How I wish I could’ve liked this book more than I actually did. A book that has two qpoc leads who end up falling for each other should be right up my alley, but how I thought this book would turn out and how the story actually unfolded were two very different things.

The story follows the meeting, and consequent relationship between Maysa, a devout Pakistani-American Muslim who’s held up to high standards by her strict, overbearing parents, and Haydee, a Puerto-Rican prostitute/former gang member who’s trying to clean herself up.

One of the major drawing points for me for this book was absolutely the fact that this centered on a romance between two poc girls, and the fact that there was zero angst when it came to the acceptance of their sexualities was also wonderful. If more time was actually spent on the development of their relationship it would have been sweet beyond words, but unfortunately this was sacrificed in order for other storylines, possibly a little bit too far-fetched to be entirely realistic, to take place instead.

I had a slight problem with Haydee. I adore protective characters who would do anything for those they love, and I feel like this is what Medeia Sharif was aiming for with her, but the rife misogyny that came as part of sex work put me off her a little bit. She constantly referred to herself and anyone else who worked for Rafe as a hoe and demeaned them at every turn. Haydee herself said she willingly went into sex work but her attitude towards it didn’t match that, and I felt as though she looked down on Rafe’s girls way too much. I wish she wouldn’t have used this language in reference to herself of anyone else but I do feel as though having a character who is a teen prostitute is a good device to match real-life issues.

At times, this book almost felt like it was two different books, or two different ideas, that were joined together to make one story; the tale of a teen prostitute trying to escape the life and do better for herself, and the tale of a devout religious girl trying to reconcile her sexuality with her knowledge of homophobic views that her family and friends would have if they knew, and these two girls just happened to be together.

I’ve never been a huge fan of changing POVs, especially when it changes back and forth each chapter, but I feel like this book would have been stronger if it focused on only one of these problems (preferably Maysa’s as I find her story more powerful) and gave more time to their relationship development, instead of trying to cram all these different elements in.
It felt like one minute they had just met, and the next they were in love. We had a scene where it is the first time they’ve spent any time together privately (as in not in public) and they go from discussing movies to having sex, even though Maysa is a virgin and hasn’t even kissed a girl. I can understand that this happens sometimes, but in the context of these characters, I think it just went a little bit too fast for me.

This book however still raises important issues of homophobia, sexuality vs. religion, misogyny, and highlighted qpoc. This book also has a happy ending! The girls are in love and stay together even through a tragedy. Their devotion to each other doesn’t shake and that is truly beautiful.
However, if the book was just a little bit longer, and gave a little bit more romantic development, I might have actually loved it. Unfortunately for me it didn’t have exactly everything I was hoping for when I started reading it.

I absolutely adored this book! What a wonderful, enthralling debut that captures teen angst and the weight and confusion of romantic inclinations and identity.

Amanzimtoti: The Ridge follows Wayne du Preez, as he starts his last year of high school with his best friend Travis and his girlfriend Jess, and is confronted by the sudden and unexpected reappearance of his childhood best friend, which leaves him with him exploring an unhealthy inner turmoil of feelings.

Once I got a few chapters into this book, I found it incredibly hard to put down. I was completely sucked in by Wayne’s internal conflict vs. Kyle’s persistence of a relationship of any form vs. Jessica’s unwavering dedication and kindness. I honestly loved every single character and the relationships and dynamic built between all of them.

I loved that this book used South African slang. This, coupled with the luscious descriptions of the landscape, made me truly picture the surroundings and the lives that these teens led. I also really appreciated that there was a glossary of these terms at the back of the book, so even if you had no knowledge of South African slang, you could still understand what these characters were saying, and be further immersed in the authenticity that Carmen-Shea Hepburn was trying to create. The use of this slang also added to the character of these teenagers, and helped greatly in truly believing that there were actually teenagers, and added to the honesty and realism of all of them.

