Reviews

Yes No Maybe So by Becky Albertalli, Aisha Saeed

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racham1123's review against another edition

challenging funny informative reflective fast-paced

3.75

A cute contemporary novel nestled into layers of important themes within politics and humanity. Lots of levels here and they are all tackled so smoothly. Parts of the story are hard, but that's exactly the kind of narrative life is these days, especially within politics. Underneath this budding romance you have racism and islamophobia. You have a little bit of the lgbt+ spectrum. You have diversity, division and growth.

I wasn't sure if I'd like this book, a little wary because of politics and I wasn't sure what exactly I was getting into. But, as I listened to it I couldn't help but love the way the authors were tackling these big things. It felt like a soft start to a political awakening and it was good. The story is good. The romance isn't overpowering (though it lost some points with the young love declarations at the end for me. But that's just a personal jaded response from me).

I also thought it had really good representation of our characters. But, it should also be noted I am not religious at all. I felt like a lot of good information was floated my way and I appreciated that. Jamie is jewish and Maya is Muslim and though Jamie's family doesn't closely practice their faith, Maya's family really does. (Though I'm not 100% sure if the dating rule was a faith thing for her family or just a very specific rule in her household). But, it's not just dating and faith. It's the actual faith and Ramadan (something that I knew virtually nothing about prior to this). It's a good starter, in my opinion.

happylilkt's review

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Felt like tokenism to me. Token anxiety, token gay friends mentioned in passing, token minority religious representation that only goes skin-deep with the main characters (or it's tell, not show), token interracial relationship... there wasn't really any cultural differentiation just talk of bat mitzvahs and Ramadan. If anything, what sets this book apart is that this it has a one-sided political perspective—I happen to know and love people of various political persuasions and so that wasn't what I was looking for in this kind of a read. Moving on...

smit1286's review

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slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.0

jenmangler's review against another edition

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3.0

This is the first YA book I’ve read that focuses on an election, and the democracy geek in me liked it.

blurrypetals's review

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2.0

Becky Albertalli has never been my favorite writer. I thought Simon Vs. was sweet and charming enough, though its movie definitely felt much more rewarding and fun, which fits, because all of her solo projects feel like they would have been better off as teen movie screenplays. My favorite solo novel of Albertalli's is certainly Leah On the Off Beat because it was interesting, fun, romantic, and really left little room for disappointment. She was at her best, though, when she co-authored What If It's Us with Adam Silvera, though I'll admit that I believe most of that book's success is due mostly to Silvera's aching, bittersweet prose and premise, though I obviously won't ever know how much of it was Albertalli and how much was Silvera.

Because of this, I was really intrigued to see how Albertalli performed in a different collaboration and...well, look at that! Neither of the authors were able to competently carry this story! I am not familiar with Saeed's writing prior to this, but Albertalli, for her faults, at least is capable of creating and writing generally likable, interesting characters, even if those characters might tend to feel a bit flat or undeveloped on some occasions.

Neither main character read well to me. They both felt melodramatic and whiny whenever they experienced push back in regards to their political agenda...which is often, because this is a book focused on an election both characters are involved in.

It wasn't even that I disagreed with their viewpoints, because I didn't, but they portrayed each and every little thing as though they were Fox News caricatures of what a millennial bleeding heart liberal might look like and they got on my nerves because of it.

This book is also hellbent on having a romantic subplot without anything actually romantic ever happening, not even the clear desire from either of our main characters to have a romantic relationship. Instead, it's the folks around our protagonists who tell them they're in love, and it's only until then that either of them even really considers doing anything about their feelings, and there's not enough time left in the audiobook for anything of real merit to occur.

You may also notice I've only referred to our protagonists as...our protagonists. I think I know their names; Jamie and Maya, I think? But, other than the fact that their chapters are literally read by two different actors, their individual voices felt so similar, their personalities becoming one amorphous blob, making me wonder if this was ever actually written by two different people at all.

This is, by far, Albertalli's worst endeavor, and it doesn't inspire confidence in me about Saeed's writing either. This is certainly an experience I hope to soon forget.