Delayed Review.

I did not know what to expect going into this book. I thought maybe it could be a Dear Mr. Henshaw situation. And to a degree it was. I loved the epistolary style. But more than anything I loved the clear strong voice of Brynn. A young woman finding her place in a world completely changed by grief. I would recommend this to any young person who feels on the "outside" especially if they are a member of the LGBTQ+ community. I really loved how it handled grief and the importance of friendships/chosen family when your blood family is perhaps not there. Love it recommend it!

Unfortunately Dear Rachel Maddow wasn’t for me when I gave it a read—I think other YA contemporary fans will enjoy this voicey book!

This book was absolutely fantastic. I've already added it to our library collection and will recommend it to students.

Purchased for the 2019/2020 school year. A book A writing style that is growing more popular in my school each year and a character that more than a few students will relate to and or want to learn from!

It is Pride Month and the Supreme Court ruled earlier this week that a bakery that didn’t want to bake a wedding cake for a gay couple should have been given further due process under state law rather than just ruling that discriminating against gay couples is against the Constitution. A senator was subsequently kicked out of a refugee facility, but not before his staff noticed that children forcibly separated from their parents were being kept in cages. The Secretary of Education has quietly removed 72 protections for disabled children in public schools. Everywhere you look these days, there is a new reason for outrage and we must all develop coping mechanisms or we will most certainly go mad. That’s where Dear Rachel Maddow comes into play.

Many of us are suffering the psychological and legislative trauma of this administration. I fear that some of us may not make it out and constantly have anxiety that we won’t show up to the polls in November. Taking action may not be the only step to take–sometimes you need an outlet, a motivation to kick your butt in gear. This book may just be what times who feel hopeless are looking for. I am going to write you a letter and tell you why.

Dear Readers,

Today, I am featuring a topical book for 2018. It is also a heartwarming and life-affirming book, which we need more than ever. Every point in history may seem most dire and brutal, but here is nothing like the immediacy of watching your world crumble by the sidelines.

Enter Brynn Harper. Brynn is a girl on the edge–stuck with a less than ideal home life, a mother who can’t be bothered and a terrible step father, struggling with her brother’s death by overdose, dealing with the heartbreak of the loss of first love, stuck in remedial classes, bombarded by her everyday high school life. Once she is assigned to write an email to her hero, she begins a diary of unsent emails to Rachel Maddow.

Rachel embodies so many qualities that Brynn relates to and admires–she shares her political leanings, does what she loves by going on the air every night, she is a lesbian. Rachel becomes Brynn’s confidant, unbeknownst to her and while it is intriguing to read, it is also heartbreaking.

Brynn is adrift in her grief and loss. She does not have a pillar of strength to lean on when she needs it most and her unsent emails to Rachel unwittingly become her diary. Brynn is a wily and sarcastic sort, but she’s also vivacious and adventurous. She fights back we she encounters her arch-nemesis, Adam, intent on using school politics and policies for his own gain. Her ex-girlfriend, Sarah, who dumped Brynn is bitten back every time Brynn encounters her. I wondered, as I read, how they keep her from their lives because Brynn is a force of a human being. Someone who walks into the room and commands your attention–whether it be through her snark or her compassion. And when momentum builds, she must find the strength to fake her way through some obstacles she never intended, but faced with the alternative, she was the only one to step up. This book is entertaining and life-affirming, even through the terrible rough patches Brynn runs across. Overall, Brynn is all of us in a difficult situation and she fakes it until she makes it just like the rest of us.

There will always be a little piece of Brynn in my heart and I wholeheartedly hope you’ll read this book and carry her with you as well. Rachel would be proud.

~Carmen

This book was both cute and intense. Our protagonist's psyche was deeply affected when her brother died of a drug overdose. Her academic performance is affected by her emotional malaise and friends and lovers fell by the wayside. It doesn't help that her mother and stepfather barely pay attention to her.

She is now in a program for students who need extra help. One of her assignments leads her to keep an epistolary diary in the form of letters to MSNBC's Rachel Maddow. (Letters that are kept in the narrator's draft folders.) It it through these letters that we grow to love her, her friends, and the adults who care about her. It is through these letters that we learn of her frustrations and feel impotent at the fact that we cannot advice her (even though her peer support network does a good job at keeping her in check). It is through these letters that we see her discover who she is and who the people around her are.

