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A review by emmm_reads
Tell Me How You Really Feel by Aminah Mae Safi
4.0
i read this book in a day and it was an overall very enjoyable read.
i absolutely loved Sana; it took me a bit longer to warm up to Rachel but I ultimately ended up liking her a lot as well. I liked that the romance built up very gradually, and loved the two characters together.
aside from the romance, I was very drawn in by the plot; I really enjoyed following everything going with Rachel’s film, as well as Sana’s struggles and questioning regarding her future education.
i also loved how casual the sapphic representation was, and the fact that both girls were already out and clearly set in their identities years before the beginning of the story. while there’s nothing wrong with coming-out stories or stories that focus heavily on the struggles that come with queer identity, I also love reading stories where queer characters just live their lives and other problems entirely, and this was definitely one of those stories.
the only thing that bothered me about this book is that both characters are quite obviously written as lesbians (it is made clear that they are not attracted to men), but the word « lesbian » is never used and instead, the characters are given lines such as « I’m not straight », in contexts where the reader is meant to infer from this that they are lesbians. i doubt the author meant to cause harm here, but I do feel that this somewhat feeds into bisexual erasure (a girl not being straight does not mean they are a lesbian, bi/pan/etc. people exist) and reinforces stigma around the use of the word lesbian (lesbian is not a dirty word, and when authors constantly avoid using it, it feels like they’re viewing it as that, a bad, dirty word.)
i absolutely loved Sana; it took me a bit longer to warm up to Rachel but I ultimately ended up liking her a lot as well. I liked that the romance built up very gradually, and loved the two characters together.
aside from the romance, I was very drawn in by the plot; I really enjoyed following everything going with Rachel’s film, as well as Sana’s struggles and questioning regarding her future education.
i also loved how casual the sapphic representation was, and the fact that both girls were already out and clearly set in their identities years before the beginning of the story. while there’s nothing wrong with coming-out stories or stories that focus heavily on the struggles that come with queer identity, I also love reading stories where queer characters just live their lives and other problems entirely, and this was definitely one of those stories.
the only thing that bothered me about this book is that both characters are quite obviously written as lesbians (it is made clear that they are not attracted to men), but the word « lesbian » is never used and instead, the characters are given lines such as « I’m not straight », in contexts where the reader is meant to infer from this that they are lesbians. i doubt the author meant to cause harm here, but I do feel that this somewhat feeds into bisexual erasure (a girl not being straight does not mean they are a lesbian, bi/pan/etc. people exist) and reinforces stigma around the use of the word lesbian (lesbian is not a dirty word, and when authors constantly avoid using it, it feels like they’re viewing it as that, a bad, dirty word.)