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Yes No Maybe So

Becky Albertalli,

Aisha Saeed

Start date: May 1, 2020

Finish date: May 31, 2020

Discussion: Yes No Maybe So

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Showing 2 of 8 topics — 38 comments total

Yes No Maybe So

Yes No Maybe So: Ch 31-36
By *❆ Kαɾҽɳ ❆* · 9 posts · 8 views

last updated May 30, 2020 04:29AM

Yes No Maybe So: Ch 19-24
By *❆ Kαɾҽɳ ❆* · 9 posts · 5 views

last updated May 24, 2020 07:25AM

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What Members Thought

Mar 03, 2020 Breanne rated it liked it

Shelves: 2020-tbr, 2020-anticipated-reads

Representation present: Pakistani-American Muslim MC (ownvoices), Jewish MC (ownvoices), LGBTQ side characters

Hi. I love politics. A lot.

I watch the democratic debates for fun. And I'm Canadian. I've worked within politics and within elections before in various rolls and have even done the whole door-to-door thing when I was a teenager so I was super excited for this book and sadly, I didn't end up loving it. I think my feelings on this book has to do with how religion is handled and with the o Representation present: Pakistani-American Muslim MC (ownvoices), Jewish MC (ownvoices), LGBTQ side characters

Hi. I love politics. A lot.

I watch the democratic debates for fun. And I'm Canadian. I've worked within politics and within elections before in various rolls and have even done the whole door-to-door thing when I was a teenager so I was super excited for this book and sadly, I didn't end up loving it. I think my feelings on this book has to do with how religion is handled and with the overall tone of the book because nothing really blew me away and often, I felt quite bored.

Jamie is a fine character, he has a lot of charisma and he's awkward and incredibly relatable. I enjoyed his perspective throughout this novel. Then we have Maya. Maya has no religious or cultural identity, the only thing that tells the reader she has a Muslim faith is the fact that she's celebrating Ramadan, and she reads a lot like a white girl. This probably doesn't mean a lot coming from me, a very white woman, but I would highly recommend looking at some reviews by people with Muslim faith (I don't know if I am wording that correctly, please comment if I am not and I can quickly fix that).

I think I just wish that the religious and the Islamophobic/antisemitism talks that decorated a lot of the discussions in this novel included a bit more about being Muslim and about Ramadan. So much was covered in terms of Judaism and if that same amount of care went into the development of Maya, I think her character would've been a lot stronger and a lot less static.

I also didn't appreciate how Maya was used as a plot device and how Jamie was portrayed as a simple, shy boy who will go on to do great things. Just another small character related detail that got on my nerves when reading this. Personally, I like when a two person narrative has the characters on an even playing field and that wasn't what I got when reading. And I think I feel the same about the way the side characters were written. Jamie's friends and parents and grandma (I LOVE GRANDMA) got so much page time but I don't feel like I spent much time with the people that were supporting Maya. Just another example of the imbalance.

As for the romance, I can't say it played a huge impact in my enjoyment of this novel. It was fine, fun at times, they had a couple of cute moments. But, it wasn't till the last 30 pages or so that I really started to think, "Hey, maybe these two could actually be something more than friends." which I don't think is what you want the reader to feel when most of this book, if not all of it, was set up with the classic will-they-won't-they trope. I would have personally liked this more if they were just best friends but that's just a preference.

Getting into the main theme of this book; politics. Again, there's nothing in the way they tackled American politics and racism. It's very relevant to today's society. I just didn't feel any particular way about it. However, the author's note was beautiful and powerful and I definitely think teens will get a lot of inspiration from the political journey these characters go on.

This is an ownvoices novel, which I love, and I can't wait to read more from Aisha Saeed, I think she's a wonderful writer. This book tackled a lot of things and regardless of whether or not I think it was done successfully, I think this could be an important read for a lot of young people. I'm sad I didn't love this but I hope the next person who had a hold on this at my library does. ...more

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Jan 06, 2020 Marta the Booktrovert rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: arc, own, signed-copy

I received an ARC from the publishers via Netgalley in exchange for an honest opinion.

I am a massive fan of Becky Bertalli. I think she is the coolest writer ever so I was so happy when I got the chance to read her latest project with Aisha Saeed. There was a lot of buzz around this book already last year and for all the good reasons. This book was SO GOOD and I can’t express how much I enjoyed it. This book is just so relevant, and its story is so important that everyone, of every age, sho ...more

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Mar 30, 2020 Z rated it did not like it

Shelves: dnf

dnf @ 45%

I'm sorry but I'm getting tired of these flat characters and their wokeness is cool in concept but not in practice for this book

also maybe a spoiler but I really didn't like how both MCs had very clear seeing-the-light moments about how they fundamentally disagreed with their friends back to back

I get it; you're having breakthroughs

but can they not be so two-dimensional ? ...more

1 like · Like · see review