I LOVE that this memoir is in verse! I feel like it wouldn't have the same impact if it was written a different way.

I've never really read something that shows how sexuality is much more of a fluid thing and not just black and white, that you can really love a person as a person. The ups and downs and complexities of Max and Emily's relationship is really FELT throughout the book. I definitely teared up during several parts of this, the author really makes you feel the heartbreak.

Thank you netgalley and publishers for the opportunity to review this book.

‘Be Straight With Me’ is a beautiful memoir told in verse and it really touched me. It’s a lovely but heartbreaking exploration of sexuality and the author reveals a lot about their personal experiences.

It frequently reminded me of ‘Just Kids’ by Patti Smith and I think this is one of the reasons I enjoyed it so much. ‘Be Straight With Me’ is a quick read but it is packed with lots of emotion. I definitely recommend it if you’re looking to read a memoir which is unique, tender and honest.

Relatable, heart warming and heart breaking, giving us real life experiences in an up and down love story where you simultaneously want them to end up together and also not end up together.

This memoir is a display of love, loss, and finding yourself through all of it. It displays the realities of sexual orientation being on a spectrum, that loving the “person” is possible and also sometimes impossible.

I was rooting for Emily the whole way along, but for Emily to find and be Emily. The courage in this memoir is apparent and in the end of I was proud of her.

A sincere collection with some especially potent poems within. There was a lot to like here and I'd like to come back to it sometime, but unfortunately I won't be finishing it for the time being.

This is a very interesting poetry collection. You can tell that it is very personal, which easily helps the reader connect with the author. Though this isn't the type of poetry I usually read, I enjoyed reading this book. Rating: 3/5 stars

The beats and rhythms of a college "finding oneself through an intense relationship" story are pretty standard, but this one distinguished itself in two ways. First the use of (really good!) poetry to show the important college, post-college, and childhood moments that defined and shaped both the relationship and the growth or the narrator. A straightforward telling of the story would not have been half as interesting. And the fact that the people in the relationship were portrayed as being so complex, non-standard, flawed, interesting, loving, and heartbreaking made this rise above what could have been a cliche. Highly recommended!

I received a copy of this e-book ARC through NetGalley in exchange for an honest opinion.

Let me start by saying I don't normally read poetry books. I do, however, love memoir as a genre, so I thought this story sounded intriguing. So many women today have that gay best friend and sidekick and soulmate, but his was such a unique book. The complex romantic relationship between Max and Emily can draw you in but this author had a way in her poetry to really describe heartbreak that you feel inside as you read. You think the author is making a bad choice of youth on one page and the next you tear up as you realize she is starting to get it too. The past was interspersed throughout with flashbacks of previous boyfriends throughout her youth. I was rooting for her by the end and ever hopeful that somehow, some way, Max and Emily would figure it all out and defy the odds.

Unusual memoir-in-verse that tackles a universal predicament - falling in love with the perfect person for you, except they're not perfect for you, oh wait no they ARE perfect, oh wait no they're not but we love eachother anyway, and so on.

Max is gay, and Emily (the author) is straight. But then they fall in love anyway. Actually, this book doesn't handle sexuality in such a black and white manner, it fully acknowledges that sexuality flows on a spectrum. Actually actually, this is a book about love, and how complicated it can get.

The verse form works a treat - if you want to be really obstinate, you can basically read it as prose, but you'd be missing something. The verse form makes everything feel careful and delicate, as if the author is trying to feel things out, moving through a darkened room without touching any of the furniture (I guess the furniture is love..?).

A book for anyone who has ever been in love.