I have so much love for this book, I’m not even sure where to start. Let’s just make a list and get through it step by step.

1) The writing style is really cool. It’s first person pov, which I know isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but it works perfectly here. It’s clear that Montgomery knows how teenagers think, so it’s never awkward in that particular way only some YA books can be. Instead, it’s fresh & funny & casual. It’s like hanging out with a friend, basically. And then you get treated with a beautiful sentence here and there & it becomes magical.


2) From the first word to the very last, this book is just unapologetically Black. You can feel that pride in the culture seeping out of every paragraph, but it also doesn’t shy away from dealing with some uncomfortable parts of belonging to the community. It’s actually a whole arc, with Torrey trying to save the apiary and not always getting the support he’s looking for from members of that community. 

3) At the same time, there are still a lot of people who are willing to help him. And the majority of them are women, which Torrey is very much aware of in his narration. It basically feels like a love letter to Black women & it doesn’t just stop with that one arc or just one generation of women – Torrey appreciates the friends he made at college just as much as the women he grew up around. It’s woven into the whole book, into the very essence of Torrey even – this deep appreciation of all the work that Black women do.

4) This social awareness he displays doesn’t stop there, either. The book full-on calls out white people on all the little (and big) ways we exhibit racism in our day to day lives. Personally, I appreciated that a lot. It always worked perfectly well the topic at hand, too. Actually, one of the main topics of the book is pretty much a call-out of white, western culture: gentrification. The book shows how this “trend” destroys whole communities, while also saying “hey, you can fight back”.

5) The romance is kind of central to the plot, only by central I don’t mean that it’s the tired “will they, won’t they” dance. The opposite, really. Torrey and Gabriel get together pretty soon in the book and it’s their love that helps Torrey to push forward. The romance is central in a way that it acts as an anchor for Torrey. It’s central in a way that it’s a big part of Torrey’s life and focuses him. It’s never the magical cure for all his problems & actually causes some of its own, but it’s important. It’s shown as the complex thing that it should be.

I’m not trying very hard, but I just can’t find any faults in this book. If you’re Black, I’m pretty sure reading it would feel like a warm hug, like someone is looking out for you, but also like a push to action. If you’re not, like me, you might just learn something. In any case, it’s a really well written book about a Black gay freshman in college trying to balance all the things in his life & you don’t wanna miss out on that.

Full of both contemporary and historical issues, as well as some romance, this was a thoroughly enjoyable read and one that I think my students will really enjoy!

I am so glad this book exists. I loved reading about a response to gentrification from the inside. I also loved reading about two boys falling in love. The voice was incredible and will be hard to forget.

I have mixed feelings about this one.

I thought the writing was okay, though there were some formatting and grammatical issues, which I don’t know whether they are limited to ARC copies. For instance, the first letter of the start of each chapter was missing.

The plot itself was relatively interesting and I was really interested by the romance. However, it felt at times as though we were missing some information. For instance the introduction of the side characters and love interest didn’t really feel like an ‘introduction’, more like a second book introduction to them. And along with that the depiction of university life just didn’t seem real or accurate, like maybe there wasn’t enough research done? Now I didn’t attend an American uni but I did 4 years at university and I know for certain that no lecturer would A) know students at the beginning of term by name and B) call students out for being late and forcing them to arrive to lectures earlier. It just doesn’t happen. Lecturers and even tutors have too much on their plate to care about individual students like that. At a university level it becomes up to the student to do the work. If they’re not there, they aren’t there. Simple. So that was really quite annoying to read, a small thing but for me, an important setting aspect.

Overall, I would recommend this to anyone looking for more queer, new adult romances.

 I was given an ARC copy of By any means necessary via Netgalley for an honest review.

I was drawn in with how heftily this book was packed as far as current and historical issues goes. The main character was amazing and it did not take me long to get invested in the story.