4.5? Cynthia So has a way of putting into beautiful words the feelings you never thought could be expressed into words. If You Still Recognise Me deals with family, culture, friendships (online and away from keyboard), trauma from a past relationship and new crushes.

Elsie is still struggling to get over her previous relationship when her Popo (her grandmother from Hong-Kong) which she hasn't seen is years, comes to live with her in the UK. She now has to deal with family secrets, rekindling her friendship with her childhood bestfriend turned stranger Joan, all whilst also attempting a big gesture for her crush who lives on the other side of the globe.

I loved seeing all the different relationships Elsie has with different members of her family and with her different friends. Everything felt so real, imperfect and relatable.
It was also comforting in many ways.
Elsie is British-Chinese and bisexual. We also have a very diverse cast of characters of multiple ethnicities and sexual and romantic orientations (we even have a questioning ace side character!!). And seeing a bunch of old queer ladies living very happily and in love was amazing.

If I were to be a little critical, I did feel like a couple of things could have been developed slightly more...
Elsie's relationship with her father for example feels completely non existant, we have little insight into their relationship as there is a heavy focus on her mother's side of the family (which made me want to know what it was like on the other side of the family!).
But also, sadly, the final pairing, between Elsie and who she finally ends up with felt very sudden and I couldn't quite root for them as much as I would have if there had been more on-page content between them.

Ultimately, this book goes into a whooole lot of great topics! But there might be slightly too many things going on, which leads to a couple of point feeling underdeveloped.
It does not take away the fact that I loved reading this book and felt like the words touched my heart and my soul in a way other books rarely do nowadays.

So thank you Cynthia So, I can't wait to read more from you!