A quick, light read! Not a ton of depth to the main cast(although they are lovable), and not as much magic as I hoped for unfortunately, but the love triangle was entertaining and I can see a lot of younger readers of  both fantasy and comics really enjoying this.

WHAT THE FUCK

Actual 3.5 rating this time lol…as a nonbinary person, I appreciated the rep! I can see why people say this book is important, it was a lot of readers’ first book they read with a nonbinary protagonist, and I liked Ben’s discussions about their queerness and how they lived out their life within their nonbinary and bisexual identities. (Also, a mention of how dysphoria impacts their future romantic relationships, kinda earlier on in the book when an actual relationship is still an idea!! As someone with a similar thought process I felt especially seen by that part shjdbdkgnlsfonfo)

But although I felt seen by the nonbinary rep, I don’t have much else to say about the characters. Mainly because they’re very one-note? Not underdeveloped, we have the gist of who they are, but even Nathan’s character felt too simple for me. I especially wanted more time to dissect Hannah, Ben’s sister and guardian. It’s clear from the start that she has a lot of unprocessed trauma and guilt regarding their household, but instead of unpacking it with subtlety, it’s handed to you in the therapy sessions with Dr. Taylor. (On the topic of Dr. Taylor, although she’s also kind of one note too, she’s definitely one of the more realistic therapist characters I’ve read about. And she’s genuinely helpful, too!)

I also wasn’t jiving with the romance…Nathan started out as pushy and I found him kind of annoying for the most part, he shows a more laid-back and compassionate side later on but his flirting was very shoehorned in and there wasn’t much chemistry between him and Ben. (Sidenote: there was a moment where Ben said that they thought Nathan deserved someone “simpler” because “they were too messy” which made me giggle as someone who actually just finished a book with a messy protag…Ben you just have trauma responses lmao)

(Also, minor criticism about how Ben talks about “not fitting into the stereotypical image of a nonbinary person” when????they do lmao they’re thin, white and long-haired)

Not gonna penalize anyone for liking this book obviously, but I was kind of expecting more for something hyped up this much. At least it helped me through an anxiety/depressive episode when I started it, though?

(ok, edit 10/16: I revisited my review and considering how conflicted I was, I might lower this to a 3.5 in StoryGraph? ehhh)

I liked the incredibly human portrayal of our unnamed MC. She spends a lot of the time figuring out her own motivations for her self-sabotaging (and even selfish) behavior, which although the actions themselves could be maddening, I was still able to sympathize with her. It was interesting to read about how her upbringing and culture tied into how she seeks out love, how she strives to find something that’s like “home”, and often people are substitutes for that for her. (There’s some themes of girlhood part of the MC’s story, too, but most notably in the flashbacks.)

I also didn’t take much issue with the nonlinear storytelling. Although the experience was made disorienting on audio: it could take minutes for me to figure out where something fit into the timeline. (On the topic of the audiobook, though, the narration was good! It was appropriately emotional when it needed to be, and more than a couple times I found myself immersed.) (I know that’s minor, but I like talking about new narrators of books I read :) I think of narration as another form of voice acting, idk.) (edit: i found out the narrator voiced elizabeth afton from fuckin. Five Nights At Freddy’s. so it’s not too unrelated ig)

But the MC does not experience much development in this novel. Not until the end, at least, although she does gain self-awareness from her time at The Ledge(the mental health center where a chunk of this book takes place). While The Ledge should feel like a turning point for her(and it takes up a bulk of the center of the novel), she gets into another toxic relationship where she repeats some of her previous behaviors, only with the addition of self awareness and a friend to attempt to talk some sense into her. (Also, justice for Claire…) The MC’s array of previous men and women that she becomes infatuated with and later develops a toxic relationship with(it depends on the partner if she creates the toxicity or if her partner does) becomes a blur, the more names and patterns are introduced. I tried keeping track of all of them, but…eh, I just couldn’t after a while. At least she started using nicknames or their titles/occupations.

And to make Anouk’s relationship with the MC feel more like an indicator of character development rather than another symptom of her “love addiction”, there should have been more than two chapters spent with her. Like, I could tell based on the MC’s thoughts, this was supposed to be different…but most of that was telling, and not showing.