One of the most important parts of the books was of course the budding, and oftentimes fraught, relationship between Wayne & Kyle. I loved the slow burn of the relationship, and the longing and meaningful glances between them, however I equally couldn’t wait for them to get together. It is a hard task to create a love triangle and have readers care about both relationships involved (in this case, Wayne-Jessica and Wayne-Kyle) however I believe Carmen-Shea Hepburn has mostly achieved this (I’m still rooting more for Wayne & Kyle but Jessica is so incredibly sweet that I want the best for her too). It is also a testament to how good of a writer Hepburn is, that she was able to make me understand both Wayne’s and Kyle’s viewpoints. Both of them have experienced homophobia due to the nature of their relationship, but still this doesn’t want to fully stop them.
Yes, Wayne blames Kyle for the kisses.
Yes, that definitely isn’t nice of him.
But yes, I can completely understand it. This is a boy who is incredibly scared of allowing himself to have feelings for Kyle. It could jeopardise everything for him, and from the glimpses we’ve seen of his family, they’d make his life absolutely miserable if they thought anything was going on. He’s trying to protect himself and those around him, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t want Kyle. The struggle that Wayne has between his heart and his head is nice to see, and it’s going to be interesting to see this further explored in the second book. Again, the fact I feel for Wayne, who’s just trying to protect people, and for Kyle, who knows what he wants (and knows that Wayne wants it too) and is unwilling to settle for anything else, is an indicator of how excellently Hepburn has built this universe with these characters in this setting.

Kyle, to me, never seemed like a bad guy, even though it was obvious that he was actively pursuing Wayne. I did feel bad for Jessica, but I also felt as though the relationship between Wayne and Kyle was unstoppable. Even though we did see Wayne blame Kyle for the kisses, and act like he was just reacting to anything Kyle did, and though he was almost an unwilling participant, he did invite these things. Again, Wayne wants Kyle but is just afraid of what it could mean, and it is wonderful to see this intense struggle of wants explored.

I do love that Wayne is essentially what people may class as a jock, but he’s also incredibly sensitive, finds it hard to make friends, and has deep secrets – he’s absolutely not a two-dimensional character.
In fact, none of the characters in this book are two-dimensional, especially Travis and his conflict between loyalty to his sister and loyalty to his best friend, and how he struggles to handle this later on in the book. Even the side characters that we see, such as members of the rugby team, and the popular girls, are all shown to be different to the main characters. Even though this book very much centers on four people, there is a definite change in dialogue and personality of every single character, even when there is minimal dialogue for side characters compared to Wayne, Jessica, Travis, and Kyle.

Personally, probably the only downside of this book is that for me, too much time was dedicated to Wayne’s internalised homophobia and self-harm and anxiety issues. I understand that this is incredibly important, and I loved that it was in the book, but I believe we saw one too many instances of it, and as a reader it made me slightly uncomfortable. I did not count the number of instances this happened in the book, however it starts in one of the first few chapters, when Wayne sees Kyle again for the first time in eight years, and near the very end of the book too, and is a major theme throughout. Intentional self-harm (plus a case of accidental self-harm) happens a lot, and is the most important coping mechanism in this book for Wayne. When you consider that this book is full of angst, you can imagine that he will turn to this a lot, however I do still think that the amount of times we did this happen was a little too much, and some of the cases could have gone unspoken but implied. This would have still achieved the exact same message, but again, it is incredibly important to see these issues discussed and described, especially in the case of teenage boys.

Another minor point that I didn’t really enjoy was when Kyle insinuated that Wayne

Spoiler

was only in a relationship with Jess because he wanted to be with Travis. That kind of threw me as I had never seen that kind of relationship between Wayne and Travis, and it seemed a left-field comment for Kyle to make, and then for Wayne to seriously consider.

I’m glad that Wayne came to the conclusion that Kyle was wrong, but it still seemed like a weird almost sub-plot to me.

The ending frustrated me beyond belief, but only because I wanted to know what happened next. The abrupt ending offered me no satisfaction, but knowing that there is a second book coming, that is going to hopefully further explore the relationship between Wayne and Kyle, is comforting.

Overall, this book left me feeling ecstatic in places, angry in others, and incredibly dejected too. This book is slightly rife with angst, so of course there are going to be down moments, but there is also light and comedy in it too.

I am truly excited to read the second book and how this story develops, and I couldn’t recommend this book highly enough. Please, if you enjoy LGBTQ+ romance, meaningful teen drama, or simply want to immerse yourself in a different culture, read this book!

With the first half of the blurb and the cover I was expecting a book that was primarily historical fiction, Eva sitting in a closet and reacting to her discoveries of a side of a loved one that she hadn’t seen before. This is not that book, well, maybe slightly. Instead of a tale of forbidden love in the 1920s, we’re given a story that hugely incorporates fantasy elements to weave a tale of duty, destiny, love, and family, and the book is probably better for deviating from a standard concept.

