Scan barcode
A review by romacharm
Yes No Maybe So by Becky Albertalli, Aisha Saeed
1.0
i finished this book about thirty minutes ago and it frustrated me so much that i felt like i would go insane if i didn’t share some of my thoughts. i read the entire thing over the course of the last 48 hours and the amount of times i just had to put it down and sigh — well, i wasn’t keeping count, but it felt like every minute. i think i’ve made my stance on this book abundantly clear already. so. here are my rambling thoughts.
warning: spoilers!
rating: i don’t like it
what i liked!
the ending
i actually thought it was really well done that they lose the election. it felt very real, and it’s a pretty good subversion of the typical everything-wraps-up-nicely-in-the-end trope prevalent in young adult romances. of course, i learn later that it’s based on a real-life election, but. whatever. fair enough.
jamie’s sister
might be the gay in me. i thought her interactions with jamie were fun, and i related to the way she came out a bit. especially as a middle schooler, that kind of thing is difficult, and even though it was mostly a throwaway section with dialogue that i found frustrating, i still liked the gist of it: a middle school girl awkwardly navigating what it means to be not straight and exploring her own romantic and sexual orientation. (of course, it launches into asking about jamie and maya again, which is whatever. i couldn’t care less about them.)
that’s it lmao
criticism
strap in. there’s a lot.
bland dialogue
it's just. BORING. these two kids are two of the most boring kids i have EVER had to listen to speak/read the dialogue of. and i went to high school for all four years. then someone will bust out some motivational speech or argumentative lecture to serve some racist they don’t agree with and whoa! you’re so cool! monologues through dialogue in books like this always irritate me not only because they always have a clear agenda, but also because no one talks like that. and no one’s going to stand in stunned silence while you talk at them about why you’re a monster for not liking our candidate. also, psa, please do not yell at customer service workers for not allowing you to put up and hand out flyers in the store. they’re just doing their jobs. sincerely, fuck you, maya and jamie.
pop culture references
felt like they just googled "what do teens like" and picked out the top 100. there's too many of them. disney. the bachelorette. the fucking office is a major part of the fucking plot. it felt like product placement in a book. there was also an excessive amount of mentioning brands: krispy kreme, nordstrom, and zara, to name a few. it got to the point that i wondered if a lot of the details in the book served only to bump up the word count and thicken the book. i’ll admit that i’m sometimes a bit of a narrative style elitist, but i really don’t think half of the details they gave us in the book were necessary.
the politics
anything that happens regarding politics directly affects the two protagonists (specifically the muslim one, but there's some anti-semitic behavior in there too). absolutely nothing about other groups marginalized by governmental corruption. racists are caricaturized and of course there's the "conservative but not racist" white friend. just to make sure we've covered all of our bases.
there is also NO effort to include intersectionality: nothing about the way class, race, gender, sex, and sexual orientation (among other things) are all intertwined in the big Oppression Olympics. it’s mentioned, sure, in throwaway lines like “I’m just a white Jew” or, in reference to republicans putting bills forward, “think about your [gay friends]” but that is most definitely not enough in a book whose aim is to show how activism connects people. in this book, it is only oppression against muslims and some slight oppression against jews. if you're going to write a book about taking a political stance, you have to acknowledge that there is always more going on than you think, and this book not only does not do that, it is single-minded in its agenda. there is too much sympathy for white people and not enough for people who are marginalized.
i don’t think there’s anything wrong in having a clear agenda in a book and fighting for that agenda, but there are more subtle ways to go about it, and it’s also not good to have a book that focuses on the ins and outs of political activism while only caring about a couple marginalized identities. if you want to write about young people getting involved in politics, you absolutely cannot focus on just one identity. otherwise, the messaging is that you only care about the identities relevant to you.
