Book Review: Yes No Maybe So by Becky Albertalli and Aisha Saeed

 

Title: Yes No Maybe So
Authors: Becky Albertalli and Aisha Saeed
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Publish Date: February 4, 2020
Genre: Young Adult Fiction, Contemporary Romance
Pages: 448 pages
Edition: Kindle Edition
Synopsis:
YES
Jamie Goldberg is cool with volunteering for his local state senate candidate—as long as he’s behind the scenes. When it comes to speaking to strangers (or, let’s face it, speaking at all to almost anyone), Jamie’s a choke artist. There’s no way he’d ever knock on doors to ask people for their votes…until he meets Maya.

NO
Maya Rehman’s having the worst Ramadan ever. Her best friend is too busy to hang out, her summer trip is canceled, and now her parents are separating. Why her mother thinks the solution to her problems is political canvassing—with some awkward dude she hardly knows—is beyond her.


MAYBE SO
Going door to door isn’t exactly glamorous, but maybe it’s not the worst thing in the world. After all, the polls are getting closer—and so are Maya and Jamie. Mastering local activism is one thing. Navigating the cross-cultural romance of the century is another thing entirely.

• Diverse Main Characters
  What’s more awesome than Rossum? Hell, it’s diverse main characters – Jamie and Maya! Jamie is Jewish, and Maya is a brown, Muslim girl. Moreover, these characters are proactively fighting against anti-Semitic and Islamophobia by making people aware of what is happening in their community.  YA Lit is finally getting the fact that in this big world full of whites, there’s a lot of people of color who need their voice to be heard. And yes, I have that in this book. And I like how Jamie is this awkward cute guy and Maya is just Maya. I don’t know how to explain Maya because I think I would not do any justice to her character. Maya’s just so real. There would be times she would be so irritating and there would be times you just want to hug her.

• Friendship
  I like how this book went to friends to lovers kind of thing because that’s reality. You don’t go into a relationship without knowing who your partner really is. I also like how Jamie does not know anything about Muslim traditions and its culture but he really tries to understand and learn all of it slowly. But at the same time, it was so irritating because he was mansplaining and being insensitive, for my taste.

  

• One-Dimensional Characters
  Most of the side characters were very one-dimensional. There’s Sara, who is Maya’s supposedly best friend but is now going to go to college so she decided to be a bitch and forget about Maya completely.  Then there is Jamie’s group of friends, whose names I cannot even remember because they just tease Jamie and how he likes Maya. And don’t get me started on the scenes that I feel like it was forced. If you’re gonna put a scene, for example, coming out to a family member. Man, that’s personal and give me details and not just a few sentences. Ugh.

• Slow Pacing and Uneventful
  In my opinion, the book was pretty uneventful, aside from the forced scenes in the book. It was just full of canvassing, canvassing, Target, canvassing, canvassing, canvassing, party. I feel like the book would be still the same if you remove some unnecessary things from it. I almost DNF-ed it because it was so slow.

  

• US Politics
  As a Filipino living in the Philippines, I know I’m not the target audience for this book. I cannot fully relate to this matter. I do not have any clue about how it feels to only have two political parties running during elections. Moreover, the voting system of the US is waaaay different from that of the Philippines. But hey, I love the way how this book shows that there are teens out there who care about what’s happening in the country. I related to that one since I’m an activist myself. And it really emphasized why activism and participation in politics are very important in our society, nowadays.

 

• Target references
  Again, I cannot fully relate to the Target references. The first and the last time I went inside was when I was 15. And that’s like five years ago when I visited some of my relatives in the US. By the way, we don’t have Target stores here in the Philippines. Sooo…welp. References to Target weren’t relatable, in my opinion.

 

• Canvassing and Preaching Friends
  I don’t know about you, but I don’t think canvassing has a  huge impact. Well, in our country, most people just get the flyer and then throw it around. But, sometimes, the little things count as well. In my opinion, it was lacking some militant elements. There were also times that Maya and Jamie were ranting and preaching their views. In a way, it’s spoon-feeding the readers and at the same time, it can be a little bit dogmatic for my taste. People, especially activists, should know the importance of a discourse or a discussion. If you want your friends to understand your views and how you feel, have a discussion about them. Hear their side and not just yours. Sometimes, they have something good to say about it. You never know…

 

• Ending
  It was kind of predictable. To be honest, I’m not really expecting a lot from the ending. 

