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A review by pekoparty
Old Enough by Haley Jakobson
3.0
I had my initial complaints about the writing style of this book, but I'll provide a few takeaways now that I am done. This book is very easy to read, quick to move through, and there's not a lot of challenge as far as reading goes. It doesn't offer a lot of food for thought, but what it does do is depict the complexity of girl-best-friend dynamics as those relationships change throughout the lifespan. It provides very good bi-representation; Sav is attracted to all genders and her affection/desire isn't binary. I loved the voices of Candace and Vera, especially Candace, and I enjoyed how developed each of their lives were. I would easily read a book about either of those characters. I enjoyed that we went back to Sav being a teenager with her best friend, Izzie, and that we are gradually exposed to her trauma experience--gradual exposure is so helpful for me when reading. Being thrown into trauma unprompted can be a DNF book for me. I appreciated the handling of that telling and the journey that Sav went on in the narrative to become aware of her experience. That piece resonated with me, personally.
Some pesky items for me: Initially, as characters were being introduced, the writer had Sav directly name their racial identity, not by features, but by pointing out that a character was Black or Asian and didn't do the same for any of the White characters. This felt like making White the baseline, and maybe that is because people do it anyway, but I had wished it was addressed or done with a little more thought the same way that the author addressed a character with She/They pronouns, in which Sav communicated flexibly about the character before explaining why it was that way. Atmospherically, I could not picture ANY of the locations. There were no strong descriptions. There were descriptions, sure, but I felt like I was missing the essence. I only really felt like I was ever in Wes's room 100%. College didn't really feel like college, but then again I only went to art school, so that might just not be my zone.
I think this book has equal pros and cons for me as a reader/where I am at with my identity and queerness, but I will absolutely recommend it to certain readers. It definitely reads as autofiction, which is a thing folks like, and I understand that has a place for folks. This book is going to really hold some very dear space for many trauma survivors. I think a book like this is needed by many readers feeling lost in their experiences. And as I've written this much, I just want to say it's also nice to see a bi-main character find space in queer community. Often we get left out of queer narratives or maybe don't find community because we present a certain way. Sav just saved us a seat at the table.
Some pesky items for me: Initially, as characters were being introduced, the writer had Sav directly name their racial identity, not by features, but by pointing out that a character was Black or Asian and didn't do the same for any of the White characters. This felt like making White the baseline, and maybe that is because people do it anyway, but I had wished it was addressed or done with a little more thought the same way that the author addressed a character with She/They pronouns, in which Sav communicated flexibly about the character before explaining why it was that way. Atmospherically, I could not picture ANY of the locations. There were no strong descriptions. There were descriptions, sure, but I felt like I was missing the essence. I only really felt like I was ever in Wes's room 100%. College didn't really feel like college, but then again I only went to art school, so that might just not be my zone.
I think this book has equal pros and cons for me as a reader/where I am at with my identity and queerness, but I will absolutely recommend it to certain readers. It definitely reads as autofiction, which is a thing folks like, and I understand that has a place for folks. This book is going to really hold some very dear space for many trauma survivors. I think a book like this is needed by many readers feeling lost in their experiences. And as I've written this much, I just want to say it's also nice to see a bi-main character find space in queer community. Often we get left out of queer narratives or maybe don't find community because we present a certain way. Sav just saved us a seat at the table.