Given that this book was written in the 80's, I can see how it would be very formative and vital literature. Especially considering fiction stories about queer characters were very much not present, even more so for young adult books.

That being said, the character development in this felt minimal and forced. I thought that both Liza and Annie were precious and interesting, but I didn't know them very well. And I wanted more show me, and less tell me, about the progress of there relationship.

I very much related to the feelings of uncertainty in taking the next step physically with someone you have a strong emotional connection with. It's scary and unknown, and you can fake all the confidence you want, but it doesn't translate when it comes down to it. When Liza & Annie were having conversations about why they couldn't open up physically, I felt it so much that I had to take a break from the book for a while.

Overall this wasn't a bad book by any means, just a bit lackluster. I ended up giving it 3/5 stars.

This was a solid and important read. It didn’t blow me away but I’m so glad it’s out into the world.

I'd always planned to read this because it is such a classic. I think it's definitely worth a read, it's a great story about two girls coming to terms with their sexuality but it is very much a product of it's time. I'd like to hope that more wlw coming of age stories written today would have better and more accepting supporting characters and would probably end a little differently. I am glad I finally had a chance to read this.

this was a soft and perfect romance between two girls. the author herself was a lesbian, and i loved that she was courageous enough to write a f/f romance when such books were looked upon with disdain.

“Don’t let ignorance win,” said Ms. Stevenson. “Let love.”

this was a beautiful story, and one that should be spread far and wide instead of being burnt and condemned. may love win.

Was kinda boring most the book. Found myself skimming through pages just to get to the next chapter. Maybe next time.

This book was absolutely lovely, I wish I had read it sooner! Liza and Annie's friendship was beautiful and sweet and I loved watching it bloom into something more. This book made me think so much about the prejudices that people in the lgbt+ community face and how love can be so much stronger than hate, even when it doesn't feel like it. The writing was beautiful and the characters were relatable and the issues at hand were so relevant to what we face in today's society. I want everyone to read this book, and I want everyone to love Annie and Liza for who they are, and I want people appreciate and celebrate love for all that it is and all that it can be, no matter what form that it takes.

Annie On My Mind is iconic; it's a seminal and influence piece of literature both in lesbian and YA fiction, but it's a book I've never read before.

With the re-release I set out to change that, and it's surprising how well it holds up 35 years after publication. The core relationship feels believable and isn't exploitative in the slightest. The fact that it actually had a happy ending as well was a pleasant surprise.

Some of the language was a little dated, but the story itself would feel right in any era. The conflicts felt real and I was fully invested in Liza and Annie's relationship. Annie On My Mind is a classic for a reason and I'm so glad I've finally read it.

I received an Advanced Reader Copy of Annie on My Mind by Nancy Garden, from Open Road Integrated Media, via Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

Trigger Warning: Homophobia

Within Annie on My Mind we meet, Liza, whose story we get to read. Within said story we get to see quite an ordeal, which I will get to later… Annie on My Mind is a story were the main character Liza tells the story of falling in love for the first time, and a few other things happen as well.

It took me 20 days to read Annie on My Mind. I’m saying this because I usually read books within a day or two. Sometimes within a week, at most. I’m saying this because I had a rough time reading Annie on My Mind. There were a few things that bothered me about Liza’s story.

The ups and downs in the story line were extreme. I had a difficult time for a multiple of reasons. The first was that the pace of the story overall was so. slow. So slow. There were times that Liza was over the moon happy, and the pace of the story was great—enjoyable even. What goes up, must come down, and what came down was quite a bit…

Namely the homophobia that Liza experienced within her high school, as well as her own family bothered me (beyond belief, like if I remember one thing about Annie on My Mind, it’ll be this). It was incredibly tough reading those scenes and namely the reason why it took me so long to read Annie on My Mind.

Reading the scenes where Liza had to deal with the homophobia….was incredibly difficult for me. In fact, reading the last 30% of Annie on My Mind was strenuous because I have thoughts on it all. Reading the last 30% was tiring, and frankly made me upset (if you couldn’t already tell).

The second thing that I didn’t like about this book was how utterly predictable it was. I’m not saying this to be mean or anything, I’m just plainly stating that I thought the major plot points were pretty predictable–at least in my books.

