What If It’s Us, Becky Albertalli and Adam Silvera, ISBN: 9781 4711 76395
IF you love the idea of love, Albertalli and Silvera flex their romantic writing prowess with the first in what is set to be a duology.
Arthur is only in New York city for the summer while Ben, a city native, feels he has already taken one too many bites from the bustling Big Apple and it has left him wanting.
One is a deep romantic at heart and sees signs in absolutely everything while the other is a slight sceptic who is still healing from a deep heartbreak. For Arthur, fate intervenes when he quite literally bumps into a cute boy carrying a box of goods at the post office. The universe may not be on their side after all as they are quite suddenly torn apart by a flash mob. This is where the hearty adventure truly begins.
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Confession time: I preferred the movie, Love, Simon, over Albertalli’s novel, Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda. It took me almost 90 pages to get into the groove of her writing style, but I still ended up giving the book a top rating as the rest of the book was superb. As I have never read Silvera, despite the internet raving about his previous works, I was slightly nervous to read this book as my experience with the previous author could his work. I have never been so wrong!
You are flung into this nail-biting romance novel that is filled with laugh-out-loud humour by two authors who seem to be so in-sync that each moment flows effortlessly into the next.
The duo are doing absolute wonders for the LGBTQI+ community by sharing these positively wonderful and wholesome stories that help normalise being out and proud, while highlighting the many issues still being faced by the same community today.