unsympathetic leads
jamie is pathetic and maya is immature. sure, that's normal for high schoolers, but the book paints them in such a sympathetic light. there's a part where maya gets in an argument with her friend because they haven't been hanging out, and the friend has been working or meeting new people because she's going off to college, and maya is So Upset. and she rambles off how she's been trying to indirectly nudge her friend into talking to her more because she needs emotional help. and the friend says if she had known maya needed support, she would've been there, but maya never told her. furthermore, she's sorry maya feels she can't talk to her because she (the friend) is always busy working, but she has to apply for jobs and grants because she doesn't have a doctor dad and a lawyer mom who can easily pay for college. maya runs to jamie crying that her friend was gaslighting her, who vindicates her and convinces the both of them that they're very mature because they use rideshare apps and watch the office. of course, they make up in the end, and maya says something along the lines of, “i’m sorry i’m so privileged,” but that is not nearly enough, and it’s the friend who has to make that effort first despite being very clearly not in the wrong. and it only happens after maya has found her One True Love of course. speaking of.
misrepresentation of muslim identity & dating
muslims are varied and different in their attitude toward dating, but here’s how my family addressed dating: you don’t. and you absolutely can not date someone of a different faith as a muslim woman. (you can as a man — this is a double standard that is explained away through “preventing domestic violence based on faith.” at least, that was my understanding of it.) this might be a brand of extremism, but growing up, i learned that this was part of our religion. and, seeing as it’s backed up by my entire family of muslims, i’m not going to doubt that at least some muslims follow this line of thinking. that being said, islam is very staunchly against pre-marital intimacy (specifically sexual intimacy, but it can be extrapolated into taking that further into kissing and other forms of romantic intimacy).
all this is to say, the way yes no maybe so deals with maya’s faith intersecting with her desire to date jamie is fucking awful. she basically talks to her parents once and they’re like “date whoever you want lmao” and so she goes and makes out with him in the dressing rooms at target. she doesn’t really grapple with her own ideas of her faith and how that might prevent her from dating. she’s selective about what aspects of her culture she cares about. which is realistic, but does not line up with the character they’ve established as one who really cares about her faith. i think the authors of this book picked and chose which aspects of islam they wanted to showcase in order to make it “palatable” to a white audience, and also to make the romance “satisfying.” quotation marks because i think it’s stupid. this turned maya into an inconsistent character and felt disrespectful to some aspects of the islamic faith.
mention of harry potter
must i say more.
not really something to be proud of, jamie.
more on politics and preachiness
the main characters are never wrong. they argue with everyone and anyone who does not agree with their exact beliefs then does not care about issues enough, is a racist, is gaslighting them, et cetera. and that's a harmful narrative to be feeding young people who are already so enraged by the current sociopolitical climate. i do think there are some opinions that just don’t deserve reaching any sort of audience, but i also think that assuming anyone who disagrees with you on anything or has any sort of opinion about your actions is gaslighting you is an inherently flawed way of thinking that needs to be changed. (once again, fuck you, maya.)
also, the amount of times the two main characters preach their beliefs to people who don’t agree with them is so annoying. i felt like they were preaching to both other characters in the book and also to me. it was 100% a way for the authors to put their own political beliefs into words through their characters, but i also think it’s just lazy writing. write an opinion essay instead if you want to tell people your beliefs. preachiness makes characters boring and hateable.
i also hated how the political candidate is idolized. in the beginning, maya points out that they don’t actually know a lot about “awesome rossum’s” viewpoints, and that they’re mainly voting and supporting him because he’s not a racist endorsed by the kkk. of course, this all goes out the window later, because rossum is just so chill and charming and cool, and he’s just perfect! the perfect politician! this book idly mentions how politicians can’t be trusted and twist language to suit their own aims and in the same breath idolizes a politician.
the ending
haha we lost. ok i kiss jamie now. the end. it ends on maya kissing him immediately after rossum concedes the election. what? write a real ending, dude. this might just be me being nitpicky, but ending a book on the line “But I don’t reply. I kiss him instead” is pretty lazy. it feels like they built up this long narrative and then couldn’t figure out how to tie everything together, so the ending was rushed with regard to character relationships and
TL;DR
this book tries to do way too much and then does not do any of the things it wants to do well. also, the characters are boring and one-dimensional.
