This book and these characters are going to stay with me for a long, long time. After reading Every Variable of Us, Charles A. Bush is now an auto-buy author for me.

This story is so many things: it’s about loss and grief, it’s about abuse and survival, it’s about resilience and adapting to not-so-great circumstances. It’s about gangs and relationships. It’s about fears of what the future holds. It’s about family and the people we hold dear. And it says a lot about race too.

Lex is a seventeen-year-old Black girl who’s caught up in a drive by shooting and shot, ending her basketball career. She’s angry and desperate, and so flawed—but understandable and relatable. Her friends are mostly in the ‘gang culture’ and she thought basketball was her way out of the town. After the shooting, she feels she has nothing. Until new student Aamani introduces her to the STEM team and Lex becomes the final After Philly teenager Alexis Duncan is injured in a gang shooting, her dreams of a college scholarship and pro basketball career vanish in an instant. To avoid becoming another Black teen trapped in her poverty-stricken neighborhood, she shifts her focus to the school's STEM team, a group of nerds seeking their own college scholarships. Academics have never been her thing, but Alexis is freshly motivated by Aamani Chakrabarti, the new Indian student who becomes her mentor (and crush?). Alexis begins to see herself as so much more than an athlete. But just as her future starts to reform, Alexis’s own doubts and old loyalties pull her back into harm’s way member of the team, meaning they qualify for competitions.

The character arc for Lex is phenomenal. She goes from looking down on ‘nerds’ to wanting to study and really cares for her STEM teammates. She goes from nearly failing school to improving her GPA by two points, and she finds her own family among new friends. She struggles to navigate her new life as disabled and the effects this has on her career, future, and self-esteem. She wrestles with her sexuality, afraid of being Black and queer, but eventually choosing to embrace her feelings for Aaamani. She examines how much of her fears and beliefs about not being straight are rooted in ideology and her need to minimise the target on her.

Representation in this book is phenomenal. We’ve got Black characters, Asian characters, disabled characters, and neurodivergent characters. We examine white privilege and straight privilege, and we also look at drug addiction and poverty.

Lex’s mother is an addict and her mother’s boyfriend is abusive. Lex has been in multiple foster homes, at least one of which was also abusive. She’s beaten in this book and moves to a ‘crackhouse’ for safety—but she finds people who care for her and are in a position to look after at the end.

Because Lex undergoes such a strong character transformation, there’s very much her old life vs her new. Her former best friend Britt is deeply embedded in the old life—stealing, dealing drugs, living in an abusive foster home, trying to outwit other gangs—and we see her trying to pull Lex back into this life. These moments really are agonising to read. I was begging Lex to not go back to that, to stay with the STEM team, but of course, she didn’t. It was heartbreaking. And especially when Britt is then killed. I did not see that coming, but really I should have because it was inevitable.

And when Britt is murdered, Lex feels she has no choice but to avenge her—something that Aamani gets roped into when trying to stop her. I could not read fast enough here. So powerful and heartbreaking.

Aamani herself is also a great character. She’s Hindu and experiences racism, especially when other characters think she’s Muslim. In the story, she comes out as lesbian first to Lex and then to her parents—and her parents don’t accept it at all. We see Aamani struggling with this and the marriage her parents arrange for her, all the while trying to be Lex’s STEM tutor.

Matthew is on the STEM team and he’s Autistic. There’s an Author’s Note at the start of this book about this representation, emphasising it’s not own-voices autism rep. I loved Matthew’s character and Lex’s friendship with him, but I have seen a few autistic reviewers saying his character is a little stereotypical in places.

Lindsay is also another STEM team member, and Lex doesn’t get on with her at all at first, viewing her as a privileged white girl. Lindsay does seem cold and quite against Lex most of the time, but when we see her family it makes sense. She lives with parents who verbally (and maybe physically?) abuse each other. They have little money and live in a very dangerous neighbourhood. Lindsay is worn out and emotionally exhausted. Her collected, cold persona at school is a facade, and Lex acknowledges that she’s impressed that Lindsay has survived where she’s living.

And the love story. It’s a slow-build f/f between Lex and Aamani, and it challenges a lot of Lex’s misconceptions and her own stereotypes. Lex comes out as bisexual toward the end, as her relationship with Aamani has given her the courage to do this.

There is just so much packed into this story, and I wasn’t expecting it.

