Tell Me Again How a Crush Should Feel
Sara Farizan
Leila has made it through school without crushing on anyone. That is, until wild-child, sophisticated Saskia turns up and starts to invade Leila’s school days… and then her life.
Leila is challenged by her Persian background, and I learnt a lot about that culture just reading this novel. I particularly loved the way Leila’s older sister was characterised. I could have had more here!
There are so many other little stories going on in this. And the main thing is to note that things are hardly ever how they seem. Not only is Saskia not what Leila expected, her other friends, her family and her childhood best friend aren’t predictable. Seriously though, Leila’s friends were sometimes just a little too dumb and ignorant for their own good.
I wanted to love this book, I really did. It’s queer fiction, a coming-out story of a young lesbian. The thing is, that it was very repetitive and predictable, not to mention that the pace was glacial for the first half of the novel. If you’re just getting into queer fiction, this could be a novel for you. If you are desperate for reassurance that it’s ok to be gay, this book might be it. But everyone’s stories are different.
I’m giving this novel 3 stars, and recommending my forever-favourite of Keeping You a Secret or perhaps Read Me Like a Book for the beginning lesbian.
I cannot be thankful enough for the novels that are normalising uncomfortable issues at the moment, such as bipolar disorder, 
From the very beginning you already know there is something wrong about the way the twins have been treated. The more you read, the more you work out what is going on – even if it is exactly what the burb described and you aren’t ever really confused.
I kept putting off reading this novel for a very long time. The colour of the cover didn’t speak to me, the blurb put me right off… and it the end, it was 3 stars. It passed GO, but it certainly wasn’t any sort of master piece.
The premise of this book is so cool. Gottie is studying physics at school, and is interested in how time-travel might occur. Underlying her enjoyment of school is her fear of moving on to university. In order to motivate her, her physics teacher asks her to come up with a theory of time-travel, and then she will write a bright recommendation letter to get her into any college.
Marin! You great idiot. What were you thinking? You caused alllllllll of those issues. And then you wonder why people are mad. I guess you do sort of redeem yourself.
Unbelievable! The number of hidden twists in this is epic, and I have no idea how the author kept them straight. It’s an interesting and relevant novel to these days – both in hiding your tracks and tracking others.
I found myself confused at times. I don’t think it was ever explained exactly why Frankie was angry, even though the events surrounding her life were certainly messy. I’m not sure I’m objecting about this, except that perhaps the blurb focusses on that anger too much and not enough on Frankie’s changing life.
I didn’t like the cover, and the synopsis didn’t set me on fire. But I was promised some queer characters, and then I read the first page or so and I was hooked. I got attached to characters too quickly, and then they died! Talk about a masterwork by the author on hooking me in realistically with her character building then just easily killing off my heart.
Where can I start talking about this novel? It arrived, I spotted it, and next thing it was 2 hours later and I still couldn’t put it down. …yes I have problems with being attracted to new books. The pages grabbed me right from the beginning, pulled me in, and kept me reading because things could change at any moment. And of course, I love reading about the training of new and innovative skills.