I came back to Annie on My Mind as part of a challenge where one of the prompts was to revisit a childhood favorite. I remember reading it when I was in High School, realizing my own sexuality, many years ago (I'm not going to say how many, but...it's a lot). It was one of the first books I read where I could really, truly see myself in it, and felt like I was seen by someone else in a way that very few had up until then. I was a little worried, coming back to it, that my memory had glorified it, that—like some other books I've revisited—what I remembered reading wouldn't have aged well, but no. It really was what I remembered.

It's a gorgeous, heart wrenching and heartwarming story about two girls falling in love at a time when it was still very much not okay to do so. I remember the feelings that this book evokes so well from my own life and coming out, the struggle with societal expectations and judgements, and the fear of rejection from people I loved. Nancy Garden captured all of this in a way that was so real it almost hurt, and yet there's so much joy here. Well worth the read.