A review by mollshamrock
My Best Friend, Maybe by Caela Carter

4.0

this book was a wild ride.

It was a lighthearted, fluffy read that I'd been saving for my beach trip because I figured what better to read on a beach than a fluffy ya book about a grecian vacation?

I won't say everything addressed in this book was fluffy, like it definitely delved into some more serious themes, like upbringing into a biased environment and pressure to a breaking point I guess.

With Coley's confusion and inability to understand and accept immediately it was written in a an understandable way. First of all, Sadie told Coley about being gay at a most inconvenient time, you know when they were in a volcano and she was also asking Coley to pretend to date her for the week to get back at her exgirlfriend showing that Sadie was indeed using Coley for the main reason she brought her on the trip.
And then it made me think more about what I had just been talking to a friend about. We'd been talking together about the poor attitude of disgust and anger when someone says something problematic. Like how you shouldn't jump the gun and start attaching someone because they accidentally said something or maybe it wasn't necessarily an accident; maybe they just truly didn't know any better. That doesn't make them an awful person. I know someone who just less than a year ago told me that using they/them pronouns is stupid and they just can't bring themselves to say them, and now this friend is making an effort to use the correct pronouns for other people we know. And there are plenty of people close to me who have said some insensitive stuff, in general and to/about me that I was upset about but I'm still friends with because it takes time to get there. Rome wasn't built in a day. You know, that whole spiel.
Anyway back to the book, enough personal information for now.
That's why Coley's reaction made sense, not just the initial knee-jerk one, but the one of taking a little bit and having to realize for herself that Sadie being gay is okay and shouldn't change things in their friendship. She had to fight her own instinct instilled through her religion and upbringing and that's hard.

And I'm not going to lie, at the beginning of the book I definitely thought Coley was going to be the gay one but I liked the plot twist with Sadie being gay. I was a little confused because I thought Rose and Sadie were related but that was a little cleared up I guess.

And other than the characters seeming overall a tad unrealistic, the only big plot point with seemingly unrealistic parts was Sam. That didn't make sense and I guess it worked out but their relationship was weird. Dating your best friend's brother definitely breaks the bro code, smh.

Also! Why was everyone in this book so obsessively against one price swimsuits? Like the townpeople, Coley herself, Sadie, and apparently Grecians? I don't know man, but apparently only Rose likes one piece swimsuits.

Also, if Coley couldn't wear one because of her religion, then why could everyone else in her Deeply Religious town? I don't know man, weird.

Like if you want a wild ride I'd recommend it, it wasn't the best book but it was pretty good.