I was provided a digital ARC copy of this novel through NetGalley. All opinions are honest.

Rating: 3.5/5 stars
TW: transphobia, homophobia, suicide attempt, depression, gender dysphoria,
CW: hormone treatment, name change (this is triggering for me and i had to skip over these scenes, so i wanted to include it)

I am a trans person and when I'm reading books with trans characters or trans subjects, I tend to be very critical. I really appreciate Meredith Russo and her work, as I really enjoyed If I Was Your Girl. But, this story felt a little too good to be true. Yes, it's great to have novels where the trans person gets a happy ending because in reality, that's not the truth for most of us. So, I did enjoy the story. I thought it was a great concept and I enjoyed Morgan and Eric's characters a lot. The character development was spot-on among most of the characters (esp Peyton!! that redemption *claps*).

I specifically liked the focus on Morgan losing her mother at a young age, that definitely brought me to tears at the end.

As I am not a trans woman and I am a trans man, I cannot comment on the way Morgan's character was written but since this is an #ownvoices novel, I believe the representation to be good.

Now, here are some of my problems. The issues I have sort of get resolved in the character's development and I believe that the author must've written this as the character didn't have any knowledge of what being transgender means and she was living in a very close minded community and didn't have any resources nor did she know any LGBTQ+ people.

1. Morgan refers to how she's feeling (gender dysphoria) as a disease, meaning that being transgender is a disease which is not correct information as far as I know.
2. Being told she's a freak, she starts to believe it herself and decides living her life as a boy would be easier. As a trans person, I've thought this multiple times and so, I could relate to her here but I felt like that wasn't sharing a good message or educating the reader if they're trans or not.
3. There's a scene that REALLY triggered me. This is a flashback where Morgan is remembering her parents watching a presidential debate and the person running for president calls transgender people a very harmful phrase.
4. I was really confused because pre-coming out, Eric kept saying that Morgan looked like a girl in her body shape and all and I want to disagree with this because it doesn't make much sense to me. But, this could just because my trans experience is different.
5. Last, there is a part where Morgan says she hears the word transgender and knows that fits with her, but doesn't have context to what it is. So, I was just super confused by that.

Overall, I think this was a good contemporary novel, it just had me confused by a couple things. Hopefully these are just my own misunderstandings or they have been changed in publishing.

I love a book about grief and I think Nina Lacour is great at writing books about grief. I just felt meh about this. I listened on audio and it left rushed and I wasn't connected to the story or the characters except for the part with Ingrid's letters.

#ownvoices for gay representation
CW: 9/11 & trauma/PTSD

I've only read one other book that took place during the time of 9/11. I really enjoyed seeing the different perspectives each character had because many American's will have different stories of where they were on 9/11/2001. For me, I was in my second grade classroom and we were celebrating a classmate's birthday at snack time. I vaguely remember the day but I do remember my mom picking me up from school with my siblings who were only 3 years old at the time. When we got home I remember my mom had the TV on and was watching the news as they replayed the gruesome footage of the planes hitting the Twin Towers. Yet, I was in Philadelphia on 9/11 so it was interesting to see raw perspectives from New Yorker's at the time.

I appreciated how Levithan made this story about hope and restoring your faith in strangers and just learning not to live in fear which is something that can be related back to the present - 2019. Claire was my favorite character and I feel like she grew more than Peter and Jasper.

The main issue I had with this book was the romance between Jasper and Peter. It was super unnecessary and I felt like the end was dragged out, so I was skimming the last 30 pages because I just didn't care about Jasper and Peter. But, I did like the inclusion of Jasper, a POC character who is Korean and gay.

I really wanted to see more of a dark story line while we got to see three different stories most didn't really go into anything heavy like losing a loved one. I really would've liked to have seen that story line.

Overall, I enjoyed this story for it's purpose and it's message along with the writing. There were so many memorable quotes that I got out of this reading experience and it definitely gave me a different view on life.

I was sent a copy of this novel for review via Net Galley. All opinions are honest.

REP: bisexual mc, anxiety, depression

I reviewed [b:I Hate Everyone But You|33916153|I Hate Everyone But You (I Hate Everyone But You, #1)|Gaby Dunn|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1484766406l/33916153._SY75_.jpg|54881919], the first book in this series? duology? I'm not sure the specifics. But, I loved Please Send Help as much as IHEBY. Gen and Ava's friendship is so great and feels so realistic. I love reading text message any format that focuses on dialogue. I was laughing so much during this because the authors implemented their comedic side into their characters. I feel like I don't have much to say? This didn't feel like a 5 star but I enjoyed it nonetheless. It was a fun and entertaining read!

I am shook.

I felt like this book was so real and I wish Daisy Jones and the Six was a real band?? Also, Billy is the BEST character. Probably one of my favorite characters of all time as well as Daisy.

This was a fun, fast read and I did enjoy the story. HOWEVER, the representation is very off putting since it isn't #ownvoices. The author did do his research but the story isn't the same because he is not a blind person. There are so may instances that I was like "wait, what?" mainly because the story felt super rushed and could've been longer and more fleshed out. Will gets surgery to fix his eye sight and the pace of his story just felt super unrealistic. There's NO WAY that if Will had gotten surgery to be able to see that he would automatically be able to recognize colors and learn colors all in one day when he's never seen colors ever before. His parents were weirdly overbearing and I didn't like how they treated Will after he got his surgery.

Overall, I felt that I did learn more about the POV of a blind person, but I would rather read an #ownvoices book.

Super triggered. Dnfing at page 33. Super triggering to trans people especially FTM trans people because of a scene where the trans character gets his period. That is something SUPER triggering for those with gender dysphoria.

DNF at pg 50. I just felt like the story wasn't going anywhere. There wasn't anything keeping me invested in the book. Maybe I will pick it back up in the future.

I DNFed this before and I decided to give it another chance. I read this physically and on audio.
The beginning felt slow and Lo's character was infuriating. I hate characters with poor communication and who assume the other characters to just know why they're acting a certain way. But, I decided to continue on and at some points the twists and turns had me engaged but otherwise I just wasn't very interested in the mystery. Personally, Lo was way too into the mystery than I was and it didn't really feel like a mystery that was worth solving? This was just mediocore & I didn't connect to it. However, I did appreciate Ruth Ware talking about metal health and taking anti-depressants I think she did an excellent job talking about that.

I devoured this book! It was a light mystery but still had a lot of good twists and turns. The mc is fat, but she does get bullied for being fat and she can talk to ghosts. This is basically a who done it? Story so if you’re looking for a lighter version of that, I’d recommend!