A cute read. Beautiful representation and lovely own voices read. This is the book that I needed in my queer young adulthood. The challenges that LGBTQIA teens deal with can mold them into harsh adults or kind ones. This book was everything and I will recommend.

Every Variable of Us follows a young black woman, Lex, who is trying to get out of her bad home life by getting a basketball college scholarship. After she is injured in a drive-by shooting, she is unable to play and finds herself in the unlikely position of being invited to join the school's STEM team by a new student Aamani.

As their friendship grows, Lex realises she has romantic feelings for Aamani and struggles to come to terms with her queerness. This book addresses many issues: racism in America, poverty, addiction, gang violence and homophobia. It does so very well and this book is a great read for both young adults and adults as well.

I found it a little slow to start and it took me a while to get into it, but by the end I was really rooting for Lex and Aamani.

Every Variable of Us is such a unique YA novel. It's set in Philly and follows Alexis, a teenager injured in a gang shooting. When her dreams of a college scholarship and pro basketball career vanish with the shot of a gun, she decides to join her school's STEM team. This is where she meets her new mentor and crush, although the pull of her former life gets harder to ignore.

This book is at times humorous, at others raw and heartbreaking. The first chapter is designed to pull readers in and the rest of the book continues at the same fast pace. Alexis is an interesting and flawed main character and I empathised with her struggle with her identity as she realises she may be queer. Her character development is great and she's surrounded by a great cast of supporting characters too.

If you enjoy YA coming-of-age novels that don't shy away from topical current issues, check out Every Variable Of Us. It's honest, thought-provoking and ultimately heartwarming. Also, don't miss Bush's author's note.

This was a very stunning and important debut from Charles Bush. I really enjoyed the story and the struggles of the main character felt very real and flushed out. Highly recommend.

Thank you to Netgalley for this eARC in exchange for an honest review!

the storyline was interesting but the contemporary writing style was not for me. the main romance was adorable though.

A really powerful story about perserverance! I loved following along Alexis' story and seeing her relationship with Aamani blossom. I think this is such a crucial story for young black queer teens, especially if they are interested in sports!

"For all the queer Black kids scared of not being accepted: you belong, and you have it in you to and do anything."


Alexis is injured in a gang shooting, which crushes her dreams of a college scholarship and pro basketball career which was her chance to get out of her poverty-stricken neighborhood, and her drug-addicted mother. But, here comes Aamani Chakrabarti, (the new Indian student) who becomes her mentor.....

Initially, I was thrown off by the Islamophobia and xenophobia in the book. Almost everything about it was too stereotypical, and I found it uncomfortable to read. But it got better, thankfully.

"It's a bit elitist to group culture and religion together based solely on the way someone looks. That's the very definition of discrimination."

I came to enjoy the character development, diversity and representation, love the pop culture references that had me howling, and Queerness/being queer in the Black community.

"I have it hard enough being Black in America, let alone Black and bi. People around here clown queer people because they don't understand it - shit like pause and having to say no homo after everything."

Love the entire STEM members and the way they all grew to form a loving friendship among themselves and help each other grow. I did learn a few things from these smart kids too 😅. The author did amazing writing on this part.

Aamani is my favorite character. But I loved seeing Alexis grow, make better life decisions for herself and rely on others.

This book handled a lot of heavy themes, which I do not feel I can really comment on, but I do think they were handled respectfully and honestly. I loved that it featured athletes and f/f romance, but I just struggled to fully connect at times. Overall, I did enjoy the story and think it is a book that most people would really love.

The premise of this book seemed very promising. I certainly loved the diversity and the enemies to lovers trope. Unfortunately the book ended up falling flat for me, the writing seemed a bit clanky and I found it very hard to connect to the main character due to the prejudiced view of the world that she seems to have. Overall I'm sure this book would be enjoyable for someone that likes a true hate to love storyline.

Can I just scream and shout my undying love for Aamani? Because I love her!
This book made me sob… Like a lot. Over and over.
But then it also made me feel so may other things that my stomach felt warm and fuzzy and I wanted something like what Lex has with her new friends.
I cannot express how much I love happy endings that aren’t fully and outrageously unreal and unhappy but just what the characters deserved and needed.
Lex went through SOO much. She deserved every win she received. Even when everything was ripped from her hands she worked for what she needed. She worked for what she wanted because she knew she could. She wanted more than to just survive.
Each character was written so beautifully and was very complex while also being heartbreakingly accurate. Teens are very ignorant while claiming to be “woke” they say ignorant things while believing that they aren’t being harmful because they themselves are a minority but Bush helps these characters learn and grow so well.
I was so proud to read about Lex’s character growth and her redemption, I felt like a big sister.
if there’s ever talk about an Every Variable of Us movie. I want to play Lex please and thank you!

