Review- Tell Me Again How a Crush Should Feel by Sara Farizan

Tell Me Again How a Crush Should Feel on Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

High-school junior Leila has made it most of the way through Armstead Academy without having a crush on anyone, which is something of a relief. Her Persian heritage already makes her different from her classmates; if word got out that she liked girls, life would be twice as hard. But when a sophisticated, beautiful new girl, Saskia, shows up, Leila starts to take risks she never thought she would, especially when it looks as if the attraction between them is mutual. Struggling to sort out her growing feelings and Saskia's confusing signals, Leila confides in her old friend, Lisa, and grows closer to her fellow drama tech-crew members, especially Tomas, whose comments about his own sexuality are frank, funny, wise, and sometimes painful. Gradually, Leila begins to see that almost all her classmates are more complicated than they first appear to be, and many are keeping fascinating secrets of their own.

Release date: October 7th, 2014

Published by: Algonquin Young Readers

Page numbers: 304

REVIEW:

The premise of Tell Me Again How a Crush Should Feel sounded very promising and interesting. Luckily, it ended up being just like that, as well. While the book mainly dealt with the traumas of a lesbian from an Iranian family, it wasn't just a rant session or an almost autobiographical text, because the story in itself had so much going on that it ended up being more of a family/ school drama, which was so very adorable. 

Leila has always been into girls, but coming from a country where people are hanged for not abiding by society's self-made rules, she is afraid if coming out to anyone, let alone her family. The Azadi family was portrayed so well by the author that they seemed just like any normal family one would come across. It's always great to see importance given to family in YA novels, and this wasn't any exception. From the family scenes described in the book to the relationship Leila has with each of them to the way they all react to her sexuality, everything was well done and spot on. 

Leila isn't a wallflower or anything, but she isn't the queen of her school either. Her life is going just about fine until Saskia walks into it. From the very beginning, there was something so off about Saskia and she just seemed so wrong, but for the avoidance of spoilers, let's just say that everything turns out really well. Leila's other friends from school, like her family, were portrayed in a very realistic and cool manner. The fact that the story revolved around a school play (again, something so lovely about YA!) was just perfect. 

Overall, Tell Me Again How a Crush Should Feel wasn't very unique or anything, but it was such an adorable read that had a bit of everything you'd look for in a YA novel in it. To top it all of, it is a very quick and easy read, thanks to author Sara Farizan's simple writing and intriguing story-telling. A thoroughly enjoyable read, this one is definitely the cutest and least- by no means do I mean to sound rude or offend anyone by using the following word- dramatic book about a lesbian that I have read. 

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