends are working class). This conflict of identity is the core of the book, and what a core it is. Oh, and did I mention there's a cattle call audition for a musical theater college in New York, which is where Etta wants to go to escape Nebraska? Wild times ahead, ya'll.

The greatest strength of this book is Etta's narrative voice. Etta thinks deeply yet quickly about herself and her world. While I found B.T. Gottfred's imitation of a teen voice distracting and unnecessary, Moskowitz's Etta sounds authentic and engaging. Sometimes Etta gave me whiplash, ping-ponging amongst various plans to affirm herself and the space she inhabits. Mostly, though, Etta made me nostalgic for my own teen and college years, when such soul-searching conversations were common. It seems utterly real to me for friends to gather together and talk about classism, racism, and homophobia. Etta and her friends acknowledge that there are not easy, fair, or right answers to hard questions, and Jesus, if that didn't feel like salvation.

The diversity aspect went very, very far with me too. While I'm white and never had an eating disorder, I'm cheered that reviewers who do fill those identities liked this book. My experience with biphobia hasn't gone past the micro-aggression stage, but the Dykes' bullying felt all too possible. I've had lots of conversations about class and classism, since I'm from an upper middle class background. It felt really good, reading this book.

With it's diversity, voice, authenticity, and relatable-as-heck-ness, there's no way I could not recommend this book to everyone. Read it with joy. Wait eagerly for the sequel.