Ophelia After All

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Despite my mixed feelings, I liked Ophelia After All more than not. It has its flaws sure and the tone was a bit juvenile and moralistic at times but I could tell that the author had good intentions and the story she tells does have heart. Ophelia After All" was everything and more I imagined it would be. It's an irresistible contemporary YA novel about Ophelia, a teenage girl, dealing with crushes, friendships and the struggles of the last weeks of her high school journey. Still, I liked that the author didn’t make Ophelia immediately accept her queerness and that her self-denial leads her to make quite a few bad choices. Her treatment of Talia was kind of horrible if you think about it but she owns up to it (which doesn’t cancel out what she did but it results in some solid character growth on her part). I also liked that her mother isn’t depicted as being horrible, which I feared she would be for a good portion of the book. Her talk with Ophelia towards the end was very touching.

Marie writes Ophelia and her friends through the hurdles and heartaches of senior spring with charm and insight, giving each character complexity and their varied cultural experiences the space, consideration, and depth they deserve. A feel-good and effortlessly inclusive coming-of-age story that deftly captures the aching tension of queer adolescence." So when she finds herself thinking more about cute, quiet Talia Sanchez than the loss of a perfect prom with her ex-boyfriend, seeds of doubt take root in Ophelia’s firm image of herself. Add to that the impending end of high school and the fracturing of her once-solid friend group, and things are spiralling a little out of control. But the course of love–and sexuality–never did run smooth. As her secrets begin to unravel, Ophelia must make a choice between clinging to the fantasy version of herself she’s always imagined or upending everyone’s expectations to rediscover who she really is, after all. A teen girl navigates friendship drama, the end of high school, and discovering her queerness in Ophelia After All, a hilarious and heartfelt contemporary YA debut by author Racquel Marie. Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, MacMillan Children's Publishing Group and Feiwel & Friends, and the author, Racquel Marie, for thinking of me and sending an e-arc copy of this book to read and review.I just wish the story had focused less on the drama and fights between Ophelia’s ‘friends’. Her best friend in particular is done a bit of a disservice as his character seems reduced to him taunting his love rival. But I did appreciate how inclusive this group was. I would have liked for them to have more distinctive personalities (rather than a few chosen traits) but it isn’t that kind of novel so it worked all the same.

There’s a scene in the book (that I won’t spoil) where Ophelia sees the breadth of what LGTBQ+ representation looks like in one little room, and it’s amazing. There are ace/aro friends! There are bisexual feelings! There’s a little bit of everything and hopefully every reader out there will feel a little bit seen. I think it’s a surefire way to guarantee you’ll be going stag,” Linds teases. Sammie and Wesley both visibly stiffen. She clears her throat and bites another carrot.

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We would never!” Agatha clutches her hand to her chest. “You know we gave up that immature practice decades ago, dear Samuel.” This book made me laugh out loud. This book made me cry. It had me on my toes. It broke me apart then gradually sewed up the broken pieces together again. In a word, reading this book, was an amazing experience.