Reviews with content warning for Homophobia - Ophelia After All

I went into this book with no expectations, as I don’t really read romance but this has always been on my radar and was chosen for a YA bookclub that I run. It is safe to say that I loved it! The Hamlet references were stunning but not too in your face and the cast of characters were all likeable in their own ways. Did not expect Ophelia’s greatest help to come from where it did and enjoyed that the characters surprised me by falling outside of the roles I had predicted for them at the beginning. I felt more attached to Ophelia than any protagonist in a romance novel, maybe because it fed into the ‘anti-romance’ trope that I love so dearly.

I think I really needed this book to open my eyes to some of my own internalised homophobia towards bisexuality, but didn’t realise it until I read it. Raquel Marie has a way of manipulating the characters’ experiences that made me look inward and such a beautiful understanding of character development.

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sapphicurse's review against another edition

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hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

I really really loved this book. I was worried it would be like a lot of other YA contemporaries I’ve read but the author took it in a really unique direction and I’m very grateful. It was just gritty enough to make it feel realistic and had flawed characters that were hard to love at times.
I think a lot of teens will see themselves in the pages of this book, with the queer questioning and identity struggles.
mc rep: latina (mixed cuban), queer/questioning/unlabelled
sc rep: korean, black, pakistani, black/latinx, ace, aro, pan, bi, plus-sized, muslim

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jachnax's review

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emotional inspiring lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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mel_muses's review against another edition

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4.5

”Maybe I don’t know myself with the same certainty I’ve always claimed.”

Ophelia After All follows Ophelia Rojas, a senior in high school, who’s always let herself be defined by the things she does. She’s described as “boy-crazy” and dedicates herself in her spare time to her rose garden, when she’s not at school or hanging out with her friends. But then she gets a crush on a girl in her class, and Ophelia starts doubting who she is… Has she changed? Does she even want to change?

Ophelia After All has taken queer booksta by a chokehold, and I am happy to report that it is very well-deserved. This book is everything I was expecting it to be. It’s coming of age at its finest, it’s a book where our messy protagonist gets in her head and doesn’t always know what the best choice is. It’s a book with bits of Cuban culture, a biracial protagonist, and a lovable group of friends. It’s a book with rose gardening, Shakespeare references, crushes, and even a taste of a love triangle. It’s a book that feels real and has snuck into so many of our hearts.

Ophelia is a character who’s scared of letting people see her how she is. She has this great group of friends — people she’s known for years — but that doesn’t keep her doubts from seeping in. She doesn’t know who she can even share these feelings with, and that’s a feeling I know all too well (albeit for different reasons). Where Ophelia gets crush after crush, I haven’t gotten one. And while at first I felt like this was distancing myself from her, I’ve come to realize that the inner turmoil is similar. We (Ophelia and I) don’t know how to express ourselves when the things we feel are so different than what we expect and what we want for ourselves. It’s this that connected me to Ophelia.

We need more books like this, with a book not centered on a romance, but on coming of age. We often see the two intertwined, which is fun, but also not always accurate. People need to see themselves as who they are before they can let others take a peek. I want more books with characters who don’t do the right thing the first, second, or even third time they express themselves. We need messy friendships, messy feelings, messy love. That’s what makes this book real.

Content Warnings: mentions of underage drinking and vaping, mentions of sex, cut-off use of a homophobic slur (challenged), condemned homophobia, discussion of anti-Blackness within a mixed-race Latine family (challenged)

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gia0203's review

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emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

this really isn’t my genre but I wanted to branch out and see how I felt… while I still don’t think this genre is for me I was stunned by how well the author captured realising you’re queer as a teenager! I was very much like ophelia with a vast amount of crushes and it made me feel warm and understood to read this. While I can’t connect with the writing style the book reminded me of my own youth and put forward a fantastic message about inclusivity.

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joisaddler's review against another edition

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emotional funny lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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yasidiaz's review

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emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Ophelia After All is the story of a Cuban-American girl who has always been known to be a little boy-crazy (well, more like a lot) but it all changes when suddenly she finds herself thinking about Talia, a girl in her government class. Suddenly, Ophelia is scared about what this must mean for her and the expectations others have on her.

This book took me by surprise. I don’t know exactly what I was expecting, but it certainly wasn’t what I got. And I am not saying this as a negative, instead, I see it as a positive. It made the book interesting and drove its message home.

I consider this a book about questioning, and coming to terms with our sexuality. How does that feel like, how does that look like? In a way, it reminds me a bit of Aristotle and Dante, especially how Ari struggled with his feelings for Dante. But that is where all the similarities start and end.

Ophelia After All is a book about not being afraid of change and discovering new things about ourselves. It is about friendship and family. It is about realizing that romantic love is not the end and all. That high school is not the end of the world.

I related a lot to Ophelia’s struggle, I was very much like her when I was in my Junior year of high school and even before. I have always been known to be a hopeless romantic, always having crushes on guys, but also on girls, I just didn’t want to acknowledge the latter. It sat at the back of my head for years, that’s why I say I accepted that I am bi at 17 instead of ‘realized’ because I always knew. I was just afraid to say it. I always knew I was queer, I was just afraid of how that would change everything.

But I also saw a lot of myself in Talia. From being Puerto Rican, for having a Black parent and the colorism in our community, to dealing with homophobic relatives. Although Talia not having Cuban food until Ophelia takes her to a Cuban restaurant feels wrong because our foods are so intertwined that I cannot believe that to be true. I love her and how she still tried to be there for Ophelia, knowing she has also been where Ophelia currently is.

This is a great book, but compared to my other favorites this year, I felt I wanted more. I wasn’t exactly sure why. I just didn’t find myself screaming and squealing the same way I usually do.

At first, I thought it was my disappointment when I realized that Talia and Ophelia weren’t going to end up together, but I was having that thought even before that twist. Plus, I am a big advocate that happy endings don't always mean the MC getting the love interest. Actually, I am glad they didn’t end up together because it helped Ophelia grow more as a person. However, if you do expect them to end together… Well, this might not be the book for you. But I still urge you to give it a try.

I recommend this book for people looking for a fun book about self-discovery, expectations, and those struggling with not feeling queer enough or even Latine enough. This is another book I wish younger me had the opportunity (and courage because even if this had come out in 2015 I would have probably avoided it) to read this book, thus, I suggest this to those who are in a familiar place as 15-16-year-old Yasi, or even those who once were.

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