♤ review: it was hard for me to get through this book because it showed the brutal truth so nicely. This is a great diversed book - with a black main character and a desi love interest.

It shows the world exactly how it's and i could never relate to alexis's situation. I felt for her character and i know she's gonna stay with me for a long time.

The book had kept me hooked, and this was one of the book i read long ago but couldn't forget about it. I loved the interactions between the characters and loved how the plot was laid out. Though harsh, i really liked it wasn't filtered.

I am so happy i got to read this one and you should too.

♡ thanks to @pridebooktours for the copy!

I requested this book because the blurb sounded great. I love queer YA. I loved the strong voice of the main character, Lex. I wish I could say I loved this book, but I stopped reading it at 7%. I cannot continue due to the Islamophobic and fatphobic comments made in the first chapter.

The blatant Islamophobia towards Aamani was hard to read and then I find out that this is supposed to be the love interest? I love character growth but that's a LONG way to go. There is so little representation of Islamic, Desi, and queer in young adult fiction and this book could have helped with that representation. Having readers must wade through the racism is asking a lot. The author could have shown a great amount of disdain towards Aamani due to her calling attention to Lex's shoplifting.

The first scene includes a scene with a police officer pursuing the main character. I agree with the points the author makes about the police (Like why the police officer is pulling a gun on a teenager shoplifting a pizza?) However, the fat-phobic language used about the police officer was unnecessary. Fat should not be used to make a character look "bad" or "incompetent," and that’s how the author used it in this context. Fat should be a descriptor without value. Instead, the author relied on harmful stereotypes about fat people such as them being out-of-shape or eating donuts. There are fat folks who are in great shape and would have been able to keep up with Lex. There are small-bodied folks who love donuts. Someone's body size should not be a decider in whether they receive dignity.

First of all, I want to thank Pride Book Tours and the author for a gifted e-copy.

I really enjoyed this book! The writing style was very easy to read and many controversial topics were addressed. There were many diverse characters, and there was a lot of character development, especially with Alexis. At the beginning she had a lot of issues, but she managed to overcome most in a very believable way. I read a lot of people complaining about the excessive use of pop culture references, but I personally didn’t mind that at all. It made the story more fun and seemed to fit the characters, especially Aamani, who was, by the way, probably my favourite.

Every Variable of Us is an intense read that covers a lot of important and current topics, Despite being completely up my alley, I struggled to stay invested in the story. I read the first 20% of this in January and only just read the remainder earlier tonight, and I did skim several chapters. The characters felt a little hollow to me and whilst the plot was clear and succinct but I feel like there was a lot more telling rather than showing for the most part. I did enjoy this and am glad I read it but it wasn't a great book for me.

This is an OwnVoices review as I'm Indian, Hindu and Queer.

I think that every human being in this world, irrespective of their differences, has one thing in common with the others of their kin, hope. When life is not the way one wants, there is still hope. When everything is going the way they want, there is hope that it'll stay the same. There is hope of doing better, of being better, and achieving great things. But what does one do when all that hope is taken away from you in just a fraction of seconds? When everything you've ever worked for, hoped for, is snatched away from you and you're left with naught? Alexis Duncan's story talks about this.

A Philly teen who is surrounded by things she wants to get away from: her drug-addict mother, a place where shootings are normal and black people always live under the threat of being shot by the cops, Alexis has one clear goal in her life: Play basketball and get the scholarship which will take her away from all of this mess to a better life. However, in one unfortunate accident, she loses everything, her dream of the scholarship as well as her life with basketball. She is left with absolutely nothing. There is no hope.

Until, Hope shows itself in the form of Aamani Chakrabarti, the desi girl who has just moved from New Jersey and joins Alexis's school. At first, she is a victim of racism from all of Alexis's friends, but she proves her worth with her intelligence and wit. When Alexis is lost, she lights up the path showing Alexis there's so much she can still do, and makes her join the STEM team. Of course, studying and giving quizzes is not everyone's cup of tea either, and maybe it was just Alexis's fate that supported her so she could do good in it, but Alexis finds herself going from the person who hated on people who studied to a person who studied everything herself. With Aamani, she finds herself and her hope again.

