Title: Tell Me Again How a Crush Should Feel
Author: Sara Farizan
Publisher: Algonquin Young Readers
Rating: 3/5
Synopsis (taken from Amazon): High-school junior Leila has made it most of the way through Armstead Academy without having a crush on anyone, which is something of a relief. Her Persian heritage already makes her different from her classmates; if word got out that she liked girls, life would be twice as hard. But when a sophisticated, beautiful new girl, Saskia, shows up, Leila starts to take risks she never thought she would, especially when it looks as if the attraction between them is mutual. Struggling to sort out her growing feelings and Saskia’s confusing signals, Leila confides in her old friend, Lisa, and grows closer to her fellow drama tech-crew members, especially Tomas, whose comments about his own sexuality are frank, funny, wise, and sometimes painful. Gradually, Leila begins to see that almost all her classmates are more complicated than they first appear to be, and many are keeping fascinating secrets of their own.
Review: While I wasn't completely blown away by this book, I enjoyed it and would recommend it. I raced through it, reading it in just a few hours. It was the first book I read after getting out of my reading slump, and in a way, it showed me that reading could be easy for me again. The main reason I picked this book up was because I'd previously read Farizan's debut If You Could Be Mine which first caught my attention when I saw it being talked about online. The cover of that book hinted at the fact that it included a same-sex love story and the synopsis made that more clear, staying away from coded language that's so often found on the backs of LGBTQIA+ literature. The cover of Farizan's second novel was even more bold. Despite the existence of books with title's such as Two Boys Kissing (written by David Levithan), it's still somewhat difficult to find books that don't shy away from their own content and hide behind vague covers and coded language. The cover alone was enough to make Farizan's book note-worthy to me.
Tell Me Again How a Crush Should Feel was a good weekend read for me and I found the main character Leila endearing and relatable. If you decide to give this book a try, know you'll be reading it more for the story and characters than for the langauge. The fact that I didn't find myself envying Farizan's prose is what kept me from giving this book a higher rating.
Author: Sara Farizan
Publisher: Algonquin Young Readers
Rating: 3/5
Synopsis (taken from Amazon): High-school junior Leila has made it most of the way through Armstead Academy without having a crush on anyone, which is something of a relief. Her Persian heritage already makes her different from her classmates; if word got out that she liked girls, life would be twice as hard. But when a sophisticated, beautiful new girl, Saskia, shows up, Leila starts to take risks she never thought she would, especially when it looks as if the attraction between them is mutual. Struggling to sort out her growing feelings and Saskia’s confusing signals, Leila confides in her old friend, Lisa, and grows closer to her fellow drama tech-crew members, especially Tomas, whose comments about his own sexuality are frank, funny, wise, and sometimes painful. Gradually, Leila begins to see that almost all her classmates are more complicated than they first appear to be, and many are keeping fascinating secrets of their own.
Review: While I wasn't completely blown away by this book, I enjoyed it and would recommend it. I raced through it, reading it in just a few hours. It was the first book I read after getting out of my reading slump, and in a way, it showed me that reading could be easy for me again. The main reason I picked this book up was because I'd previously read Farizan's debut If You Could Be Mine which first caught my attention when I saw it being talked about online. The cover of that book hinted at the fact that it included a same-sex love story and the synopsis made that more clear, staying away from coded language that's so often found on the backs of LGBTQIA+ literature. The cover of Farizan's second novel was even more bold. Despite the existence of books with title's such as Two Boys Kissing (written by David Levithan), it's still somewhat difficult to find books that don't shy away from their own content and hide behind vague covers and coded language. The cover alone was enough to make Farizan's book note-worthy to me.
Tell Me Again How a Crush Should Feel was a good weekend read for me and I found the main character Leila endearing and relatable. If you decide to give this book a try, know you'll be reading it more for the story and characters than for the langauge. The fact that I didn't find myself envying Farizan's prose is what kept me from giving this book a higher rating.
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