A couple of other issues I had: 1) how different mental health/condition terms were used? The MC said to Molly(another woman at The Ledge and the MC’s roommate while there) to stop her skin picking because she was “really OCD about germs”. Dude. 2) How quickly the plot around The Ledge was disregarded after a chapter, and it was also unclear as to how critical of the center the readers were supposed to be. 

Edit: okay, I have a couple of gripes with this book, that much is obvious, but I figured I’d still give it four stars! I overall liked the writing, although the ending felt rushed—ann extra chapter with Anouk would really help imo (and I’m not alone in that opinion). One thing I didn’t get to in this review though is that I like how addiction was addressed in “You Exist Too Much”, it shows how the road to recovery isn’t linear and the effects it has on both the person addicted and the people they know. “Unflinching” definitely works as a descriptor for it. (Also, on the topic of the MC’s relationships, ty to Ranada(?) for providing a much-needed voice of reason and helping her move on from her final toxic relationship in the book.)

I can see why opinions on this book are so polarizing. I think the reason why I liked it is because it’s a fictional story with a narrative structure, if it were a nonfiction novel going down a list of the author’s failed relationships I don’t know how I would feel. (You saw my thoughts on “Red Paint”.) 

Tied between whether to give this a 3.75 stars, or an exact 4.0! Settling on a very positive 3.75 rounded up, for now. 

This was good, actually!! I liked how the author decided to actually write in details about Dawn’s filmmaking, and include some interviews from her footage. It made it feel immersive. I also enjoyed the core three’s dynamic, they felt like teenagers I could actually see in public and overhear in the hallways of some high school. Easily their interactions, unconditional support for each other, and shared bond over being female and queer was the highlight of this novel. Female friendships were handled really well???? I liked every POV, not once dreading a return to a particular one, which is rare for me.

While I get people who went into this with little knowledge being surprised at Dawn’s transness(even though she has that cute necklace with the trans flag colors in the cover art!), her relationship struggles—particularly her ones involving romance and her yearning for it—felt very specific to a transfemme experience of dating men, even before the confirmation of her identity. I really felt for her.

A couple gripes I have, though. Firstly, I kind of wish this was given another once-over by the editors, because there were a few issues in formatting. There was the occasional punctuation issue(mostly with run-on sentences, though), but the one part of that influencing my opinion of the story comes from two POV switches…first at Georgia’s house in the part where Edie visited, it switched from Edie to Georgia’s thoughts without a break in-between, and it threw me off. Secondly, the part at the beach was a little unclear in whose third-person POV it was being told in, because we ricocheted from girl to girl…it took me a few paragraphs to see it settled on Georgia’s POV for that part. (But other than those two parts, there wasn’t any confusion in the switches. I’ve read “Light From Uncommon Stars” and spoke of it highly, so I’m used to third-person POVs. Especially if they switch mid-chapter.)

Last gripe I have is that the writing feels a little too on-the-nose(juvenile) at times. While some issues and plot elements are handled with elements of complexity, character emotions are distinctly not. There’s a lot of Tell Not Show, which grated on me after a while even if the metaphors for those emotions were good.

But overall, this was a good time!! “The Queer Girl Is Going To Be Okay” maintained a balance between emotionally charged topics, and queer joy. I initially thought this would end up working more in a short story format than the 250 page book we got, but I thought the bit of time dedicated to after the film submission deadline was just as narratively important as the time before.

Likely settling on 4.5 stars?!?! But this was so much fun, omg!! Once the pacing picked up a bit, I got really invested in the story, the soccer games(which is saying a lot! I hate sports!), and best of all the romance!! Vale and Leticia’s banter was delicious! I think one of my praises for Ophelia After All was the character interactions/dynamics, and…yep, that still carried over to here. Not just in the romance, either! When Vale matured throughout the course of the book, I liked seeing her relationships with her teammates, family, and even some of the camp staff. There was an interesting discussion about grief and family dynamics, which I took note of as a reader who is…also grieving a parent, but one who was more like Vale’s father. (That made the family drama/grief subplot a mindfuck of some capacity. Lol)

Leticia proved herself to be a snarky, endearing love interest and I was truly rooting for her and Vale!

