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A review by racham1123
Yes No Maybe So by Becky Albertalli, Aisha Saeed
challenging
funny
informative
reflective
fast-paced
3.75
A cute contemporary novel nestled into layers of important themes within politics and humanity. Lots of levels here and they are all tackled so smoothly. Parts of the story are hard, but that's exactly the kind of narrative life is these days, especially within politics. Underneath this budding romance you have racism and islamophobia. You have a little bit of the lgbt+ spectrum. You have diversity, division and growth.
I wasn't sure if I'd like this book, a little wary because of politics and I wasn't sure what exactly I was getting into. But, as I listened to it I couldn't help but love the way the authors were tackling these big things. It felt like a soft start to a political awakening and it was good. The story is good. The romance isn't overpowering (though it lost some points with the young love declarations at the end for me. But that's just a personal jaded response from me).
I also thought it had really good representation of our characters. But, it should also be noted I am not religious at all. I felt like a lot of good information was floated my way and I appreciated that. Jamie is jewish and Maya is Muslim and though Jamie's family doesn't closely practice their faith, Maya's family really does. (Though I'm not 100% sure if the dating rule was a faith thing for her family or just a very specific rule in her household). But, it's not just dating and faith. It's the actual faith and Ramadan (something that I knew virtually nothing about prior to this). It's a good starter, in my opinion.
I wasn't sure if I'd like this book, a little wary because of politics and I wasn't sure what exactly I was getting into. But, as I listened to it I couldn't help but love the way the authors were tackling these big things. It felt like a soft start to a political awakening and it was good. The story is good. The romance isn't overpowering (though it lost some points with the young love declarations at the end for me. But that's just a personal jaded response from me).
I also thought it had really good representation of our characters. But, it should also be noted I am not religious at all. I felt like a lot of good information was floated my way and I appreciated that. Jamie is jewish and Maya is Muslim and though Jamie's family doesn't closely practice their faith, Maya's family really does. (Though I'm not 100% sure if the dating rule was a faith thing for her family or just a very specific rule in her household). But, it's not just dating and faith. It's the actual faith and Ramadan (something that I knew virtually nothing about prior to this). It's a good starter, in my opinion.