Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to read an ARC of Like Other Girls!

I absolutely loved this book!! I've been reading a lot of contemporary YA lately focusing on LGBTQ+ issues, and even though there are so many amazing ones coming out right now, Like Other Girls still stands out from the pack. Everything about this book feels real and important, and I'm so glad this book exists both for the girls who see themselves in Mara Deeble and for everyone else who needs to see girls like Mara not only existing, but thriving. I think it is deeply important for society, and teens especially, to learn that there is more than one way to be a girl, and this book does a great job of giving us that lesson in a beautiful, relatable way.

I also especially loved all the relationships that developed throughout the book. Mara's relationship with her family, and especially her mom, is both heartbreaking and heartwarming, and I loved watching Mara struggle to show her family her true identity. I also loved Mara's friendships with the boys and the girls on the football team, and I loved seeing how those relationships grew and changed as Mara got to know both herself and her teammates better. The female friendships were especially beautifully done, and I also liked the quiet romantic feelings that crept up on Mara over the course of the book.

This is truly a special book, and I would recommend it to everyone!!

This book follows Mara Deeble who gets kicked off her school basketball team and is trying to find a way back on the team. Her coach tells her that she has to play a team sport and stay out of trouble. Mara makes it through one day of volleyball when she decides it isn’t for her. She decides she is going to go out for the football team. Her best friend, Quinn and brother, Noah tell her they think it is a great idea because they don’t really think she is going to follow through with it. Mara follows through and quickly considers herself as part of the team and even one of the guys.

Word gets out and Carly (who is not high on Mara’s list of people to be around) and a few of her friends decide they are going to join the football team too. This creates a huge issue for Mara and now she is forced to be one of the girls while she is trying to distance herself from the political statement that Carly is trying to mark.

I didn’t love this book, but I also didn’t hate it. It was an easy read and kept me interested. I enjoyed the different personalities of the girls. The characters were well developed and I enjoyed the sports aspect of the book.

TW: homophobia, sexual harassment, misogyny

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Thank you, NetGalley, Disney Publishing Worldwide and Freeform, for the chance to read and review this book!

TW: sexism, sexual harrassment, violence, homophobia

After getting kicked off the basketball team for a fight, Mara has to prove to her coach that she can be a team player, so she decides to join the football team, along with her brother and her best friend Quinn, discovering she's a natural. But other girls decide to join the team and soon her choice becomes a politcal statement, triggering a chain of events in her small Oregon town and in her family and friends. Things are even more complicated since Mara's crush, Valentina, is now part of the team, and so is her nemesis, Carly. Soon the football team is divided between girls and boys and those who accept them and those who are willing to do anything in their power to kick them out. Mara has to face herself, her family and the people to be who she is and do what she loves.

I loved reading Like other girls, Mara is a fantastic and complex main character and she was forced to face her preconceptions about gender, sport, sexuality and friendships. She has always preferred having boys as friends, shunning other girls and having strong opinions about their passions and how they act and they wear.
Mara isn't like the girl her mother wants her to be. She hates dresses and heels, she doesn't like makeup and talking about boys and, when other girls join the football team, she is irritated she's seen as "one of them", as someone who doesn't know football and can't play properly.
Mara struggles with her family, her absent father, her distant and jealous brother, her bigot (and frankly) a bit homophobic mother, who wants to force her to dress and act according to her vision of what girls should do, dress and act, blackmailing and hurting her, refusing to accept her as herself and her passion. At the same time, though, Mara has also preconceived notions about gender and sexuality and, during the book, she will learn to be more open and to accept that being a girl doesn't mean only dress or act feminine and doing "girly sports".

Mara is forced to face her family and friends, while fighting to be who she is, finding new friends and allies (I loved her relationship with Jupiter) and proving to herself she can do anything and during the whole book the characters change and grow up, revealing their true nature in their intricacies and complexities, disappointing and surprising her.

I also loved how Mara realizes the people who truly love and support her and the female friendships, their bond and love is truly amazing. I've also loved the slow burn and the cute love story, while Mara discovers and understands more about herself and her sexuality.