warning: spoilers!
rating: i don’t like it
what i liked!
the ending
i actually thought it was really well done that they lose the election. it felt very real, and it’s a pretty good subversion of the typical everything-wraps-up-nicely-in-the-end trope prevalent in young adult romances. of course, i learn later that it’s based on a real-life election, but. whatever. fair enough.
jamie’s sister
might be the gay in me. i thought her interactions with jamie were fun, and i related to the way she came out a bit. especially as a middle schooler, that kind of thing is difficult, and even though it was mostly a throwaway section with dialogue that i found frustrating, i still liked the gist of it: a middle school girl awkwardly navigating what it means to be not straight and exploring her own romantic and sexual orientation. (of course, it launches into asking about jamie and maya again, which is whatever. i couldn’t care less about them.)
that’s it lmao
criticism
strap in. there’s a lot.
bland dialogue
it's just. BORING. these two kids are two of the most boring kids i have EVER had to listen to speak/read the dialogue of. and i went to high school for all four years. then someone will bust out some motivational speech or argumentative lecture to serve some racist they don’t agree with and whoa! you’re so cool! monologues through dialogue in books like this always irritate me not only because they always have a clear agenda, but also because no one talks like that. and no one’s going to stand in stunned silence while you talk at them about why you’re a monster for not liking our candidate. also, psa, please do not yell at customer service workers for not allowing you to put up and hand out flyers in the store. they’re just doing their jobs. sincerely, fuck you, maya and jamie.
pop culture references
felt like they just googled "what do teens like" and picked out the top 100. there's too many of them. disney. the bachelorette. the fucking office is a major part of the fucking plot. it felt like product placement in a book. there was also an excessive amount of mentioning brands: krispy kreme, nordstrom, and zara, to name a few. it got to the point that i wondered if a lot of the details in the book served only to bump up the word count and thicken the book. i’ll admit that i’m sometimes a bit of a narrative style elitist, but i really don’t think half of the details they gave us in the book were necessary.
the politics
anything that happens regarding politics directly affects the two protagonists (specifically the muslim one, but there's some anti-semitic behavior in there too). absolutely nothing about other groups marginalized by governmental corruption. racists are caricaturized and of course there's the "conservative but not racist" white friend. just to make sure we've covered all of our bases.
there is also NO effort to include intersectionality: nothing about the way class, race, gender, sex, and sexual orientation (among other things) are all intertwined in the big Oppression Olympics. it’s mentioned, sure, in throwaway lines like “I’m just a white Jew” or, in reference to republicans putting bills forward, “think about your [gay friends]” but that is most definitely not enough in a book whose aim is to show how activism connects people. in this book, it is only oppression against muslims and some slight oppression against jews. if you're going to write a book about taking a political stance, you have to acknowledge that there is always more going on than you think, and this book not only does not do that, it is single-minded in its agenda. there is too much sympathy for white people and not enough for people who are marginalized.
i don’t think there’s anything wrong in having a clear agenda in a book and fighting for that agenda, but there are more subtle ways to go about it, and it’s also not good to have a book that focuses on the ins and outs of political activism while only caring about a couple marginalized identities. if you want to write about young people getting involved in politics, you absolutely cannot focus on just one identity. otherwise, the messaging is that you only care about the identities relevant to you.
