A review by armontheroad
It Sounds Like This by Anna Meriano

Did not finish book. Stopped at 49%.

DNF at 149 pages. 

I received a copy in exchange for an honest review.

Going into IT SOUNDS LIKE THIS by Anna Meriano, all I knew was that this was a YA book about a girl who accidentally gets half her bandmates kicked off the team and has to work to make things right. I have read Meriano’s entire LOVE SUGAR MAGIC middle-grade series and absolutely loved it, so my expectations were high!! I want to say this, there is nothing inherently wrong with this book. It maybe is a little slow and info-dumpy at the start, but I was really enjoying my time after the 50-page mark. I was interested in seeing where the story was going and would have kept reading if not for finding out this is a sequel. 

A sequel to a book titled THIS IS HOW WE FLY which was released in 2020 and is a story about our main character’s sibling who joins a quidditch team. The entire premise of THIS IS HOW WE FLY is about Harry Potter, JKR, and being friends with Harry Potter fans. I looked through the reviews of that book and found LOADS of people happily talking about how this was an “acceptable way” for them to “enjoy Harry Potter without getting attacked.” I have seen Anna Meriano do a lot of good for the trans community, so seeing her market an entire book about transphobia ON transphobia, was disheartening, to say the least. Other Latine trans people have made reviews talking about how no matter how good THIS IS HOW WE FLY is, you should not be supporting it. I agree. I do not care that the line “JKR IS A TERF” is in the book, it still does not excuse you from profiting off of the harm she has caused TONS of marginalized communities.

With that said, I was not aware IT SOUNDS LIKE THIS was a follow-up to a book all about a transphobic, antisemitic, racist, bigoted series. If I had known that, I would have never asked for a copy of this book, to begin with. This is a real shame because Anna Meriano is a talented author of our time. I typically adore her works and was so excited to see where Yasmin was taken in IT SOUNDS LIKE THIS.