I give this book 2.5 bees. As an activist myself, I liked the hope and the optimism the book gives. Like, it shows how small things, when done collectively, can have a big impact on society. However, I think the book has a slow pace (it’s a slowmance, for a reason) and it also has a lot of one-dimensional characters. If you liked the book, maybe you’d enjoy I am Malala: The Story of the Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban by Malala Yousafzai. What a lengthy title! But its a non-fiction book that talks about activism and it’s really good.

Did you read this book? What are your thoughts about it? Did you fully relate to the book? 

 

Book Review: Bright Burning Stars by A.K. Small

Title: Bright Burning Stars
Author: A.K. Small
My Rating: 3.5/5
Publisher: Algonquin Young Readers
Publish Date: May 21 2019
Genre: Young Adult Contemporary
Pages: 304 pages
Edition: Kindle Edition
Synopsis: Best friends Marine Duval and Kate Sanders have trained at the Paris Opera Ballet School since childhood, where they’ve formed an inseparable bond forged by respective family tragedies and a fierce love for dance. When the body of a student is found in the dorms just before the start of their final year, Marine and Kate begin to ask themselves what they would do to win the ultimate prize: to be the one girl selected to join the Opera’s prestigious corps de ballet. Would they die? Cheat? Seduce the most talented boy in the school, dubbed the Demigod, hoping his magic would make them shine, too? Neither girl is sure.

But then Kate gets closer to the Demigod, even as Marine has begun to capture his heart. And as selection day draws near, the competition—for the prize, for the Demigod—becomes fiercer, and Marine and Kate realize they have everything to lose, including each other.

In my previous Top Ten Tuesday post, I’ve talked about how I like to see more boarding schools, ballet schools and such because they remind me of Fame (the movie) and my childhood. Although, my childhood was not really that dramatic. Back to the book, Bright Burning Stars follows the story of two young ballet students, Marine Duval and Kate Sanders in their final year at the Ballet Academy. In order to get to the next level, professional level, they must win The Prize which is awarded to the best male and female ballet student. This book offers readers the darker side of ballet – the competitive nature of ballet and the prize in which ballerinas pay in order to become the winner in that competitive setting.

This book is written in an alternating point of views – that of Marine and Kate. Despite being best friends, there was a point in the story that Marine and Kate are not doing the exact same thing. They were best friends but at the same time, they were competing with each other as well as with other ballerinas. It portrayed a realistic scenario. I mean, there will be always a time you and your best friend don’t agree with each other and do different activities from each other.

“It’s not Would You die for The Prize. It’s Would You die if you don’t get The Prize.” 

Since there was an alternating point of views, I was expecting to get to know more about the characters. But I felt that despite the alternating point of views, I think that the characters lack character. In my opinion, the character development for me was lacking. There were issues that were brought up that I think could shape the character in to a more holistic one. Speaking of issues, it is important to know that there were lots of triggers such as drugs, abortion, teenage pregnancy, suicide, and eating disorders.

“It’s about letting your personality fly wild” , he said, breathless. “You and I are like purebred horses, we dance for energy. We burst from the stables and illuminate.” 

On a brighter side, the book was written quite okay. The dance scenes were described vividly to the point I felt I was there watching them dance. There were quite few ballet jargons and French phrases in the books. However, most of it are explained in a beautiful worded proses so no need to worry. Contrary to the beautiful worded descriptions of the dances, I felt that the conversations between characters were lacking personalities which may be the cause or the effect of having bland characters. The characters were so bland that they talk about bland things despite them being in an extravagant setting.

 

“You have to fall in love with the girl to become the right partner. Not vice versa.”

Speaking of setting, I really loved the setting. The ballet school was really nice. It is rare to see such books with such settings. In addition to that, there were certain “urban legends” in some places in the school and that the places such as their classrooms wherein they train was really described well.

Overall, I give this book 3 and a half bees. I felt that it had more potential especially with the characters. It’s like I’m seeing the big stage and everything was done neatly but it comes to a point that it becomes surgical like there’s no personality in it anymore. Aside from that, I think that there is no diversity among the characters but at least it touched some issues such as those with regards to mental health. If you like this, you might as well give You in Five Acts by Una Lamarche or Tiny Pretty Things by Sona Charaipotra and Dhonielle Clayton. 

