Others: Overwhelmingly positive A studious girl and a quiet, straight-A boy start a controversial podcast together that challenges their courage and forces them to confront issues in the form of backlash and censorship.
Genres: romance, young adult
Lists: …
Kacen Callender
2020 · 368 pages · 11 reviews
Others: Overwhelmingly positiveFelix Love has never been in love—and, yes, he’s painfully aware of the irony. He desperately wants to know what it’s like and why it seems so easy for everyone but him to find someone. What’s worse is that, even though he is proud of his identity, Felix also secretly fears that he’s one marginalization too many—Black, queer, and transgender—to ever get his own happily-ever-after. When an anonymous student begins sending him transphobic messages—after publicly posting Felix’s deadname alongside images of him before he transitioned—Felix comes up with a plan for revenge. What he didn’t count on: his catfish scenario landing him in a quasi–love triangle.... But as he navigates his complicated feelings, Felix begins a journey of questioning and self-discovery that helps redefine his most important relationship: how he feels about himself.
What made the match, strongest first
Mason Deaver
2019 · 336 pages · 4 reviews
Others: Overwhelmingly positiveWhen Ben De Backer comes out to their parents as nonbinary, they're thrown out of their house and forced to move in with their estranged older sister, Hannah, and her husband, Thomas, whom Ben has never even met. Struggling with an anxiety disorder compounded by their parents' rejection, they come out only to Hannah, Thomas, and their therapist and try to keep a low profile in a new school. But Ben's attempts to survive the last half of senior year unnoticed are thwarted when Nathan Allan, a funny and charismatic student, decides to take Ben under his wing. As Ben and Nathan's friendship grows, their feelings for each other begin to change, and what started as a disastrous turn of events looks like it might just be a chance to start a happier new life. At turns heartbreaking and joyous, I Wish You All the Best is both a celebration of life, friendship, and love, and a shining example of hope in the face of adversity.
What made the match, strongest first
Anna-Marie McLemore
2017 · 339 pages · 3 reviews
Others: Overwhelmingly positiveFor nearly a century, the Nomeolvides women have tended the grounds of La Pradera, hiding a terrible legacy, until mysterious Fel arrives and Estrella helps him explore his dangerous past.
What made the match, strongest first
Shaun David Hutchinson
2016 · 465 pages · 7 reviews
Others: Mostly positiveFrom the author of The Five Stages of Andrew Brawley comes a brand-new novel about a teenage boy who must decide whether or not the world is worth saving.Henry Denton has spent years being periodically abducted by aliens. Then the aliens give him an ultimatum: The world will end in 144 days, and all Henry has to do to stop it is push a big red button.Only he isn’t sure he wants to.After all, life hasn’t been great for Henry. His mom is a struggling waitress held together by a thin layer of cigarette smoke. His brother is a jobless dropout who just knocked someone up. His grandmother is slowly losing herself to Alzheimer’s. And Henry is still dealing with the grief of his boyfriend’s suicide last year.Wiping the slate clean sounds like a pretty good choice to him.But Henry is a scientist first, and facing the question thoroughly and logically, he begins to look for pros and cons: in the bully who is his perpetual one-night stand, in the best friend who betrayed him, in the brilliant and mysterious boy who walked into the wrong class. Weighing the pain and the joy that surrounds him, Henry is left with the ultimate choice: push the button and save the planet and everyone on it…or let the world—and his pain—be destroyed forever.
What made the match, strongest first
Malinda Lo
2009 · 264 pages · 2 reviews
Others: PositiveIn the wake of her father's death, Ash is left at the mercy of her cruel stepmother. Consumed with grief, her only joy comes by the light of the dying hearth fire, rereading the fairy tales her mother once told her. In her dreams, someday the fairies will steal her away. When she meets the dark and dangerous fairy Sidhean, she believes that her wish may be granted. The day that Ash meets Kaisa, the King's Huntress, her heart begins to change. Instead of chasing fairies, Ash learns to hunt with Kaisa. Their friendship, as delicate as a new bloom, reawakens Ash's capacity for love--and her desire to live. But Sidhean has already claimed Ash for his own, and she must make a choice between fairy tale dreams and true love. Entrancing and empowering, Ash beautifully unfolds the connections between life and love, and solitude and death, where transformation can come from even the deepest grief.
What made the match, strongest first
Nicola Yoon
2016 · 384 pages · 22 reviews
Others: Mostly positiveNatasha: I’m a girl who believes in science and facts. Not fate. Not destiny. Or dreams that will never come true. I’m definitely not the kind of girl who meets a cute boy on a crowded New York City street and falls in love with him. Not when my family is twelve hours away from being deported to Jamaica. Falling in love with him won’t be my story. Daniel: I’ve always been the good son, the good student, living up to my parents’ high expectations. Never the poet. Or the dreamer. But when I see her, I forget about all that. Something about Natasha makes me think that fate has something much more extraordinary in store—for both of us. The Universe: Every moment in our lives has brought us to this single moment. A million futures lie before us. Which one will come true?
What made the match, strongest first
Loved itRadio Silence by Alice Ozman. I think this stands the test of time because finding your comfort person, finding a connection with someone when you feel a little bit lost, that's just a universal feeling for a lot of people, especially in high school.
Loved ithow my mind was blown by Piranessi, by Susan Clark, or how deeply Radio Silence by Ellis Oman impacted me, I could see people's eyes glaze over because they weren't familiar with those names.
Loved itRadio silence is one of my favorite why contemporary novels of all time I think that book is exceptional.
Loved itI loved ... I remember listening to it and I just was like hooked immediately
Loved iti'm so glad i picked this up it was one of my favorite books so far this year and it was a contemporary that i feel like not only is it just a good book but sometimes i feel like people don't really love contemporaries and i do
Loved itthat story discussed a lot of really important things and it made me think and it's definitely a story of that I won't forget anytime soon
Loved itHonestly everything that I read about sosman this year I read radio silence and vol 1 of this all five stars.
Loved itI loved how British it was I loved the characters one of the characters identifies as demisexual which is really awesome
Loved itit's an absolutely gorgeous book about expectations and pressures that are put on you by your parents by the world by friends
