My rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
From the cover:
"YES.
Jamie Goldberg is cool with volunteering for his local state senate candidate - as long as he's behind the scenes. When it comes to speaking to strangers (or, let's face it, speaking at all to almost anyone), Jamie's a choke artist. There's no way he'd ever knock on doors to ask people for their votes...until he meets Maya.
NO.
Maya Rehman's having the worst Ramadan ever. Her best friend is too busy to hang out, her summer trip is canceled, and now her parents are separating. Why her mother thinks the solution to her problems is political canvassing - with some awkward dude she hardly knows - is beyond her.
MAYBE SO.
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 romance of the century is another thing entirely."
I've been reading this out loud with my husband, and we are both in love. I am a well-documented fan of Becky Albertalli, and her strength remains developing characters that pull you in and immediately have you falling in love. I really thought I had read Aisha Saeed before, but after double checking it turns out I haven't - better believe I'll be reading more of her stuff after this. Yes No Maybe So pulled me in right off the bat, and part of me wishes I wasn't reading this with someone else, because it's hard to put down. The husband really needs to get on my level when it comes to staying up late reading.
Things I loved:
1. The characters. Basically everything about Maya, how up-front she was, that she calls it like she sees it with zero self-consciousness. I aspire to be more like her. Jamie pushing himself out of his comfort zone. As a fellow painfully awkward person, I saw a lot of myself in Jamie, and I wish I had his courage when I was in high school. Jamie's little sister. It thrills me that there are so many books coming out with confident, empowered young characters to serve as role models.
2. The empowering message. Maya and Jamie are both too young to vote, but they're canvassing for the election, engaging with their representatives, and standing up for what they believe in. Sophie and her friends are even younger, but Sophie is researching the policies being introduced in her district, talking to her friends about what they think of those policies, and making her voice heard. It's easy to tell ourselves what we think doesn't matter and give up on trying to make a difference, and this book was a powerful reminder that this is a marathon, not a sprint, and that our efforts to make a difference are the difference.
3. Jamie's grandma. I know I already said the characters, but InstaGramm gets her own shout-out.
The one gripe I have is that I wish we dug a little deeper into Jamie and Maya's lives. We spend a lot of time with them both and get to know them and their banter pretty well, but despite a portion of the book being set during Ramadan and the majority of the book taking place leading up to Sophie's bat mitzvah, we really didn't get far beneath the surface of either teen's religious beliefs and upbringing. That's a huge part of their lives that basically just gets left out, and it would have added even more depth to the characters.
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