Have you read Bright Burning Stars? What are your thoughts on it? Let me hear!

Review: Love, Life and the List by Kasie West

Publisher: Harper Teen
Date Published: December 26, 2017
Pages: 384 pages
Blurb: Seventeen-year-old Abby Turner’s summer isn’t going the way she’d planned. She has a not-so-secret but definitely unrequited crush on her best friend, Cooper. She hasn’t been able to manage her mother’s growing issues with anxiety. And now she’s been rejected from an art show because her work “has no heart.” So when she gets another opportunity to show her paintings Abby isn’t going to take any chances.

Which is where the list comes in.

Abby gives herself one month to do ten things, ranging from face a fear (#3) to learn a stranger’s story (#5) to fall in love (#8). She knows that if she can complete the list she’ll become the kind of artist she’s always dreamed of being. But as the deadline approaches, Abby realizes that getting through the list isn’t as straightforward as it seems… and that maybe—just maybe—she can’t change her art if she isn’t first willing to change herself.

This is the first in a set of three standalone books with crossover characters.

This book by Kasie West is in my shelf for so long I can’t even remember so I just one day had decided to pick up this book. There are mainly two reasons I bought this book.

First of all, it’s written by Kasie West. I’ve read some of her books – On the Fence and Fill-in Boyfriend – which are both good books with very cute plot. This book from Kasie West is very similar to her other books which are cute, fluffy, and light story.

The second reason was that it features a list. I am a sucker for lists. I make them all the time even though not everything on the list is accomplished. I guess, I just like the thought of being organized and all. And who’d pass down to read a book which features a list and a romance, right? Well, not me.

So, the book is mainly about a budding artist (a painter, specifically) named Abby. Now, Abby wants to put some of her artworks for sale in the gallery but apparently according to the director of the gallery her paintings “lacked heart” and that she needs to grow. In order to grow, Abby created a list that she needs to fulfill. It’s like a bucket list which has a deadline.

My first thought was that the book was not really well-researched enough. I don’t mean research like academic research but I would just want to know what did the curator meant by the fact that Abby lacks heart and needs to grow. It needs more than “you copy it from a picture, hun” talk. I guess it lacked the technicality about art that I was looking for in the book. So I guess, that’s one downside of the book.

“Art is subjective, that’s what makes it great,” I said. “We each get to love or hate something on our own terms.”

Despite the plot being a little bit cliche, I liked how the characters are not one sided. The characters have their own story. In Abby’s household alone, the people there are really lovely.  We have the sarcastic yet loving grandfather, an “agoraphobic” mother (who probably needs help according to the book), and her absent (in reality) but really present (is that even possible?) father. I especially liked Abby and her father’s emails. It was very refreshing. This is the same with the banters of Abby and her grandfather. However there are times that make Abby’s sarcasm a little bit rude and all.

“No matter how much we wish we could twist and bend someone’s will to ours, they have to want it too.”

Then there were her friends too. Cooper, her love interest, may sometimes be a jerk for me. I hate how he thinks he is cool but is actually acting like a jerk scenes which I think was pretty handful. Speaking of her love interest, there might be a love triangle going on and a bestfriends to lovers trope. Some people might be hesitant about it. I was really icky about Iris. I really don’t like her. She has this snotty rich girl going on her which I really don’t like. However, I like Elliot and how he is concerned with Abby. I also like (more like love) Lacey. Lacey is Abby’s friend who was there to support her. I also ship Abby’s two other friends – Rachel and Justin.

“We’re good for each other, I think. You bring me down to earth and I make you dream big.”

On to the world building, it isn’t that much. I really had a hard time imagining the places and the things Abby sees. It was like her artworks; how the descriptions of the places lacked depth for me.

So pretty much, that’s it. Overall, I think I give this 3.5  bees since I enjoyed it but not really going to reread it in the near future, I guess. I recommend to this to people who is just looking for a cute light read.

What are your thoughts about this book by Kasie West? Are you going to read the other books in this world too? And aren’t you amazed how Kasie West publishes her book (this is like her nth book during 2017? She was like just releasing and releasing. Anyway, let me hear your thoughts!