A charming story of one woman who witnesses injustice and wants to change it. Done in many letters to her hero, Rachel Maddow this is a fun, fresh story.

This was a very creative way to tell a story. I enjoyed the journal entries layout and thought it was a rather entertaining read.

Realistic - the characters, the premise, and the ending. I appreciate this authentic voice and so will my students.

I am a fan of Rachel Maddow. I liked reading her name mentioned on every page, but that's about it. I was hoping for a little...more. Not that the author can write conversations between Rachel and Brynne--I get that.

But the whole premise of the school newspaper just felt a little contrived. I just don't think school newspapers are as important to schools or students as they are in this book. And I don't think the idea of students wanting to serve on a superintendent search committee is all that compelling.

I liked Brynne; she was spunky, she had a bad home life, she wasn't a stellar student... she was realistic. A couple of things that Adam did in seriousness were actually laughable, and I questioned the teacher's feedback on Bynne's emails (and other school officials' reactions to things), but other than that, everyone seemed very true-to-life.

It's a solid teenage angst book.
I would not choose this book for my middle school because of the numerous F bombs.

I wanted to love this one so badly but I just couldn’t connect with the MC. I’m usually okay with alternative storyforms. Sadly, the emails ended up just bugging me. Cute and unique plot but I just didn’t get along with the characterization

I loved this book! The full review will be posted soon at kaitgoodwin.com/books! Thank you very much for this wonderful opportunity to connect books to their readers!

Loved Dear Rachel Maddow. It's an engaging epistolary novel tackling many relevant topics. I loved that in spite of such a public figure being such a spectre in the title, this story was all Brynn--who can definitely hold her own.

Dear Rachel Maddow is a contemporary realistic fiction story featuring a lesbian, African-American protagonist. Brynn, whose brother died of an OD. As a result, Brynn has lost her will to care about anything, especially her grades, so she is in remedial classes. However, the other students and the peer tutors who frequent the Blue Room are her people: they support one another and lift one another up. Now, she is running for student body president because the only other candidate is a complete douchenozzle who has enacted voter ID “laws” for school elections. Brynn wants to be the voice of all students of the school, while her opponent only cares about his select group, his honor kids cronies. But, the election quickly becomes dirty thanks to some underhanded smear tactics and the typical high school rumor mill. Will Brynn win the election? She certainly seems to be on the right track thanks to her devotion to Rachel Maddow, from whom she is learning top notch political strategies. However, Brynn has more than just evil election opponents against her: an abusive step-father, an uncaring mother, a treacherous ex-girlfriend, and failing grades will make it difficult for Brynn to find success.

Dear Rachel Maddow feels extremely timely as we finish out the first half of President Donald Trump's first (and hopefully only) term. Brynn's opponent --most likely thanks to his father's influence as the reader can see firsthand in his emails to the principal-- utilizes some very dirty tactics in his attempt to win the student body president election. Readers who have become more civically engaged in the past several years will recognize many of the fallacies as what they are: thinly veiled allegories for Donald Trump's campaign. As such, those who need a pick-me-up in these times of political unrest will find an ally in Brynn and her letters to Liberal Hero Rachel Maddow.

The majority of Dear Rachel Maddow is told via emails, most of which are from Brynn to Rachel Maddow (and are unsent and left sitting in her drafts box). However, there are others, too: emails received by the principal, by Brynn's favorite teacher, to and from Brynn's girlfriend, and others. As I've grown away from my own teenage years, I've come to avoid epistolary YA novels. However, Dear Rachel Maddow is exceptional. The emails don't inhibit the plot or the pace of the story. However, I'm glad that Kisner also includes typical narration, as it helps break up the epistolary style and keeps the pace consistent and the voice more objective than the expletive-laden emails from Brynn are.

In all, I'd recommend Dear Rachel Maddow to die-hard liberals/Democrats or those who aren't sure of their political affiliation but are interested in learning more about civic engagement and/or student government. This is definitely one of those books that is for a limited audience; but that doesn't make it unimportant or unnecessary.

