Jessie is a great main character - she's figuring out who she is, especially now that she's been newly diagnosed with ASD, and navigating friends, family, and relationships. I read a lot of YA, so I was surprised by how young this read and sometimes found it hard to get fully invested in, but Jessie really held the story together. She was incredibly thoughtful and I appreciated her ability to articulate what she needed in the end. The budding friendship was really fun to read about. The love triangle between Jessie, Levi, and Griffin was stressful (in a good way), but I always knew who I was rooting for, which is ideal for me. I'm definitely intrigued to read whatever Jckie Khalilieh writes next.

**I want to start by being fully transparent; I received this as an ARC from publisher and NetGalley BUT that does NOT sway my feelings/opinions at all. This is a fully unbiased review formed from my own thoughts after reading. Thank you NetGalley and publisher for allowing me this eARC copy**

Another novel I feel I would have loved if I read it months ago. Felt a bit young for me. Again, not bad just not for me

I finished this book within 24 hours! Debut author Jackie Khalilieh has perfectly captured the grade 9 girlhood experience in SOMETHING MORE, a YA contemporary following fifteen-year-old Jessie as she navigates a Canadian Catholic high school after recently being diagnosed with autism.

Joining Jessie was like reliving my freshman year, but with all of the humour and compassion that I did not have the first time. From female friendships, to relationships with older guys, to classroom dynamics and learning plans, Jessie is a gift to anyone who has survived, or is trying to survive, high school. I laughed out loud and had my heart racing as Jessie maneuvers through a (kind of) love triangle and ultimately, grows into herself. The question is not if you will enjoy this book, but whether you are Team Griffin or Team Levi? ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

P.S. This book is a special treat to uniform girlies. The details, like which way your kilt pin is facing, blew me away!

This book was a really cute YA about a 9th grader trying to find her place. The thing I really enjoyed about this book was how young it was written for! Because I think the early YA just getting out of MID is a group that gets forgotten a lot!
I wanted almost a bit more of that classic YA awkwardness you get from books set in highschool, but it was an overal solid book!

Something More by Jackie Khalilieh follows the life of Jessie, a Palestinian-Canadian girl who is a bit of a loner and obsessed with the nineties. From the first sentence, the voice is strong with this narrative. It feels as if the reader drops into the world of Jessie as she struggles to fit in while balancing her family life. From the first page, I was in love with everything already wanting to read more. Initially, I wanted to read this book because I heard it talks about autism and does not shy away from the topic. It digs right into the painful stigma around Autism ending the first chapter with Jessie telling her whole family how she is autistic.

From there we continue on this messy journey with Jessie, which is great. Too often YA books feel a little too clean cut. I want to feel the awkwardness and the second hand embarrassment because at the end of the day, it makes me feel a little better knowing how I'm not alone with these thoughts especially as an individual who is also autistic.

Something More really is 'something more' because it's not only about Jessie being Palestonian-Canadian and her being austistic, but an endearing story about her meeting two boys that you can help root for. While I guessed right away who she would be with from the story, it was really all about the journey and has been awhile since I've gone on one that really captures the emotions of being young and different.

It's an engaging read that I know I'll be recommending to my students.

a very cute coming of age book about a autistic Palestinian teenage girl who spends her ninth grade figuring out where and how she fits into the world.
Friendships, first loves, the struggles of being Palestinian Canadian.

Without giving much away, this book was rather cute and should def get made into a movie, however the age should be increased to at least 17. this could be the next best coming of age book/movie/limited series show.

the small touch on the Palestinian conflict was so heartwarming to read. as a fellow first generation immigrant much like the author, and coming from a place of conflict. the identity crisis is real. The fact that this was based in Toronto Canada and had so many Canadian reference made me rather happy.

Jessie and Griffin were just so likeable and everyone else fit in perfectly too.

I liked that Jessie didn’t struggle with her Arab-Canadian identity and choose constantly to take risks and live in the moment.