In this coming- of- age the author addresses many important themes, like sexism, sexual harassment, homophobia and violence. Mara is angry, she's upset, she feels trapped in her small town, by her mother, her desires and her fears to be who she really is, to be open about her sexuality and passions, about what she wants to do and dress and cut her hair. Claustrophobic and forced to act, dress and be someone she's not, Mara fights to be who she is and, while the football was a way to get back to the basketball team, it opens a new world for her. A world where she will learn who her real friends are, what unity and support means, who to be who she is and be finally free.
I love the way the author talks about the misconceptions surrounding being a girl and what a girl should do, dress, act and play to be accepted. Mara, and after her example, Valentina, Carly, River and Tayley, fight against these precoinceived notions, proving they can enjoy dresses and makeup and still play sports considered "for men" (like football) and be good at them, they can be flirt and be cheerleaders and refusing to accept sexism and violence. There's nothing girls can't do and this book is truly perfect.

I totally recommend this book to those who are looking for strong and stubborn female characters, brilliant plot and wonderful characterization, in a captivating, thrilling and amazing book about fighting for oneself and one's passions.

This book is such a great representation of so many different things. I just love that it has a young lady who knows who she is but she is battling coming out to her family, yet at the same time learning to embrace who she truly is and what she truly wants. I love that you have non binary, butch, and feminine representations from the LGBTQ community. This book just touches on a lot of the things that someone looking for representation in literature might be looking for. I also love that Mara learns what real friendship is and how to find friends who not only respect her, but embrace her. This just a well done book. Thank you so much for allowing me to advance copy..

Loved this YA about a queer girl whose family refuses to accept her. It must be so difficult to young teens in this situation and I hope this story helps them realize to be themselves no matter what. I loved the message it sent and the story was so inspiring!

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Football was just a means to an end for Mara...she just wanted back on the basketball team. Playing football with her buddies was always a blast, and it beat the heck out of volleyball and their skimpy uniforms. She'd always been "one of the guys," and it seemed like a great fit. Little did she know she would be dealing with misogyny and homophobia, all the while becoming a symbol for girls everywhere and, oh yea, dealing with the fact that she has just discovered she likes girls. Yeah, your typical high school experience - NOT!
Like Other Girls encompasses many aspects of life in high school: fitting in, friendships and friend drama, and school sports. But it takes it all a step further, with the main character's exploration of her identity as an LGBT+ person and as a groundbreaking young woman in her community and in her new sport. There are serious topics tackled here...not a light read, but done in such a compelling way. Mara and all of the other characters have depth and personality. Best of all, they stand up to the status quo and fight for what's right. A great high school read - loved this book!

4 stars

Oh, this is a glorious addition to the Wonderful World of LGBTQIA+ rep in YA, and I'm glad I overlooked my utter disinterest in sports - especially football - and dove into this one. It was absolutely worth it.

Mara, the main character, lives in a small rural farming town in Oregon with her parents, her brother, and a lot of folks who possess what I'll diplomatically call traditional ideals about gender...like it's a binary determined by one's assigned sex. Bleh. Mara knows she does not fit the mold that her mother and other community members have for her, and Lundin expertly demonstrates Mara's painful discomfort around her mom's attempt at forcing aspects of a gender expression that could not be more ill fitting for Mara's gender identity. The discord is palpable, and Lundin provides enough examples to appeal to those who dwell in similar spaces and those who are completely new to all of this. An utter highlight is Mara's relationship with Jupiter, a character who gives Mara one ring of keys moment after another and who reflects generally who and what is possible for Mara at some stage. I am dying for a sequel to this novel on its own merit, but I would also absolutely love more on Jupiter and Reese in general. Bring them all back!

The running example of Mara's UN-likeness to other girls is her decision to join the football team at her high school. This choice stems from her desire to get back on women's basketball (see the first couple of pages), but it evolves into so much more. Other women identifying classmates get involved in different ways, and the preexisting teammates participate in distinct levels of support and foolishness. There's enough variety in various characters' behaviors to make most of them feel round and realistic, and I love that Lundin provides so many different character types for relatability and for vicarious problem solving/empathy building.

I'd have loved to get to know these characters even better, and I think there is an ideal setup for a sequel here (though I see no evidence thus far that this is the plan). This is a solid YA read for all of the standard reasons, and the representation is an added bonus. Recommended!

Trigger Warning: misogyny, homophobia, forced kissing/touching, sexual harassment

When Mara gets kicked off the basketball team for punching her own teammate (she was concussed, still not an excuse), she is told she has one chance to get on the basketball team next year: join a team sport in the fall, and don't get into any fights. It quickly becomes apparent that volleyball is not an option, so when Mara's best friend Quinn mentions the football team, Mara agrees. She just likes being one of the guys anyway, she's tall, she can take a hit, and she's been playing ball with her brother and Quinn her entire life. But when four other girls—inspired by her badassery—join her, Mara is less than thrilled. Now she's one of the girls and making a political statement, when she just wants to play ball and get on the team.

