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?
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