It took me a while to get into this - I don't know if it was the epistolary format or that, in the beginning, Brynn seemed fairly unlikable. But, as the story went on and I learned more about what Brynn was going through, I came to see her in a more sympathetic light. Her resilience and determination to come out on top won me over in the end.

I definitely enjoyed this book! The style was a little different and sometimes hard to read, but I liked the idea and storyline.

Dear Rachel Maddow tells the story of Brynn, a junior in High School. Brynn had a good life, but when her brother Nick died a year ago, her life started falling apart. Now she’s on the “Applied” track at school, her first girlfriend has broken up with her, she’s kicked off the school newspaper, and her abusive and manipulative parents are driving her up the wall. She’s looking forward to turning eighteen when she can finally move out of her house and possibly drop out of high school. After being assigned to write to her personal hero, Rachel Maddow, for an assignment, and after being overjoyed at receiving a reply, Rachel begins to keep a journal of letters to Rachel about her struggles in High School journalism and politics that she never sends.

For being a fairly short read, Dear Rachel Maddow packs a punch. A story about queer teens resisting and becoming political. It's just perfect, okay?
It also feels highly realistic to actual teenage experience. It's almost like the author sat down and just told the story word for word from an actual teenager. And that's rare with YA lit. *applause*

Now, it took me a loonnngggg while to warm up to Brynn. She's a bit rough - but then her brother just died a year before. So her rough edges MAKE sense. She also works super hard for what she wants, and loves her craft - journalism. As a journalist myself, I connected with Brynn.
Brynn grows throughout the story, maturing and becoming comfortable with herself and her dreams. I cheered and cried for Brynn.
I'm not a huge fan of underdog stories, because often they feel unrealistic. But Brynn, as the school underdog, reluctant to combat the heavily popular kids, drew me in. Her fight felt real and I was on the edge of my seat cheering for her. Go Brynn!

And the teachers? They were PERFECT! It's not often that I run into a book with epic high school teachers. But Dear Rachel Maddow is one of this great books with great adults. I mean, not all the adults were awesome. But Brynn had fantastic role models.

There's also romance, which is sweet and cute, and adorably funny. Brynn is just adorable, okay?

I felt like this was the perfect time for this kind of book to releases. Political and queer and meant for teens. I think everyone should give it a read.

Now, I'm rating it four stars, not because the story wasn't worth 5 stars, but because some fo the formatting was annoying and hard to read sometimes.

This book was written in the forms of (mainly) unsent emails to Rachel Maddow. Brynn,the main character, writes to Rachel about the way her life has gone to hell. Once an honor student, now she is all remedial classes. She is no less intelligent, but after her brother's death and her breakup with her first serious girlfriend, what's the point? It's not like her mother or stepfather care whether she does well or not. Then there is the class election coming up. And there's a new girl she's interested in. And maybe there is a point to things after all?

The narrator's voice is strong and clear. I felt myself cheering for Brynn as she navigates all the pitfalls of her life. The characters mainly ring true The "villain" is a little too stereotypical, but no one likes him anyway. This was a fun book to read and I recommend it.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC. Sorry it took so long. I want Goodreads to know that I, once again, am asking for .5 star ratings. Please.
I am giving this a 3.5. I could even go as high as four, but I am not a huge fan of the epistolary format. I think it was done in a clever way here, but then there were the few moments when the emails were not Brynn's and there is no way she could have gotten those. I think they just needed to be left out and those things could have been explained by Justin who seemed to know everything anyway.

There is a lot of good in this book. The idea that people should take a stand is important. The idea that journalism is not dead is important. The idea that you make your own family is important. The idea that you play with the hand your are dealt and make the most of it, even if you have to bluff a lot, is important. I liked the side characters. Lacey is really excellent. Mr. Grimm is as well. Overall, I will be first in line to request Ms. Kisner's new book when it comes out.

In the meantime, hand this to a teenager who is having a rough go. So you know, any random teenager will do. S/he will appreciate it.

A thoughtful look at the life of a gay high school girl who's fighting against a system that seems to be stacked against her. Set in contemporary times, I imagine there will be many readers who need this story of working to make the world more just, even when the odds are slim.

Not what I was expecting, but a pleasant book about a student who expresses her feelings regarding life in a series of (mostly) unsent emails to her hero, Rachel Maddow. A quick, entertaining read.