I really enjoyed this—to the point where I stayed up until an unheard-of (for me) on in the morning. At first, Mara was annoying as hell with her I'm NOT like other girls attitude, but thankfully that slowly changes as she gets her head out of her ass and starts seeing things for real.

The other girls on the team were pretty fantastic, however I'm still upset by the adults, who all literally did nothing to help make things better and refused to help or see what was going on, but gave the boys multiple passes for their awful behavior. Unfortunately, when in a small (smallish, as there are apartment buildings and a hospital), conservative town, that's not unexpected.

I did, however, really love Jupiter, who was the Miss Honey to Mara's sporty Matilda. Their relationship was fantastic, and I did feel relief when Jupiter addressed the parental approval and weirdness of a 35-year-old queer lady around a 16-year-old after midnight in a conservative town.

I also liked the slow burn romance, and the way the book examined friendships and family relations. Mara slowly—so slowly—begins to realize that just because a girl is a girly girl, that doesn't mean she's not tough or can't hack it. It doesn't mean that she's not worthy of respect. And she also starts to see the true colors of her male friends, which had been before her the entire time and which she'd excused. Not to mention, she must navigate her relationship with her mom, who is a conservative, church-going woman who wants a daughter in her image and fears for her own reputation if people see Mara acting like a boy (her mom is not bad, per se, but it is heartbreaking how she refuses to understand or really accept Mara for who she is, and wants to change her into the "right" mold for being a girl).

Anywho, I think what really drew me to this book was the setting. It's in rural Oregon, but I kept trying to place where in Oregon, since place names beside Portland weren't really used? However, there are the Cascades mentioned, and conservatives in cowboy hats and cattle/sheep farming, and it's close enough to kiiiiiina commute to Portland and she mentioned south of the Columbia (which is all of Oregon but people in the middle of state have other rivers they ping off of), so I dunno. But really, anywhere east enough of Portland fits the parameters.

I just read Elkhorn and was like, wait a minute, do I know this author? and then she kept with the little clues and I was like nope, too far north.

So that was a ramble. But, if you're looking for something like Dairy Queen and Moxie but make it super gay, this is the book for you. It's solid, not without its flaws, and has a character who really grows up in the pages to realize what is worth fighting for—and how to fight.

This book made me feel seen in so many incredible ways. Mara doesn’t want to be like the other girls, she doesn’t want to be lumped together, she just wants to be seen as one of the guys & get through football season so she can play basketball.
The concept of this book immediately drew me in and it did not disappoint. I loved the conversation on femininity and masculinity and our MC learning that she doesn’t have to be “like other girls” to like other girls.
I truly adored the friendships that blossomed from shared experience and Mara learning to let people in. I highlighted a bunch of lines that pointed out how absurd and harmful gender roles can be and thought that was so important to see in a YA novel.
I am so glad that I got to read this one. Though I am not a football player, and never will be, I related to Mara on so many levels. I felt her anger as if it were my own and loved who she loved.
I highly recommend this one if you’re looking for a feminist read that explores gender, sexuality, coming out to yourself & redefining friendships.

When Mara gets kicked off her high school basketball team for fighting, she's devastated. One of the few places in her small, rural, conservative town where she feels comfortable in life is on the court. When Coach tells her she can be on the basketball team again if she plays a team sport in the fall and stays out of trouble, Mara makes it through one day of volleyball practice before determining that the hair bows and mascara on the court are just not for her. Thinking out loud, she mentions she might like to play football. Her brother Noah and her best friend Quinn, both football players, tell her that would be great, neither thinking she'd actually do it. But, after the first week of practice, Mara has begun to establish herself as "one of the guys."

When the school's only "out" lesbian and outspoken feminist, Carly, and a few of her friends realize what Mara is doing, they are inspired and insist on joining the team, too. All of a sudden, Mara is lumped in the four other girls who don't know the rules and can't play worth anything. Now she's angry all the time and instead of just earning a place on the team, Mara has to distance herself from their political statement.

