This book was wonderful and charming. It was... very real. I mean, Imogen is me in book form. I thought Imogen was wonderful - she was charming, awkward, smart, thoughtful, and empathetic. While I also really enjoyed Tessa, I think the romance was so far from the point of the story. I think the stronger themes were friendship, finding oneself, and not having one right way to be queer.

I loved how Imogen was so thoughtful about her allyship, but it was partially as a response to Gretchen's constant and negative discourse about the correct way to be queer. And that made me sad. It was infuriating to listen to Gretchen judge others and focusing so much on their type of queerness in relation to how she thinks they should be. I get where she's coming from in some sense some of the time, but

Spoiler

after her comment about not feeling safe because someone in the queer group preferred not to share their gender/orientation and then when she completely discounted Imogen's coming out... nope. I was out. Not a Gretchen fan. That is soooo not cool. And the Clara Clapstone (was that her name? could be wrong...) issue? No thank you. Queer people do not owe you or anyone else anything Gretchen. And she so blatantly ruined Edith's day then carried on like it was nothing. I'm getting riled up thinking about it.

Anyway, enough about Gretchen because Imogen's other friends are top tier. I love the way Lily handles everything with their friendship. She is so supportive and thoughtful. The same with Edith, Imogen's sister. And Tessa is wonderful as both a friend and a love interest. Tessa doesn't shy away from any of the baggage Imogen thinks she comes with and I love that.

I think this book was such a great conversation about "how to be queer" in the sense that there is no one way to do so. Imogen's internal struggles were so real and I honestly felt so seen. The only reason I didn't rate this higher is that it was a little more YA-leaning than I usually prefer, but honestly I'd recommend this to anyone, especially someone struggling with their identity.

Notes: high school/college, bi awakening, great friends, supportive family