A review by livelovelibrary
We Contain Multitudes by Sarah Henstra

Did not finish book. Stopped at 41%.
i really love the writing style in this and the concept in general, so while I was listening to the audiobook, i went ahead and looked at some of the reviews. i honestly did not read the little synopsis on the back of this book and just selected it from my library’s random tool. 

what i am about to say may sound shitty but please keep reading beyond the first phrase of the sentence: i am going to, unfortunately, stop reading this book after finding out that this book is supposed to be a gay romance, however, it is between a high school sophomore and senior (who got held back a year?). the sophomore even describes the senior’s energy as “older-sibling-like” and i was beyond excited to read a story of a friendship form through letters. this book’s concept could have so easily been executed without the age gap.
i also have read that there are multiple sex scenes in this book which is extremely weird for a cast of high school characters, especially when this book is labeled as YA. the scenes are over sexualized and there was a weird ass scene with someone being horny for an armpit??


secondly, i am really struggling to follow the plot of this book through just the letters written back-in-forth because it simply does not cover a lot of it yet (I am only like 41% done with the book). i just can’t get past how this story is so unrealistic and out of touch with high schoolers as well as being extremely cliché-filled. i do not think this is a book that i would ever want a young gay kid to read and think was a good example of representation of themselves in the media. I am going to have to trust the reviews on this book and move onto a queer book written by a queer author for queer readers.