A review by dreamgirlhunt
Just Happy to Be Here by Naomi Kanakia

4.0

Yesterday I listened to Just Happy To Be Here by Naomi Kanakia on audiobook, narrated by Bilal Baig. This is a YA book about Tara, the first trans girl in an elite all girls school. The 15 year old daughter of Indian immigrants parents, Tara just wants to be treated like all the other girls. She decides to compete to be apart of a Greek, Latin, and tradition loving society within the old school which leads to complications. Not only does she face micro and macro aggressions of transmisogyny and racism toward her daily at school perpetrated by her classmates and teachers, but she also has the conservative and hateful government of her state threatening her and her family’s safety with anti-trans legislation. She worries about being taken away from her family and her mother being deported. She wants to start hormone blockers to begin her physical transition but her parents think it’s dangerous and that she should wait until she’s an adult. She says “I just want my real life to start.” Throughout the struggles, Tara does develop friendships and even a crush, but it hurts to see how no one is fully in her corner, advocating for her wants and needs. I really loved the main character Tara and reading her grow into herself and become more confident, brave, and her most authentic self. This book is a good example of why I love reading Young Adult literature, there’s something that connects us all as we endlessly are searching for our true selves and our place in the world.