A great book for those who enjoy character development and current issues, this book deals with misogyny, feminism, homophobia, family dysfunction, coming-of-age, coming-out, friendship, and discrimination issues. I particularly appreciated how the author portrays Mara grappling with her own sexuality and being comfortable in her own skin, while appreciating how those around her express their own identities. She discovers both internal and external misogyny and struggles to find a balance.

There's a great deal of actual sports in this book as well, they are not just an afterthought or a vehicle for the author to make a point.

Overall, 4 stars! I definitely recommend this to anyone who enjoys YA lit, coming-of-age stories, sports stories, and feminist lit.

Disclaimer: I received a free electronic copy of this book from the publisher through Netgalley.com in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

I really wanted to like this book. Like, I really really did. This was the last book I completed in my pride month for 2021. I truly don't know what the takeaway is SUPPOSED to be in this book. The side characters (Mara's mom, "best" friend, and others) are so truly awful. Mara has so much internalized homophobia that being in her head 100% of the time is uncomfortable. Now, if that was Lundin's goal, she executed it expertly. I struggled to root for Mara because she treated people so poorly. Everyone treated each other poorly. It was hard. Ultimately this book wasn't for me, football isn't "my sport" to watch or learn about and there was a LOT of football information in here, but I was able to read that and learn something new. Ultimately the characters and the way they treat each other just truly agitated me. The ending doesn't tie things up with a bow, which is fine, very authentic to real life.

Thank you to Lundin, Disney Publishing Worldwide, & netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book and I had a rough start, but I'm so glad I stuck with it!

Like Other Girls tackles (ha) sexism and internalized misogyny head-on, and handles the related but distinct issues very well. There's a lot of much-needed character growth, and by the end, I was cheering for Mara and the rest of the Elkhorn Five.

And if you're worried about understanding all of the football stuff, don't be - I don't know a thing about football and was able to follow pretty much the whole thing anyway!

CW: sexual assault, sexism, homophobia, injury, hospital stay

This was an arc I requested on a whim and expected to dnf. A football romance? Didnt really seem up my alley. I have bee pleasantly surprised that I actually really enjoyed this. It was a bit hard to get through the first half, Mara is struggling with internalized misogony and it makes it hard to read her POV at times. But she undergoes a realistic and authentic character growth and this book turns into a lovely girls supporting girls tale. My only thing that rubbed me wrong is this book ending with them deciding to make a girls team, because despite proving themselves the whole season they say they still aren’t good enough to play on the boys team. I wish instead this book said it was due to wanting a girls only space free of sexism instead of not being “good enough to play with the boys.
I am happy to see butch rep as there isnt much in YA. And I liked the casual enby rep and the butch role model. And I liked that the role model character despite being confident in her queerness was still scared. Made me feel better about my own feelings as a queer adult .

Lundin's sophomore novel beautifully intertwines explorations of gender expression and internalized misogyny with a romantic and sporty romp in this story of a butch lesbian athlete who makes waves when she joins the football team. When Mara gets into a fight on the court and is suspended from basketball, the only way to earn her spot back is to prove she can thrive in team sports. And since she isn't like the softer volleyball girls, Mara opts to throw down and join her brother and her best friend on the football field. What starts as initial wariness at her participation spirals out of control when four other girls jump into the fray and demand their own shot at the team, and soon Mara can't do enough to prove they've got nothing to do with her. But when the very people she's trying to distance herself from become the only people in her corner, Mara's torn between reconciling who she wants to be with who accepts her just as she is.

I absolutely loved this book, and finished it in 2 days.
You can't help but root for Mara throughout the book. Stuck in a small rural town in Oregon, she believes she cannot be herself until she escapes to college. She believes that her brother Noah and best friend Quinn know the real her, but they never talk about Mara being gay.
After she punches a teammate at a basketball game, she is kicked off the team. Coach tells her she can only come back if she can prove she can be a good teammate in a fall sport. The coach was thinking Volleyball, but Mara tries out for the Football team.
Things are going well until 4 other girls show up for practice & Mara is lumped in with the girls who become known as the Elkhorn 5.
She didn't want to inspire an equality movement, she just wanted to play football.

Football practice and games are described in detail from Mara's point of view, along with her struggles with family, friends and teammates.

I will definitely be purchasing this one for my students.

