Review: Yes No Maybe So by Becky Albertalli and Aisha Saeed

Jamie Goldberg is cool with volunteering for his local state candidate - as long as he’s behind the scenes. There’s no way he’d ever knock on doors to ask people for their votes…until he meets Maya.

Maya Rehman’s having the worst Ramadan ever. Her best friend is too busy to hang out, her summer trip is cancelled, her parents are separating and now her mother thinks the solution to her problems is political canvassing - with some awkward guy she hardly knows ... 

Going door to door isn’t exactly glamorous, but maybe it’s not the worst thing in the world. After all, the polls are getting closer - and so are Maya and Jamie. Mastering local activism is one thing. Navigating the cross-cultural crush of the century is another thing entirely.

 

Review: I was excited to read this book because I love everything by Becky Albertalli and this was my first Aisha Saeed read. I thought this book was just going to be a cute YA romance but this book was relevant, romantic and realistic. The romance took a back seat to the friendship and political aspects, which I loved.

I really loved how timely everything in this novel was from their pop culture references of The Office, rideshare services and Target to the political climate. I loved that these authors put their own experiences in this book and so it came out to be something that is incredibly true to life. Because of this the book isn't always sunshine and happiness so acre should be exercised before you pick this one up. 

I liked the characters in this novel, their friendship with each other and their relationship with their families and I could see both of them reflected in pupils that I have taught over the years. I would loved to hear more from these characters, perhaps to find out where they go from here. 

I think that personally I was looking for a little more romance in this book when I came to it but that was just my personal choice at the time and I perhaps would have preferred there to be a little more romance between other characters but I really did enjoy the political aspect of this storyline and would even have liked for that to be even more prevalent than it was. 

Let's have more authors taking risks like this in terms of putting both politics and pop culture in their books and also highlighting friendships during pivotal times in our lives. 

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