A review by erikariehigano22
What If It's Us by Becky Albertalli, Adam Silvera

5.0

Every single part of this book is so lovely and adorable!!! I only have to say a few "hmm" moments into it.

This is a lovely change of setting compared to Adam Silvera's We Both Died At The End. I love Ben and Arthur so much I hope one of them moves to a common state at least and live together as boyfriends please :(

At first, the whole dynamic and issue between Ben, Hudson, Harriet and Dylan were skeptical for me. I thought it was some angsty typical teenage drama like what happened with Jessie, Ethan and Arthur. But how it was so emphasised that the friendship between the friends from New York were broken after getting into relationships made me realise this is beyond teenage angst but actually something that can happen even to adults in their friend circles. That is why the depiction on how the four friends were able to amend their ties and reconcile were realistic and resonating for me.

The whole 'New York' being spectacle was a nice theme in the book to add in the humour and extra sweetness between Ben and Arthur's relationship. Between the two of them, I felt as if their relationship was not too sensationalised nor too romanticised compared to other YA novels. This is why I'm willing to read the 2nd book of this and hope for the best Arthur and Ben are endgame!!

I 100% recommend this book. It is everything you would want with a LGBTQIA+ young adult love story. If I wasn't so caught up into reading a 36-chapter fanfic, I would have finished this for 2-3 days.