Mara’s never felt like a fit for her conservative, rural Oregon community where it’s hard being a girl who likes girls. After starting a fight while playing on the basement ball team, the coach tells Mara that to play the following year, she must successfully be part of a fall sports team. Older brother Noah is the quarterback and best friend Quinn is on the team, so Mara turns out for football and is making some progress at being “one of the boys” when four other girls decide to turn out as well. The majority of the boys on the team harass the girls; parents and coaches are ineffective or clueless, but a few classmates and community members are supportive and provide hope for creating a more inclusive future.

This book is all about discovery, discovering who you are, who others really are, and how being yourself, whoever that is, will always be the best choice. It is also about accepting yourself and others and the choices they make. Mara is gay, but she hasn't come out, to ANYONE. Her mother disapproves of all nonfeminine dress and behavior, while her father is silently supportive. Mara stumbles though friendships she thought were solid and enemies she thought were unconquerable and finds that people are not always what she thinks.

Mara joins the football team and is then joined by others who find her bucking the system inspirational. Mara finds a mentor who helps her work though her thoughts and, then discovers friends who are willing to support Mara no matter the situation she finds herself in. As Mara finds her way, she also finds her voice. In this coming of age novel, Lundin explores what it means to be a girl, the world of sports, and the complexity of friendship.

What a great novel! This one could be so beneficial for young adults. Not only does this novel talk about football, which I'm not a fan of but now I'm intrigued, but there's so much depth to all of it. This novel takes you through just the daily conflicts of being a teen and in the. Idst of wondering of when to come out. I find the topics interesting as it does remind of what high school students go through, so this is a great book for the classroom!

Family dynamics, being homesexual and just handling everything that comes with high school are themes to discuss. I could see how many lessons came derive from this novel. It is worthwhile to read and I do believe it'll be one the students enjoy as well!

There's a lot to love about this, especially if you're a fan of character growth. It's an honest, nuanced exploration of internalized misogyny from the perspective of a teen butch lesbian, who's grappling with what gender identity means to her and how she can be butch but still respect and appreciate femininity in others.

It's also a great addition to the existing range of queer sports books, especially because there's such a big focus on sports in the book as opposed to more romance-driven stories. Which is not to say there isn't a romance, but it doesn't take the front seat.

In terms of the romance, I would have liked to see more acknowledgment of the intersection of the love interest's queer Asian identity, which is mentioned but never addressed in a meaningful way. I especially didn't like the way the main character, a white girl, saw her as her nemesis before, literally calling her arrogant and aggressive when she was clearly neither. This felt racist to me (although keep in mind I'm a white person so my opinion doesn't hold much weight).

I would also have liked to see more of a resolution in terms of the main character's mother, who's very unsupportive and queerphobic, but I also realize that sometimes it just is that way and isn't ever going to change.

One thing I really liked is that, where most queer YA set in a rural environment has a main character who really wants to get away, this book has a main character who realizes she loves where she lives and she wants this place to make a space for her.

Like Other Girls
⚠️release date: 08/03/21⚠️
Mara Deeble is not your typical girly girl. I'm fact, she's the farthest thing from a girly girl. Mara is teenage girl in a small town in Oregon, with a huge secret that not even her best friend is aware of. Recently having gotten in a fight with a teammate on her basketball team, she is informed that the only way she will be considered to come back for the following season, is to complete a season on another sports team without getting into any trouble. Easy enough right? Her coach tells her that she can join the volleyball team. Volleyball is something so far from an interest to Mara. After just one practice, Mara has an even better idea. Why not try out for football? Not only is she fairly good at it, but it's more up her alley. At first it doesn't seem to be much of an issue to the other guys, but when word gets out, and her thoughts on just wanting to play a sport and be able to prove to her coach she's a team player become more of a revolution, her world starts to take more turns that a merry-go-round. Even bigger, Mara grows more than she ever thought possible. Can Mara make it through the season without getting caught in the crossfire and getting herself into more trouble?
Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book. Being that it's pride month, I wanted to start with a good one, and this was really one I enjoyed. There is a lot more to this book than a girl trying to get back on a sports team. Mara is living in a small town where being different isn't as easy as it seems. Nobody knows her deep secret. She plans on waiting to tell anyone that she's gay until after going away to college, far away from her small town Elkhorn, Oregon. Along her journey in this book, she learns more about herself and who she is, while she becomes more accepting of who she really is and embraces it. She also becomes a part of something much bigger than she ever thought her playing football would become. This book is about sexuality, gender roles, friendships, and more. I definitely recommend this book. It was a great read. I rate it ⭐⭐⭐⭐.