Tell Me Again How A Crush Should Feel by Sara Farizan
Synopsis
"High-school junior Leila has made it most of the way through Armstead Academy without having a crush on anyone, which is something of a relief. Her Persian heritage already makes her different from her classmates; if word got out that she liked girls, life would be twice as hard. But when a sophisticated, beautiful new girl, Saskia, shows up, Leila starts to take risks she never thought she would, especially when it looks as if the attraction between them is mutual. Struggling to sort out her growing feelings and Saskia's confusing signals, Leila confides in her old friend, Lisa, and grows closer to her fellow drama tech-crew members, especially Tomas, whose comments about his own sexuality are frank, funny, wise, and sometimes painful. Gradually, Leila begins to see that almost all her classmates are more complicated than they first appear to be, and many are keeping fascinating secrets of their own."
My Thoughts
I listened to the audiobook of this one and thought the narrator did such a wonderful job of delivering Leila's dry humor and internal dread monologs. Listening to this story was great and I related a little too hard with Leila's struggle trying to figure out where she belonged through this one.
This book is cute and it had some great moments. Immediately after finishing the book, I rated it four stars, but I dropped it down to three when I sat down to write a full review and realized I didn't have much to say about it. I genuinely enjoyed this one, I thought the MC was pretty funny, but I don't know if it really sticks out as great. I also had extreme deja vu while listening to this book which makes me suspect that I have listened to it previously and completely forgot that I had... which I think says something about this story.
I recommend this one for sure, just not sure if it's a favorite. Teen drama, fairly predictable "twist" with a humorous MC.
Genre: lgbtqia+, ya, contemporary
Representation: lesbian MC, Iranian-American MC, bi
Content Warnings: underage drinking, HP reference, fatphobia, homophobia, public outing, bullying