This wonderful book is both a tender coming-of-age romance and a tapestry of queer identity that spans oceans, generations, and stages of life … Suffused with queer wistfulness and the ache to be known, So’s debut is as intimate and revelatory as the first touch of a first crush’s hand. She’s been crushing on Ada for a while now, they share so many interests, and are constantly talking about their favourite comic, Eden Recoiling, there’s just one problem: Ada lives thousands of miles away and they’ve never actually met. A lyrical contemporary story about falling in love and finding yourself in the process, for fans of The Black Flamingo, The Falling in Love Montage and Alice Oseman. Not only does Cynthia So show the importance of fandom spaces and give online friendships the importance they deserve, but they also use it to highlight the disparity of queer and POC rep in media, and the effect this not only has on teens themselves, but how it can negatively impact those around them. It felt like a love letter to all of us readers who grew up immersed in those spaces, it almost me nostalgic for a time where waiting for the newest update was my primary issue.

A beautiful and intricately layered tale of friendship, fandom and finding yourself - I absolutely adored it. It’s included in the story in such a lovely way, that will deeply echo to anyone who has ever been a part of a fandom.We aren’t only just given over five main queer and poc teenagers, we also get to read about the reconnecting of deep relationships that will almost most definitely make you want to pull the tissues out!

Relationships and crushes move fast, that quick pace is not really my cup of tea either, but I still really enjoyed the book overall and would 100% recommend it to readers looking for a contemporary summer read!This story tackles topics like grief, complicated relationships with family members, toxic relationships, and discovering your place in the world. It’s a summer of change and love for Elsie as she spends one last summer in her hometown before she heads to university. Fandom spaces are so important to the queer community because for a lot of us, it was the first place we saw ourselves represented and the first place where we got to talk to people who felt the same as us.

So many people will see themselves represented in that aspect of the book, and it really shows the importance of both real-life friends, and online friends. Although issues of sexuality and gender are prominent, this novel also has much to say about cultural inheritance, found and biological family, assimilation, racism, and acceptance, but all of these topics are wonderfully woven within the narrative and organic. I’ve been trying for a while to figure out why this book wasn't really for me, but I think in the end I'm just not the target audience for it. Deciding how to broach her feelings for Ada with her, someone from her past makes a reappearance; her old best friend Joan who moved to Hong Kong and then ghosted her is the last person Elsie expected to see in Oxford and they certainly have some catching up to do.It wasn’t for me because I’m past that intense phase of living for a fandom and dedicating that much time to it, but that’s just me. Elsie is dedicated to the fandom of her favourite comic, Eden Recoiling, and I have to admit, I was invested in the comic storyline by the end too! I loved how we not only saw LGBT teenagers but also adults and elderly people too, again giving this book some fantastic depth and representation. Touching on so much about the characters’ identities, this book also had some great rep; from bisexuality, asexuality, as well as Elsie’s dual nationality, there were so many avenues to be explored, and I can only imagine how brilliant this book would feel in the hands of a reader who feels like they see themselves in the characters and on the pages of this book.