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

Book Title: Yes No Maybe So

Author: Becky Albertalli and Aisha Saeed

My Rating: 5*

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Publication Date: 04/02/20

Genre(s): Young adult, Contemporary, Romance

Pages: 436

Format Read: Paperback

Goodreads: 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.


I loved this book!

Maya and Jamie were friends as kids but haven’t seen each other for years until an election canvassing opportunity throws them back together. The book was very politically heavy which I thought might put me off a bit but it was relevant and realistic, especially for the times we are in, and I ended up getting really invested and rooting for Rossum along with Maya and Jamie and feeling every high and low along with them. They grow closer and with that they also start to believe their voices can make a difference.

The romance was really cute. The reader gets to see Jamie's feelings grow over the course of the book and Maya struggling with her feelings as she has been brought up with the mentality that she should only date to marry and so thinks that her family wouldn’t approve of her dating Jamie. However what I liked about this book is that the romance isn’t forced and it’s more about their developing friendship and the politics rather than their relationship.

Most of the characters were likable, Insta Gramm was amazing! Jamie's sister Sophie was also great and his friends too. I didn’t like Gabe so much because all he seemed to care about was the election and he was willing to throw anyone under the bus including his own cousin Jamie to get further ahead in the polls and increase the chance of Rossum winning. 

The book talks about things that now more than ever need to be talked about, from racism and sexism to political views and it’s not often that you get to see a book like this aimed at younger people and hopefully this can be used as a beginning to start conversations and educate young people on the importance of their voice in bringing about change.

Overall this is a great book aimed at younger readers who may or may not be able to vote yet but portrays the very real problems that are present in many countries and shows how important the next generation of people are to create change. I loved everything about this book and you should definitely read it!

Have you read this book?
what did you think?
Let me know in the comments!