unsympathetic leads
jamie is pathetic and maya is immature. sure, that's normal for high schoolers, but the book paints them in such a sympathetic light. there's a part where maya gets in an argument with her friend because they haven't been hanging out, and the friend has been working or meeting new people because she's going off to college, and maya is So Upset. and she rambles off how she's been trying to indirectly nudge her friend into talking to her more because she needs emotional help. and the friend says if she had known maya needed support, she would've been there, but maya never told her. furthermore, she's sorry maya feels she can't talk to her because she (the friend) is always busy working, but she has to apply for jobs and grants because she doesn't have a doctor dad and a lawyer mom who can easily pay for college. maya runs to jamie crying that her friend was gaslighting her, who vindicates her and convinces the both of them that they're very mature because they use rideshare apps and watch the office. of course, they make up in the end, and maya says something along the lines of, “i’m sorry i’m so privileged,” but that is not nearly enough, and it’s the friend who has to make that effort first despite being very clearly not in the wrong. and it only happens after maya has found her One True Love of course. speaking of.
misrepresentation of muslim identity & dating
muslims are varied and different in their attitude toward dating, but here’s how my family addressed dating: you don’t. and you absolutely can not date someone of a different faith as a muslim woman. (you can as a man — this is a double standard that is explained away through “preventing domestic violence based on faith.” at least, that was my understanding of it.) this might be a brand of extremism, but growing up, i learned that this was part of our religion. and, seeing as it’s backed up by my entire family of muslims, i’m not going to doubt that at least some muslims follow this line of thinking. that being said, islam is very staunchly against pre-marital intimacy (specifically sexual intimacy, but it can be extrapolated into taking that further into kissing and other forms of romantic intimacy).
all this is to say, the way yes no maybe so deals with maya’s faith intersecting with her desire to date jamie is fucking awful. she basically talks to her parents once and they’re like “date whoever you want lmao” and so she goes and makes out with him in the dressing rooms at target. she doesn’t really grapple with her own ideas of her faith and how that might prevent her from dating. she’s selective about what aspects of her culture she cares about. which is realistic, but does not line up with the character they’ve established as one who really cares about her faith. i think the authors of this book picked and chose which aspects of islam they wanted to showcase in order to make it “palatable” to a white audience, and also to make the romance “satisfying.” quotation marks because i think it’s stupid. this turned maya into an inconsistent character and felt disrespectful to some aspects of the islamic faith.
mention of harry potter
must i say more.
“‘Do you have two full sets of Harry Potter?’ asks Maya, peering at my bookcase.
“‘Of course. Hardcovers and paperbacks.’”
not really something to be proud of, jamie.
more on politics and preachiness
the main characters are never wrong. they argue with everyone and anyone who does not agree with their exact beliefs then does not care about issues enough, is a racist, is gaslighting them, et cetera. and that's a harmful narrative to be feeding young people who are already so enraged by the current sociopolitical climate. i do think there are some opinions that just don’t deserve reaching any sort of audience, but i also think that assuming anyone who disagrees with you on anything or has any sort of opinion about your actions is gaslighting you is an inherently flawed way of thinking that needs to be changed. (once again, fuck you, maya.)
also, the amount of times the two main characters preach their beliefs to people who don’t agree with them is so annoying. i felt like they were preaching to both other characters in the book and also to me. it was 100% a way for the authors to put their own political beliefs into words through their characters, but i also think it’s just lazy writing. write an opinion essay instead if you want to tell people your beliefs. preachiness makes characters boring and hateable.
i also hated how the political candidate is idolized. in the beginning, maya points out that they don’t actually know a lot about “awesome rossum’s” viewpoints, and that they’re mainly voting and supporting him because he’s not a racist endorsed by the kkk. of course, this all goes out the window later, because rossum is just so chill and charming and cool, and he’s just perfect! the perfect politician! this book idly mentions how politicians can’t be trusted and twist language to suit their own aims and in the same breath idolizes a politician.
the ending
haha we lost. ok i kiss jamie now. the end. it ends on maya kissing him immediately after rossum concedes the election. what? write a real ending, dude. this might just be me being nitpicky, but ending a book on the line “But I don’t reply. I kiss him instead” is pretty lazy. it feels like they built up this long narrative and then couldn’t figure out how to tie everything together, so the ending was rushed with regard to character relationships and
TL;DR
this book tries to do way too much and then does not do any of the things it wants to do well. also, the characters are boring and one-dimensional.