Vale’s a difficult protagonist to get behind at first—but that’s not because of poor writing. She’s an unabashedly flawed character, learning that in her unending mission for perfection she’s pushing everyone down with her. (This results in rudeness towards her teammates, and workaholic behavior.) Her character development surprised me! Seeing someone like her take accountability while also realizing her previous behavior doesn’t make her incapable of being a good person or unworthy of love was a breath of fresh air to read.

One nitpick I have is that I was kind of hoping for Vale’s asexuality to be discussed more in how it relates to her romance with Leticia(disclaimer, though: I’m not ace), but this is now you write a sports romance!! Even outside of the main relationship, the plot was interesting, and there were friendships just as compelling. 

I can write a review now, I’m not in horrifying pain! Finally!! (I finished this while in the trenches of healing from my wisdom teeth surgery.)

I wish so badly I got to have this book as a middle schooler!! Ash connected with me so deeply. Like them, I was openly genderfluid in middle school, it took me very long to feel comfortable with the label “trans” because I wasn’t sure if that was actually me if I still felt comfortable being feminine part-time(spoilers: I use “trans” and “nonbinary” labels in the present day!), we both went through our own crisis of experiencing gender differently depending on the day but not being a label such as bi or pan so…how on earth would we address ourselves, and also, both of us perceive sound in a funky way!! (Ash clearly has synesthesia, I have no clue if I do, but sometimes I’ll be hit with colors mid-song, or flavor mid-feeling). Although I was a bit turned off by how long it took for Ash to not fit their different switches and forms of expression into different gender roles, half of that was justified by the attitudes towards their gender they’ve been shown(not saying it was right, there’s just a narrative reason for it), and thankfully, that was resolved by the end.

I also really enjoyed the character development! Ash and Daniel both mature as the story progresses, which is evident in the evolution of how they understand themselves, and how they can move on from their past. (With Ash, it’s their trauma, with Daniel, it’s taking responsibility.) I especially loved how Daniel’s emotional vulnerability/intelligence was handled, he sends a good message towards the readers of this book: recognize your emotions and feel them without ridicule, but don’t only consider your own feelings when others are involved. In the plot department, there’s not much going on, but Chewbarka was a good character to bring them together, and was very endearing, too.

My only other gripes with this story are that I felt pretty dysphoric reading Daniel’s POV for most of the book, he (unintentionally) frequently misgenders Ash as they try to make themselves more girly for him and it’s painful to read. I was scared for his reaction for when Ash came out, and thought I had some of that fear justified but I’m glad that his disappointment and anger didn’t come from Ash being genderfluid(..mostly), but from them hiding an important part of themself from him. For a middle grade, ”Both Can Be True” has a lot of heavy subject matter, which isn’t a problem but might make it harder to digest for its target demographic. 

Review withheld for the Wednesday Books and SMP boycott.

This was an interesting novella! I cannot remember where I found out about this one, lol. Rosa and Hou Yi made for a fascinating pair of MCs—their dynamic was engaging, as two complicated middle-aged women with painful mistakes and memories that often paralleled each other. Although I was expecting more action(most of that was in the first part), I’m still alright with most of this novella being stories the two passed back and forth. If you go into it with those expectations, you won’t be disappointed, because I thought the dialogue and internal conflicts were written well and they make up a bulk of the story.

My only gripe is that I wish the world was fleshed out more? I enjoyed the integration of different folklore/fairytales, and the prose in general, but I still thought it was lacking, even with my interest in its magical regions(and the different attitudes to magic). I get that there’s only so much you can cover within a novella, but…still.

Oh and also—this is a novel that’s sapphic but doesn’t have a romance between the two leads!! Both MC’s have wives of their own, and their memories and conflicts surrounding them are at the forefront of this story. It’s rare for me to see that, I’m glad Hou Yi and Rosa got to just have a friendship.

I’d recommend this to anyone alright with retellings that are a hodgepodge of different stories, are looking for something contemplative and queer, and don’t mind a character-driven story.