content warnings: hospitalisation, discussion of infidelity and a panic attack, homophobia, racism
representation: main m/m relationship, gay jewish main character with adhd, gay white passing puerto-rican main character, side character with anxiety, biromanic asexual side character in an f/f relationship, fat biracial side character


“Maybe this won't work out and I won't care about it ending. But I can't get from A to B without us being A and B first. Live in the moment.”


Review can also be found on my blog.

Listen, this book has flaws (as does literally every book) but I still loved it and, frankly, some of you are being extremely harsh on it. I love Becky Albertalli and Adam Silvera's books (okay, I've only read one Adam Silvera book, but I'm planning on reading his other two soon) and I was so excited when I found out that they were going to be writing a book together. And this book definitely didn't disappoint.

What If It's Us is about Arthur, a musical nerd from Georgia visiting New York for the summer, and Ben, a New York native who has just gotten out of a relationship. When the book starts Arthur is out on a coffee run and meets Ben as he's going to the post office to mail his ex-boyfriend his things. But then a flash mob happens and they lose each other without getting any contact information. Both then proceed to try to find the other, succeed, and then go on a horrible first date.

This book is, at it's core, about how messy and complicated relationships can be. Arthur and Ben go on bad dates, say the wrong thing, react inappropriately to something, and it's portrayed as totally normal because it is. Relationships are messy and complicated, and I really love that Becky and Adam decided to portray that aspect in what is essentially a teen romcom.

Honestly, most of the rest of this review is going to be me reacting to recurring comments I keep seeing on negative-to-okay reviews because so many of them genuinely confuse me.

➵ Arthur is a creepy stalker and Ben is amazing. Okay, I'm not disputing that Ben's amazing, but y'all are seriously misrepresenting Arthur. Yes, he gets the label from the package, tries to find Ben with it, fails, considers putting an ad on Craigslist, and then puts up a flier. But did y'all just not read Ben's chapters in that portion of the book? Because he obsessively tries to find Arthur on social media, then his best friend's girlfriend does the same, and goes to a Yale meet-up because he thinks Arthur might be there. I don't know what book you read, but if you're all up in arms over Arthur being a stalker, then you might want to include Ben in that camp as well.

➵ The only good characters were Ben and Dylan. As previously stated, I love Ben, but I'm seriously not getting the Dylan hype. I thought he was a perfectly fine character most of the time, but some of his comments came off to me as something a fuckboy would say (the "future wife" comment constantly coming up and his use of the term "friend zone") and some of his dialogue was very... Obnoxious is the best word for it. Clearly he didn't ruin my enjoyment of the book and I still liked him, I just don't understand why he seems to be peoples' saving grace of this book.

➵ There are too many pop culture references. Were there?? Maybe it's because I recently read Ready Player One but I thought there was a normal amount of references for a very current contemporary. In fact, compared to Becky's other books, this one was fairly toned down. Usually the references were one of two things: a) just part of a characters personality, like Arthur constantly referencing musicals (and as someone who loves Hamilton, yes, we will just casually quote it in conversations and we will get offended if you don't get it), or b) it was a clever descriptor, like when one of them was referring to doing his hair and says he could do a Draco Malfoy, which majority of people will immediately realise means slicked back hair. The book would also sometimes go several pages without including any references so???

➵ The characters are over dramatic. Speaking as someone who is the same age as the characters, yes, they are extremely over dramatic. But that's how teenagers are. I've seen my friends' relationship drama and literally no rational thought goes into anything. Teenagers constantly blow things out of proportion and jump to conclusions, so this book is just portraying teenagers as they are, something which is quite frankly extremely lacking in YA. Also, this book portrays teenagers after they've been extremely over dramatic, they talk it out, they apologise, they acknowledge that they've been over dramatic.

Now, onto some other miscellaneous thoughts:

✨ I predicted the ending and I still loved it
✨ I hated Jessie and Ethan, they were major dicks
✨ He should've dumped them for Namrata and Juliet, the true queens of this book
✨ Where's our novella about Ben's parents, the cutest couple in this book. “Instead of buying Pa a coffeemaker that would have to be replaced within a year, Ma made him an I love you, Diego mug that he cherishes. Like, if the apartment is on fire, he's grabbing us and that mug. And instead of buying Ma a new prayer book, I helped Pa make an audio file of him reciting his favourite Bible verses to listen to every morning.” THEY ARE THE ULTIMATE OTP
✨ That scene where Arthur says something ignorant about Ben's ethnicity, Ben corrects him, Arthur apologises, Ben says it's fine, and then Arthur says that it's not fine? Literary perfection
✨ In fact, all the stuff about Ben being white passing was amazing
✨ Wattpad being mentioned made me both cringe and feel nostalgic
✨ The casual insertion of Arthur's family being Jewish, especially in that scene when they're over for dinner at the Alejo's, was so fucking good
✨ A YA book? Having discussions about dating someone with noticeably more money than you? It's more likely than you think
✨ The twin men book-ending the book was incredible
✨ I love when books have characters who aren't academically clever and that being perfectly fine
✨"Box Boy dates guys. I'M A GUY." Arthur is a Disaster and I love him
✨ Spoilery thoughts on Arthur's parents:

Spoiler

I wish they weren't a happy couple in the end because I was really vibing with Arthur over having passive aggressive parents who should realistically just divorce.

✨ The fact that Ben thinks quoting Taken makes someone cool
✨ "Let me mansplain your city to you" was the funniest line in the book
✨ Talking about hammering Thor is a Big Mood
✨ Also, I love this trope of 'coming out to your friends by mentioning that character/actor of the same sex in a movie is hot' (lookin at you Bright Sessions)
✨ Everyone texts fucking paragraphs in this book?? Do the Teens do that?? Sorry, I'm not hip with the kids
✨ The kiss took forever but good god was it worth it
✨ "No spoilers!" "It's history!" had me cracking up
✨ The fucking scene where Arthur's facetiming his mum and then Ben just,, walks in only wearing boxers,,, and Arthur just,, Can't Even
✨ Top/bottom jokes to do with bunk beds will always be funny. Sorry, I don't make the rules

I have a lot of Feelings and, as per usual, both Becky and Adam delivered a damn good time.