With all of that been said, there were three things that I actually liked about Annie on My Mind. Firstly, the story got me smiling pretty quickly! Annie and Liza in the beginning of their relationship were very cute and super adorable. The second thing that I liked about Annie on My Mind was that I loved that I could easily discern that the girls had crushes on each other— again, super cute.

And lastly, I liked that there was self-acceptance within Liza (but that happened at the literal end of the story).

Overall, Annie on My Mind was a difficult book for me to read. I did not enjoy it as much as I wished I had.

I give Annie on My Mind, 2.5 stars.

This is apparently a lesbian classic – yet I had no idea it existed until I saw the reprint on netgalley and requested it. I have many thoughts and many conflicting thoughts for this book. Just bear in mind that this is a sort of classic -written in the 80s I think- while I reach the conflict part.

First of, I will talk about the good. And, man where there good parts. The premise of two teenage girls falling in love and discovering themselves is good enough on its own, one would argue and I would agree. It was so damn CUTE!

Liza met Annie in a museum???? And they bonded over art????? And they spend every waking hour together, holding hands and sharing everything with one another??

Ok, I’ll stop with the question marks.

Seriously their relationship was so fluffy and cute and the definition of s o f t. I appreciated how there was so much emphasis on love; and it discussed love in comparison to homophobia and the rhetoric of the time. And that leads me to the conflict:

The homophobia.

It was too much. I literally had to put the book down because I couldn’t bear it. The things that were said against Liza and Annie, as well as their teachers, it all made me want to vomit.

I know it is true, and I know that this is how things were -are. Still it was so hard to read the words on paper, feel the hatred the society had towards something so pure as love. And I’ve got to say, it hindered my experience of an otherwise veeeery cute and heart warming contemporary.

This is where the classic factor comes in– it was written quite early and wanted to show to the audience that even though there will be difficulties and people will come for them, they should not get intimidated.

The thing is that reading it now, when things have changed (unfortunately not nearly as much as they should have) was a punch in the chest. It made me feel insecure and afraid, which is not the best.

General Thoughts: Annie on my Mind is a contemporary novel navigating the lives of two teenagers, Liza and Annie, as they fall in love and try to protect their relationship despite the difficulties.

TRIGGER WARNING: Intense homophobia. If you are someone easily triggered then I would recommend you give this book a pass.

I received this e-ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

I first read "Annie on My Mind" a few years ago, when it was recommended to me as an important work of not only LGBT YA, but lesbian fiction in general. Revisiting it recently, I was reminded of how this book was incredibly powerful when it was released. Being one of the first widely received and acclaimed pieces of lesbian fiction for younger readers, it of course was met with all kinds of controversy, mainly unfounded. And that was a reflection of the time. Nowadays, there are a lot more books out there for queer youth, and though it is sometimes they are still not widely accepted in a lot of places/schools sometimes, I do think the climate is changing. These are the stories we want. These are the stories kids want. Kids want to see themselves represented somewhere, and have something to help them figure out themselves. My area of (I'd like to think) expertise is queer fiction, particularly for young adults, as I mainly work with children's books. And so I have noticed that in the last couple of years the amount of queer fiction for younger readers has grown massively, and the books are not only often critically acclaimed, but popular too.

If I were to talk about this book critically, one could say that it is maybe a wee bit dated. But I didn't find that detrimental to the story at all. I still think it is a beautifully and truthfully written love story, where maybe the characters aren't always likable (in fact they are more often than not really quite frustrating), but they are true to themselves and what they are feeling, and I think that is a beautiful thing. I certainly cried a few times in the reading of this book! All in all, I think that this story still resonates with a lot of people, and I will continue to recommend it.

you know, this is just not doing it for me right now and I'm 45% of the way through. I don't know, it's fine, I think this is just not my genre of book and I was only reading it because of the lesbian classic thing? possibly will be returned to someday.

I've been slowly going back and reading backlist queer titles, so I was excited to see this pop up on NetGalley. It's really interesting to read older queer books, and I think it's so important to understanding our history and where we came from.

This book by Nancy Garden set the world on fire as the first to describe a lesbian teen relationship. Apart from being groundbreaking, it tells a tender tale of Liza and her girlfriend as they explore first love. As with Garden's books, it also explores themes of how adults respond and the ways in which communities can be oppressive.

