Review by Jasmine Sov, 14

Yes No Maybe So By Becky Albertalli and Aisha Saeed

When Jamie, who considers himself to be awful at public speaking, and Maya, who’s going through the worst possible time of her life, somehow end up doing political canvassing for their local state senate candidate, they’re not exactly very enthusiastic about it. First off, why would Jamie ever want to embarrass himself in front of his entire suburban area several times over? And secondly, since when was going door to door the solution to all of Maya’s family, friends, and vacation problems? Either way, they’re stuck doing it, but maybe it’s not so bad. After all, they could learn a few things from the experience like navigating people, political beliefs, and the cross-cultural crush of the century.
This book stole my heart and then ran off to the polls with it. What Becky Albertalli and Aisha Saeed have created here is a funny, heartfelt, and most importantly accurate tale of what politics and interracial love is like in the 21st century. In fact, the accuracy of it all is what I most appreciated about Yes No Maybe So. Unlike many other YA rom-com books, Jamie and Maya are portrayed with realistic flaws and very believable dialogue. Both of them also go through their individual arcs of character development gracefully and gradually while still powerfully maturing them into the lovable characters they are by the end of the book.
Tropes were turned on their head every which way, which is always a good thing in the YA genre. Albertalli and Saeed’s writings were skillful and carefully crafted, with funny little jewels of metaphors and jokey teenage dialogue studding in just the right places in the Yes No Maybe So crown. It’s safe to say that if you love rom-coms and you want another richly diverse book to devour whole, Yes No Maybe So is the book for you.
5 stars

Find this book in our catalog: Title

Catalog Number: YA FIC ALBERTALLI, B

436 pages