Reviews with content warning for Racism - It's Not Like It's a Secret

absolutely hated this book. it started of nice but then she came out to her friends, from that point it was just terrible. i do very much not recommend

what te fuck was up with the random lesbophobia in this book. her friends forcing her to kiss a boy because ‘you’ll love it’ NO SHE IS A LESBIAN YOU DUMB FCK SHE WILL NOT LOVE IT. absolutely drove me crazy. stopped reading the book because of how much i cringed.
also the excused racism? what
and the random cheating like WHY i do not understand. i just wanted to read a cute little wlw romance and this is what i get.
also very little to no details about the relationship and like from the kiss you get almost nothing. we want to know EXACTLY WHAT HAPPEND. but no.

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romanticthrill's review

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challenging emotional reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.5

this has got to be the gayest title to ever gay title 🤣😍

okay i clicked on this book so fast because of the title like i didn’t even give a glance at the cover because the title is so iconic and it’s probably my favorite thing about this book.

i think this is a book for young adults (it’s the genre duh i know) for two reasons: the self exploration and the wading your way through life that 9/10 times is messy.

the self exploration is something i love to read about and going through it with this character felt so honest and genuine. i listened to the audio so i can’t even say it didn’t feel like reading but i swear the story just unfolded in a way that i forgot about everything but the events taking place.

the wading through life bit was so hard to read because this book tackles homophobia and racism which are really heavy and affect me (a lot) personally. there are so many time i flinched because the words or actions cut really deep.

i really do have an appreciation for this book. there was a lot of drama and yeah in the end it made sense but for a couple hours i wanted to gauge some eyeballs.

the ending was so sweet and i really was enraptured in this story (even the too messy for me parts) from start to finish and i would be super interested to see what else this author has written or will write in the future.

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mangofraiche's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional reflective tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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agateg's review

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lighthearted medium-paced

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

2.25

“And I remember that hiding the truth doesn’t stop things from being true. Not talking about things doesn’t stop them from happening. Pretending that a thing is something else doesn’t change its true nature.”
Sixteen-year-old Sana Kiyohara has too many secrets. Some are small, like how it bothers her when her friends don’t invite her to parties. Some are big, like the fact that her father may be having an affair. And then there’s the one that she can barely even admit to herself—the one about how she might have a crush on her best friend.
I did not enjoy this story at all. I think there are better lgbtq+ stories than this one.

I really disliked the amount of cheating in this book and how the characters dealt with it

. I did not find the main characters lovable or even likeable which in turn made the story unenjoyable.

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ferslcr5's review against another edition

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2.75

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