Thank you so much to Usborne Publishing for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review
Rating: 4.5/5★
Genre: YA contemporary, romance, realistic fiction
Pub Date: 14th Sep 2021
[TW: sexism (challenged), racism (challenged)]
Synopsis (from publisher):
Eliza Quan is the perfect candidate for editor in chief of her school paper. That is, until ex-jock Len DiMartile decides on a whim to run against her. Suddenly her vast qualifications mean squat because inexperienced Len—who is tall, handsome, and male—just seems more like a leader.
When Eliza’s frustration spills out in a viral essay, she finds herself inspiring a feminist movement she never meant to start, caught between those who believe she’s a gender equality champion and others who think she’s simply crying misogyny.
Amid this growing tension, the school asks Eliza and Len to work side by side to demonstrate civility. But as they get to know one another, Eliza feels increasingly trapped by a horrifying realisation—she just might be falling for the face of the patriarchy himself.
My Review:
Eliza was just AMAZING, and the discoveries she made about what feminism meant to her was too. I enjoyed the fact that Michelle Quach accurately described how people in high school actually are. Some are blatantly sexists, homophobes, racists etc, and some act like they are feminists or support the right cause, only to completely change their narrative as soon as they are off social media, or any platform that might praise them for their “amazing deeds”. Eliza was always herself even if her male, and sometimes even female colleagues found “too much to handle”, “intense”, “bossy” etc. Eliza’s character was not perfect, but she was a good person who learned that there isn’t an actual definition for a feminist. She made some mistakes along the way, but that’s totally ok.
The romance between Len and Eliza was was cute too, but it wasn’t really the main focus until the second half of the book. I definitely recommend this book to anyone who would enjoy a YA contemporary, with key focus on feminism and a little bit of romance too!! There was also emphasis on relationships with parents (immigrant parents for that matter).
This book had great POC representation and the characters were lovely to read about. This novel talked about intersectional feminism too, which I think is really important.
Thank you for reading this review and I hoped you liked it!!
PRE-ORDER NOT HERE TO BE LIKED!!
Sending incoherent screams about how I’m kind of like Eliza,
– Kashvi
Threatening usborne to give me an earc
ill threaten them with u bestie ✋✋