The Light Of The World centers of Eva Kessler who, following the death of her grandmother, discovers diaries from 1925-1926 in a box in the closet of her grandmother’s apartment, which they are clearing in order for it to be sold. Eva becomes enamoured with the tales of Mary’s past life and soon wants to investigate the people mentioned in it, plus the concept of ‘the light of the world’. This leads her to Theo, Al, and Liv, who help her investigate the events of 1925 and how they may possibly be linked to the current day. This leads them on a journey that none of them could have expected.

I wasn’t expecting two queer storylines in this book, nor was I expecting talk about depression and mental health, and I was pleasantly surprised on both counts. There are obvious parallels between Mary and Eva, which we see almost immediately, and as we learn going through the book, there are parallels between Wren and Liv too. I did like these, and the ideas they brought up about true love and destiny, however I felt some of the concepts didn’t fit.

The concept of ‘the light of the world’ was also a little confusing, and whilst it was nice to see a different approach to a queer love story, it sometimes felt like the fantastical elements were a little confusing. I walked away feeling as though the concept wasn’t actually explained in the book, and it was just a thing that was there. The idea of the cycle being broken and Liv and Eva being free to love each other didn’t feel completely explained either. It seemed to go a little against the idea of Liv and Eva being drawn to each other. I would have been able to believe that upon their deaths, a part of the souls of The Guardian and Their One would have been transferred to Liv and Eva, and a sort of reincarnation process happening. This could have explained the immediacy of Liv and Eva’s feelings, and why they were attracted to each other, however it felt that the breaking of the cycle meant this wasn’t the case, even though this was the impression I got halfway through the book.
I also think there wasn’t enough explanation or fight from the antagonists, the shadows, and why light and darkness was such a big deal. I also think the magic of the light was unexplained too, it was simply there and something we had to accept as we were reading it.

Admittedly, I did prefer reading Mary’s diary entries and seeing the relationship between Wren and herself develop, and I wish we could have seen more of this. I thought Mary was an incredibly interesting character and I loved the glimpses of her that we got to see, as tragic as they were.

I appreciated the crossover of fantasy and historical fiction however I think there could have been a different idea, or execution of the current idea, that would have made the story flow better.

Most of all, I love that these girls got a happy ending, and the epilogue/interview showed us that Liv managed to write her book, get it published, and that people loved it. I think if Ellen Simpson ever did want to write a sequel or spin-off to this, then Talbot’s Girls – Tales of the 1920s would be a great and interesting fictional book to write.

Whilst reading this book there were multiple times that I shouted out loud (in enjoyable exasperation) at some of the events that transpired in The Space Between. Mutual pining is one of my favourite writing tropes and this book didn’t disappoint at all, piling tons of it in from start to finish. It combines fluff and angst perfectly and is a great tale about first love.

The Space Between follows Harper Isabelle and Sarah Jamieson, both 14 at the start of the novel, as they meet and are immediately, although secretly, attracted to each other. Through the book we see them fall in love and fall apart. This book definitely gave me flashbacks to the feelings of my first crushes and the excitement of being drawn to someone and experiencing new feelings. I like that chapters switched between both Harper’s and Sarah’s point of view so we got to see it from both of their thoughts and opinions on events that transpired such as their first kiss and their struggles with how to define their relationship.

Although I did love this story, I felt a tiny bit icky reading about 14/15 year olds having sex, and I think if they were aged up to 16 I would have been more comfortable. Although this is my opinion, this kind of thing is realistic in real life, and it didn’t overly detract from the wonderful arc of their relationship and them falling in love. I can understand that some readers might have issues with the love triangle (albeit mostly unrequited), especially seeing as Harper is firstly dating Tyler, and then goes on to date his sister Sarah in secret. I personally did not have much of a problem with this, as I could see it from both Harper’s and Sarah’s viewpoints, however the idea of cheating will not appeal to some readers, especially when it is with siblings.
The book also focused extremely heavily on the feelings and relationship between Harper and Sarah and I did walk away feeling like I didn’t know much about these characters outside of their relationships and their identity issues, and I wish we could have got a better glimpse at them.

Part of me also wishes that we could have seen how both Harper and Sarah adjusted to school life after they came out, and how treatment of them differed. I did enjoy the epilogue and it was nice to see that they were still happy after three years together. I’m really glad this is an enjoyable queer YA book with a happy ending and I think a lot of people will enjoy it as much as I did.

amazing and relatable fandom mentions? check
chinese australian bisexual protagonist? check
autism spectrum fangirl protagonist? check

i just love love love this book and the relationships within it whether that be friendships, romantic, fandom or heroes/celebrities. a really really fun read