Imogen slipped into my brain when I was in the early stages of working on a different project, and I couldn’t stop thinking about her. Side characters: Lili is Brazilian-American and pan (also questioning demisexual), Edith is white and lesbian, Gretchen is white and bisexual, Mika is Japanese-American and non-binary and queer, Kayla is Black and queer, Declan is queer. I think also knowing the authors personal story behind this book took away from it a little bit because while reading, it wasn't about Imogen but about Becky. Imogen is invited along to spend the weekend at her best friend, Lili’s college – the one she will also be attending when she has graduated high school.

Imogen has no personal connection to this fictional actress, but she’s deeply affected by this discourse—just like my own listeners were affected by the discourse about me. Other reviewers have correctly pointed out how over-the-top full of stereotypes it is, which is weird considering its "stop making assumptions about people :(" message. she doesn’t believe you need to be part of the lgbtq+ to be incredibly supportive, and everything she does is for the good of the community. When she starts developing romantic feelings for one of Lili’s friends, her anxiety spirals into a belief that her newfound attraction could be considered queer appropriation, or an attempt to fit in and seem cool.Even though I don’t agree with everything I do think this is a good place to start some important discussions about queerness and gatekeeping. Her notions that queer girls don't wear heels, and her being overall invalidating (for the sake of not giving too much away), was all around awful, but something that Imogen grew from. imogen starts having these feelings for tessa, which she finds difficult to interpret at first because it’s towards another girl, but she comes to grasp them and unconsciously accept them. Insightful prose teems with compassionate interrogations of the harms of compulsory heterosexuality and societally prescribed narratives surrounding “what’s encouraged, what’s allowed—or even what’s not allowed” when exploring one’s sexual identity. If I had to comp this book to anything, it would be YA One Last Stop, based on the humour and the friendship.

This is a girl who carried thick, dog-eared Tamora Pierce books all around camp every summer, just in case there was unexpected free time and someone tried to talk to her.Soccer is everything to Valentina Castillo-Green, so when a fight with longtime rival Leticia Ortiz leads to her team losing not just the game, but also respect from her teammates and chances with college recruiters, it’s devastating. Aria herself used to see ghosts, but a tea brewed by her grandfather severed her connection to the spirit world. She doesn’t feel the same way about girls as she does in her crushes on guys, so she concludes that means she doesn’t like girls at all.