Really engaging and compelling! I haven't read the ~adult~ version so I'm not sure what's changed for the young readers edition but this would be great for abled and disabled teens and adults alike to just get different perspectives.

This is a really interesting memoir of an undeniably interesting childhood--raised by American spies living in Central America. (She's not allowed to say what countries or what her parents did, but like honestly...probably her parents did not do anything good. Which was a little bit of a damper on the travelogue. But OK.) Her art style is really expressive and I think there's a universal kind of coming of age narrative in here despite the unusual trappings of aggressive imperialism.

Ultimately IDK...that it's a memoir is cool and personal but I almost wish she'd fictionalized her story just so she could add a little bit more detail instead of having to write around big chunks of confidential info?

But this is a debut and I look forward to whatever Sophia Glock writes next.

Aw I just love Mia so much, truly a top-tier middle grade narrator. I loved reading that this was partly based on the author's life--like truthfully when Mia got the column in the China Kids Gazette so quickly I thought it was a little over the top but in a way that I'm willing to forgive in fiction, but apparently it happened pretty much just like that for Kelly Yang when she visited China as a kid. Good for Kelly and for Mia!

Anyway I just think all of these books are so good at showing the ways big picture problems such as immigration laws and capitalism affect kids and showing both that they are basically insurmountable AND YET finding basically plausible ways for kid-led community action to actually have an impact and I just think that's so important! Front Desk #4 Mia Overthrows The Government! FUCK THEM UP, MIA

I thought this was really charming and funny and to me as a non-Muslim I think it did a good job of explaining key stuff to non-Muslims readers while also being very specific in a way that, I assume (and have seen in reviews) will really speak to a lot of Muslim readers' experiences.

It reminds me a bit of [b:Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened|17571564|Hyperbole and a Half Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened|Allie Brosh|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1409522492l/17571564._SY75_.jpg|24510592] in that it's sort of a series of vignettes without a major plot other than general coming of age/self-acceptance/etc. It also has a kind of unpolished vibe that reminds me of Hyperbole and a Half and some other webcomics (which makes sense bc I know Huda Fahmy also does webcomics).

Very compelling and engaging and gives a great amount of context to teens who might be involved with BLM but not have heard much real history about the Black Panthers. TRULY infuriating to read about the COINTELPRO shit honestly (a lot of which I as an adult reader already knew but anytime I read it all laid out like that it's just like, Jesus Christ, fuck the FBI!)

Really good endmatter too, good footnotes and added materials.

It's sooo cute and sweet ;_;

I also really appreciated the depth it went into about

Spoiler

Charlie's eating disorder recovery

after it being brought up and not really resolved in the past volume. Really great character development while also being, as mentioned, soo cute and sweet!

I really love the genre of "bitchy smalltown misfit realizes that they've actually been lashing out disproportionately hard" (as exemplified by the 30 Rock high school reunion flashback that revealed Liz Lemon was accidentally a bully). And I love "pretentious teens who drop a lot of references in their dialogue."

Anyway, this was very charming and fun and I liked it a lot! I will say I think I would have liked to see a little more of Chloe and Shara actually interacting with each other?? But regardless, loved the vibes.

I was interested to read this after watching the movie, and clearly Forden has done a really impressive amount of research here and included a lot of details that weren't able to be included in the movie. However for meeeee I think it was ultimately more information than I wanted. I think I was actually satisfied with the amount of information in the movie. The movie was smart to focus on the Maurizio/Patricia angle as an emotional throughline, which this kind of lacked. Which, as a work of nonfiction it didn't necessarily require one? But without it, for me personally with my level of unfamiliarity with Gucci in general, it just made it more of a struggle to get through.

Also I had to keep googling like "Gucci moccasin" and then being like "wow people are into that huh?"

I read a review of this that referred to it as "historical fiction set in 2004," and I immediately crumbled into a pile of dust. But then I read it and realized that this is definitely a distinct historical era from 2019, and honestly I think that for this to be a book for teens to read, it could have benefitted from some more contextualizing? Like, at multiple times a key plot point is how when a new AIM chat window pops up, whatever you're typing jumps into that new window, and like sometimes you wouldn't notice that happening and you'd just hit enter and then accidentally send some nonsense to the wrong person?? Remember that? (If yes: you are old) But anyway I don't think Today's Teens remember that and a lot of the technology focus on the plot seems like it might be kind of nonsensical?

Also a lot of the language characters use about transgender characters is now out-of-date and obviously some of it is stuff that would have been in use in 2004 (a lot of it is stuff that would have been offensive in 2004, and it is used by characters who are shitty people, but it is like...a really really harsh middle of the book for the biggest trans character in the book).

This would make more sense to me if it were a memoir aimed at adults? (It's not a memoir, it's fiction, but just...that would be a good reason, to me, for this to be set in 2004.)

IDK, I think this is trying to grapple with some big issues (religion, coming out, family secrets, being transgender, being queer, how to be a good friend/ally.....) and I maybe admire the attempt but maybe not all of the execution?

The art...is good.

OK for starters I couldn't put this down and I stayed up too late to finish it, so that's always something! And I loved all of the characters, and I think it highlights a lot of class/race issues in a subtle/approachable way--great for book clubs probably.

But...

Spoiler

I could NOT get over the part where Elena visits her friend at the abortion clinic? And the friend is like "no, I've decided not to even let you glimpse at the abortion records! However I will leave you alone in my office for 10 minutes while I deal with this situation." Like girl what did you think was going to happen. Why was your computer unlocked. It would have been much easier for me to digest if the friend had been like "you're right old friend, I do owe you, here you go." But with her having the change of heart and deciding not to--from HER POV too so it's clear that she did not think that Elena would go through her files?? Even though she literally just asked you for them 30 seconds ago? And for the rest of the plot to hinge so heavily on that... .... dumb.

Anyway I'll still watch the TV show though.

Actually you know this kind of reminded me of [b:I Know This Much Is True|227711|I Know This Much Is True|Wally Lamb|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1373532198l/227711._SY75_.jpg|1191096], which I also read in order to prepare for watching the prestige TV version--they're both kind of soap operatic, off the rails stories of suburbia. But my main complaint about IKTMIT is that the narrator was so off-putting, whereas here I really did root for all of the characters (even Elena, to a moderate extent.) I was going to give this 3 stars but that's how many I gave to IKTMIT and I definitely liked this a lot more than that, so I'll round up to 4.