If I Was Your Girl in Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge

Oct 09, 2017 Maryam rated it really liked it

Shelves: ya, audiobook, family, read-harder-challanege-2017

I picked this book as part of my Read Harder Challenge 2017 and liked it. The story is about Amanda a trans teenager leaving her city to start over with her dad in a new school.

She finds new friends which like her and start to like a boy in her new school. she is still afraid to tell them about her past and her experience.

what I liked about this book was that it doesn't picture only struggles but Amanda's life as a normal teenage girl. The story is both heart aching and heart warming as she face ...more

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May 31, 2016 Jessica rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: young-adult-and-kids, kindle

Oh, this book is so good! I'd been hearing a lot of buzz about it before it was published, and I hope people keep talking about it and reading it.

If I Was Your Girl is about high-school friendship, romance, and the secrets people keep from each other. Amanda has just moved from the Atlanta suburbs to a rural area several hours away. She's surprised at how quickly she makes friends in her new town, and soon she finds herself the recipient of several quiet confessions. She shares some secrets of h Oh, this book is so good! I'd been hearing a lot of buzz about it before it was published, and I hope people keep talking about it and reading it.

If I Was Your Girl is about high-school friendship, romance, and the secrets people keep from each other. Amanda has just moved from the Atlanta suburbs to a rural area several hours away. She's surprised at how quickly she makes friends in her new town, and soon she finds herself the recipient of several quiet confessions. She shares some secrets of her own: she's a virgin, she's never been drunk or high, she attempted suicide in her old town. She keeps her biggest secret closely guarded, though: For most of her life, she was called Andrew. She had been badly beaten up in her old town and knows that her secret is more dangerous than most.

I thought Meredith Russo did a beautiful job of portraying both typical teenage concern about how much of oneself to reveal to others and the very specific fears that come with whether to admit to being trans. Many of Amanda's friends fear their secrets will make them pariahs; Amanda fears her secret will get her killed - but nevertheless she longs for the radical honesty of being able to reveal every detail about herself and still be loved.

I particularly appreciated the author's note at the end, which addressed my biggest hesitations about the content of the book - Amanda is able to have surgery at a young age that her mother most certainly couldn't have afforded, and after her transition she's stereotypically beautiful and passes perfectly as female. Russo admits that she made a lot of things as easy as possible for Amanda so that there would be no barriers for her readers accepting Amanda as being fully a teenage girl. There is very little young adult fiction with trans main characters, and Russo addresses many ways that trans experiences can be very different from Amanda's but I think makes a compelling argument for why she gave Amanda the life and experiences she did. Russo's words at the very end about loving yourself and seeking help if you're suicidal completely choked me up. ...more

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Jun 13, 2016 Renata rated it it was amazing

Shelves: ya, fiction, lgbtq

This was gorgeous and hopeful and sad. Really evocative of how important friendship and community are to teens (well, it's important to everyone, but maybe especially teens) and how great it is when you find people to click with. Just...feelings.

Also it's so great that the cover model is a trans girl! So often covers can fail at representing the characters properly, so extra ups to that.
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May 15, 2017 Talia rated it really liked it

Shelves: ya-fiction, readharder2017

This is an Important Book. Capital I, capital B. This story will open your eyes, make you think, make you feel...even if you already view yourself as an ally to the LGBTQIA community, read it anyway, and convince someone else to do the same. If you read the synopsis, I wouldn't be expecting a sunshine and rainbows YA chick-lit romance; I read portions of this book with my stomach in knots. My issues with the book are that some items are dealt with a little smoothly or perhaps touched upon a litt ...more

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May 29, 2016 Jennifer Kronk added it

Shelves: children-and-young-adult, modern-romance

I loved this book and I loved Amanda. She is a character that will stay with me for a very long time. What I loved most about this book is how it follows the standard YA romance style: beautiful young girl (with a secret past, of course), new to town, makes friends, gets a hunky boyfriend (with a secret of his own, of course), and so on. This is romance and joy and acceptance! And yet, there is a pervasive undercurrent of fear. If people learn Amanda's secret, will she get hurt? Abandoned? Kille ...more

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May 14, 2016 Abby Johnson rated it really liked it

Shelves: diverse, teen, contemporary

A compelling contemporary story about a transgender girl who, after being horribly bullied for many years, decides to move to a small town to live with her dad. In her new town, people don't know her history, don't know that she was assigned male at birth, and Amanda hopes she can fly under the radar until graduation when she can hopefully get into NYU and flee the South forever. But life gets in the way and Amanda finds herself making friends and falling in love for the first time. She wonders ...more

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Dec 27, 2016 Nora rated it it was amazing

Read this now! And read the author's note at the end. This is a great book. ...more

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Aug 24, 2016 Adriel rated it it was amazing

Shelves: ya-diverse, seba

I was hesitant to embark on what appeared to be an "issue" book. I am so glad I dove in, because it felt like a human book, and while the character has a unique perspective, the feelings and relationships all felt very real. I think my favorite think was the nature of the friendships, and the ways in which those relationships were more important, and even more life saving, than the romantic story that seemed to drive much of this novel. I am very much looking forward to this author's next books, ...more

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