As a neurodivergent person, I’ve been looking recently for books with ND rep and I was excited to read a book from the autistic perspective written by an autistic author. I’ve suspected I’m on the spectrum for a few years now so relating to MCs in how they navigate the world and process life feels really good. While Jessie went through very normal high school experiences, she processes them differently and I loved seeing how her friends came to understand that. I’m very happy I was approved to read this as an ARC and I definitely preordered the hardcover.

I was SO happy to be approved to read this book on NetGalley! It was one of my most anticipated books this year.

I loved it! I remembered my high school experience while reading this and it made my nostalgic. I’m glad Jessie ended up with Griffin. He was such a great friend to her and accepted her as her true self.

Thank you to NetGalley for this eARC in exchange for an honest review!

This story follows a main character who is diagnosed as autistic just before starting high school, plans to keep it a secret, and then unexpectedly begins falling for two different boys. I thought the premise was fantastic, and the characters were dynamic and engaging! I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys a good story with a love triangle, as well as anyone who identifies with the main character and wants to read about someone who may share their experiences.

I just finished this gem of a YA contemporary romance and I can’t stop thinking about it! There’s currently a distinct lack of books being written for 13-15 year olds, which is unfortunate, especially knowing how amazing SOMETHING MORE is! I highly recommend to those who love reading YA romance with characters on the younger side

The novel follows Jessie, who is starting her first year of high school following her autism diagnosis over the summer. She deals with navigating a new school, making new friends, and (most importantly) her first crush on someone who likes her back! Jessie was a protagonist I loved rooting for and I was on the edge of my seat wondering how she was going to reconcile everything in her life. When she found herself in a love triangle things really started to get tricky!

I highly recommend this book.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this digital ARC. This is my honest and unbiased review.

Something More is an engaging and approachable YA romance about Jessie--a young Palestinian-Canadian who has recently been diagnosed with autism--and how she navigates her first year of high school.

Jessie is a fun, approachable, endearing narrator. It was great to see the representation of autism and a recent diagnosis, as well as the complicated family dynamics as far as traditional gender roles, religion, oldest/middle/youngest child, ethnicity, immigration, and navigating cultural norms.

I think more books about ND teens are needed and this book definitely approaches the topic in a sensitive and straight forward way.

The book starts off strong, with a great introduction of Jessie, her family, the dynamics, how her diagnosis is affecting her, and her excitement/unease at starting high school. She does a great job of describing her social history, her masking compensatory behavior and how she has goals to make her first year of high school different and better. First year of high school is such an awkward time and it was nice to see a younger MC in this book.

I think it was great to see both Canadian and Palestinian representation and also minority Palestinian representation, as Jessie's family is Orthodox. The way these two cultures merge and clash in her family will be relatable to immigrant and first generation families from many countries and ethnicities--our similarities often outweigh out differences.

The romance is overall cute but I did find myself a little frustrated in the latter half of the book. Jessie's crush is cute and there are some special, romantic moments, but there are also some significant red flags. There is a bit of a love triangle but it's written in a way that was sensitive and careful, as opposed to the way some love triangles are written in YA.

There are some toxic components--friendships and relationships that are not healthy, some angsty teen drama and jealousy. This is fairly common in YA and has it's place but it definitely felt like Jessie and her friends didn't have much focus on anything other than the boys around them. Maybe I'm showing my age with that statement.

I think this book's arc is actually more about coming of age and learning about yourself and what's important. The love triangle was a bit distracting from that idea. I also think Jessie's friend group was a bit two dimensional and overemphasized the boy crazy component, which also detracted a bit from Jessie's story.

Levi and Griffin are more fleshed out characters but I do think I would have liked more of Griffin. I think that may have been hard to do, given this is a book from Jessie's POV and she is so focused on Levi. I think Griiffin was a great character.

I think overall I would have liked more of Jessie's coming of age component and experience with her ND diagnosis and a bit less on the toxic relationships with some of her friends and Levi. I think Griffin was underutilized and many of the other side characters lacked dimension. I liked Jessie. She was written as her age, that unsettled freshman timeframe when everything means so much and so much is so very awkward.

