A review by michellekiara
Girls Like Girls by Hayley Kiyoko

emotional reflective sad slow-paced

• Strong character development? No

2.5

Girls Like Girls had so much potential. I went into it wanting to love it. A story about a teenage girl (Coley) falling for another girl (Sonya) who is struggling with compulsory heterosexuality is powerful. And knowing it was based on the author, Hayley Kiyoko’s own iconic music video, which meant so much to me and so many other sapphic girls, I really thought this would be an emotional hit.

The book starts strong. The opening chapter is raw and incredibly quotable. It captures that feeling of queer loneliness in such a relatable way. For a moment, I thought I had found something special. But it quickly lost me.

Sonya was hard to root for. I wanted to support her and Coley, but Sonya made it very difficult, even outside the comphet. I kept waiting for something that would make their connection feel worth it, but instead, I found myself wishing Coley would walk away. She deserved better.

The structure also felt repetitive. Party scene. Lesbian yearning. Repeat. It was the same cycle every few chapters, and while I love yearning as much as anyone, it just did not build into anything meaningful here.

And then the ending. It reached this big emotional peak and suddenly stopped. No space to breathe. No reflection. No real growth from Sonya. It felt like all the build-up went nowhere.