This book was truly amazing. What struck me the most was how different it was from modern LGBT books. Because it wasn't all about the struggle of being gay and coming to terms with it and all the other things that go along with it. I wasn't expecting such a positive book. Obviously there were struggles and a lot of hardship that the girls had to go through, but for the most part it was about two people just falling in love. The gender of them didn't matter until later.

You see that's what I want to see more of and it's so interesting that a book from the 80s can capture exactly what the genre is missing. Because so many LGBT books act like the gay characters can only possibly be defined by being gay. That all their story has to be about struggling to come to terms with it, or fighting to be accepted. It's never about just two people falling in love naturally. It's never about the gradual discovery of what it means to be gay.

Obviously there was drama at the end and it got very sad, but it ended on a hopeful note. And the characters were just beautiful. I have to say that I fell in love with Annie a bit too during this book. She was so lively and well rounded. I loved the made up games they played and the way they both were together. They fitted together so greatly and made a very beautiful, very realistic couple.

This is definitely a must for anyone interested in the LGBT genre, whatever your sexuality, it's a truly wonderful story.

For all that I began to explore LGBT literature when I was in high school as a queer teenager trying to understand myself, I had never read Annie on my Mind before. My high school simply didn't carry it and so my first experiences with queer lit were through Alex Sanchez and Julie Anne Peters. I've always wanted to read the book that was groundbreaking for the queer community, and I've had older queer friends tell me that it was an ESSENTIAL book to be read. So, I was THRILLED to receive this opportunity.

I wasn't let down. Annie on My Mind is an older book and it's incredibly dated. But, considering it has been twenty-five years since it's originally publication, it stands up rather remarkably to the passage of time. I found it to be extremely moving and emotional. I wish that I HAD been able to read this book as a teenager, because I certainly needed it back then. The relationship between Eliza and Annie is beautiful and resonating. There are some harsh, difficult to read moments in this book, but its so true to what life was like for gay people and especially gay teenagers during the AIDs crisis. I cried several times, but that is to be expected when a book is as emotionally gut-wrenching and wonderful as this book is.

We love the updated cover., it's an important addition to our LGBTQ collection.

I was unable to review this book because of a conflict in my schedule. Sorry for any inconvenience this has caused the publisher or the author of the work. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to review for you and I look forward to reviewing for you in the future.

I didn't know this was a classic when I first requested it, the new edition makes it look like a modern YA contemporary book. But I can understand why it is considered a classic, specially in lesbian literature. Annie on my mind tells the story of Liza and Annie, two girls in New York who fall in love for the first time. It is written in a retrospective manner, when Liza, already in college, writes letters to Annie that she doesn't dare to send. I loved how we get to witness them falling in love, but also the problems they face (about accepting their own sexuality, physical intimacy and coming out). For those of you worried, the ending is PERFECT.

This is a wonderful little YA book - the perfect thing to give a young lesbian or bi girl in her adolescence. It's a very simple story, about two teen girls who fall for each other and what happens when the world finds out before they're ready - a bit of romance, a bit of coming of age, a bit of self-discovery. It's as much about Liza's growth as a young woman finding her identity as it is about her relationship with Annie. Very much a product of the early 80s, the novel reads as so stock-standard a gay teen story I didn't particularly feel much for it - but it is one of the classics, one of the trailblazers that created this famous narrative. So, I can go with it. But, really, the storyline that unfolds - it's not that dated, I can see it happening in 2010s NYC too, if adjusted a little for technology. It has wonderful messages about homosexuality, warm and understanding above all, very rarely preachy - just indignant that the world treats us this way when same-sex love is natural, good and wonderful.

I wish I had read it when I was younger. But it did this wonderful thing that I can only appreciate now I'm older - this thing where the girls in this novel seek out lesbian fiction and magazines, desperate to find something else that understand them, something that reflects them, and I so vividly remember doing the same thing when I was a teen, hungry for LGBT fiction, so I wouldn't feel so alone. And then this book, for decades, has been one of those books in turn, letting young lesbians and bisexuals feel more comfortable with themselves. And, ah. It did that.

Also, the new cover edition is so nice, I hope it attracts a whole new generation of readers :')