Overall an entertaining book with an ND protagonist but in the end I think I wanted more than the book gave me.

3.5 stars.

ARC provided by Netgalley and Penguin Random House, Tundra Books in exchange for an honest review, all opinions are my own.

I liked this book until Jessie's obsession and toxic relationship with Levi, the older bad boy of her school, took over the whole book. She doesn't truly realize how awful he is until the last 5% of the book!

This book tells a unique story of a Palestinian-Canadian teenage girl navigating her way through her first year of high school with autism. This book has great representation and diversity. I loved the way this story portrayed being raised by immigrant parents, they were shown as strict but still loving and always wanting the best for their daughter, the main character, Jessie. I also loved Jessie’s relationship with her two older siblings. Jessie is like most fifteen year old girls, obsessed with boys. This story really focuses on the dynamics of high school and how Jessie’s autism affected those dynamics and her relationship with others. Jessie is loveable even when she’s being “unreasonable” and I loved the way her feelings and thought process were always explained. This story is about first time loves, messy friend groups, and learning to show who you really are. Even though this book heavily focuses on high school drama as a driving plot, it also has positive messages like learning to honour your boundaries, protecting your friends, and showing how people value integrity to your identity.

I got this book for free, in exchange for my honest opinion via NetGalley.

Spoilers ahead. Read at your own risk.

Something More, is a messy young adult love story about a fifteen-year-old high school Palestinian-Canadian girl who is still dealing with her autism diagnosis.

This is honestly the best YA novel I've read in a while, nay one of the best I've ever read. The world and it's characters felt so real, the high school aspect is all too relatable to anyone how has fallen in love, and the love triangle *chef's kiss.* Couple that with being an awkward teen and complex female friendships and you've got yourself one amazing read.

I found myself relating to Jessie and she is memorable. Some of her feelings, I've felt for myself. There weren't much issues with the book, besides the layout being a little wonky. Also, I could tell right away that Jessie would end up with Griffin, it was just a given. But now that I think of it, I was yelling at Jessie to break it off with Levi. She was so consumed by him the girl probably wouldn't see her hand in front of her face. But then I remember my first love, and how I acted, and while I still wanted to talk some sense into her I could completely understand.

I also want to give a shoutout for the author mentioning Rick Springfield. He's one of my favourite artists, and I'm about obsessed with the 80s as Jessie is with the 90s.

I wish I could give this book more than 5 stars, because it deserves as much, I could dote all day on this book and it wouldn't be enough, So, I'll just leave my review here and urge you to check this book out. Jackie Khalilieh is certainly an author to watch our for.

I sadly could not finish reading this book. It wasn't necessarily bad, the writing style just wasn't really my taste. I'm very sad that I couldn't finish it because this was one of my more anticipated reads of the year, I might pick it up again later as I stop reading quite early and it also might just not have been the right time for me to read it, I don't want to discourage anyone from reading it but sadly it just wasn't my cup of tea.

Thank you NetGalley and Penguin Random House Canada for letting me enjoy an ARC of this beautiful story! This book made my adolescent self feel seen. I annotated my copy vigorously, finding so many connections to the main character and her struggles. I will 100% be putting this one in my classroom library! I know that this one will resonate with many of my avid readers.

I don’t know why but I really struggled with reading this. I’m not sure if it was the format or what. I don’t think this was a book issue but rather a reader issue. I did like the autism rep as my best friend has autism.

What a lovely YA read about a Palestinian-Canadian girl, starting high school and trying to hide her autism diagnosis. Jess came across as so authentic and real and just an overall really wholesome read.

The way I want to put Jessie in my back pocket and protect her at all costs...

Something More brought me right back to the beautifully horrible days of early teenage awkwardness and trying to figure yourself out while figuring out what figuring yourself out looks like. A lovely debut from Jackie Khalilieh, chock-full of so much

This book was a breath of fresh air. It reminded me what it's like being young and overwhelmed by so many intense feelings. It was sweet. I especially loved the Palestinian and Autistic representation without over explaining. This is the book I WISH I had when I was younger.