I really liked the writing and the plot of the book, but having read a similar one before, it didn't take me by surprise because I knew how the story was going to turn out. As an OwnVoices reviewer who is Hindu and Indian, I'd like to point out that the author did a very good job with the research about the culture and shaped Aamani's character perfectly. I would, however, also like to point out that maybe the movie "Prem Ratan Dhan Payo" was probably chosen at random but most of us Indians don't like the movie at all because of how boring it is so I was really surprised when Aamani mentioned it's her favourite.

As a queer OwnVoices reviewer, I really liked the queer rep as well. I appreciate that the author kept all the characters real because seeing unaccepting parents in books helps me in a way so I feel like I'm not alone. Of course, it is heartwarming to see parents accepting their queer children but it is very uncommon amongt desi people. So when I saw that it takes a lot of time for Aamani's parents to accept her and in the end they never really do, I felt seen. I felt that maybe I'm not the only one. Not going to lie, seeing parents go from strong homophobia to accepting and loving and researching their kid's sexuality the very next day also seems very fake.

I also loved the insight to the side characters' lives and how other people's lives are not the ways they appear to us.

Now, to the parts I didn't like:
1. There is a part in the book that has implied sex between the characters when a third character is sleeping in other bed in the same room. While acts like this are okay when all the parties are consenting, this was without the consent of the third character and felt off.
2. "Not to mention, all that primping just to impress the guys-" Alexis says this when she is describing how she does not dress up or behave like other girls and while the girls around her might be the type to be dressing up for guys, I felt that this comment was unnecessary because girls don't actually dress up for men.
3. "some bread that she uses to pick up the most disgusting-looking food ever" this sentence comes in when Alexis is describing Aamani having lunch alone and while this was cleared out later and the food was properly named, I didn't like this form of blatant racism. This only shows that if someone fell in love with an Indian and they were racist before the "falling in love" part, they would think of us like this.
4. "damn, you girls take the me too shit too seriously" was a line said by a guy when a girl probably denied kissing him if i remember correctly. me too is a very serious topic and deserves to be taken seriously.
5. Aamani was described as the "Hindu Girl" many times in the book and I mean, there's more to her than just being Hindu? it was just very weird.
6. The lines said by Aamani in hindi were clearly translated because we don't speak Hindi like that, but I appreciate the author's gesture.
7. The play on the court is supposed to get you hyped, not a group of identically dressed PG-13 strippers" this was said for the cheerleaders BY a former basketball player and it's very wrong. Cheerleading is and will always be a sport too, and the way they dress is a part of their art and there is nothing wrong with it. Nothing they do is ground for calling them a "stripper".
8. "Kids over there get rocket launchers and shit at, like, ten" was said by a drug dealer about how brown people are supposedly "terrorists" and kids own a gun. This was inherently racist and nobody addressed it or corrected him. While I know that no one would want to mess with a drug dealer, I don't appreciate it.

Overall, the story was enjoyable but not very interesting to me, and my rating is solely based on the writing style and the representation included.

First Impressions: we are presented with a flawed character who seems to care about the decisions she makes and how they could jeopardize her future yet still she continues as to not seem soft to the people in her hood.

Alexis is on her way to a basketball scholarship out of her neighborhood surrounded by drug use and violence. Until she gets caught up in a drive by that changes all of that. Now she's surrounded by self proclaimed nerds trying to compete to win a STEM bowl, academic trivia competition. Alexis doesn’t wanna get clowned on by her friends on the block for studying and putting effort into school to get better at the STEM bowl but the nerds all grow on her and she’s taught what real friendship encompasses. She also deals with internalized homophobia, because she doesn’t want another target on her back. She grows immensely by the end of the book & its a happy ending despite all the sadness that came before it.

This is a great book to explain generational poverty and systemic oppression. It also shows how often the only visual social mobility for poor Black people sadly tends to boil down to become an athlete or drug dealer. Resulting in this “only way out” mentality that is extremely difficult to escape, as we see for our MC Alexis. It also tackles how queerness & Blackness is percieved and how internalized homophobia presents itself.

Authors often share their thoughts at the end of contemporary YA novels, explaining why the issues were important to them and the inspiration for their writing. It's interesting that Charles A Bush chose to share those thoughts at the beginning of Every Variable of Us. The reader knows, from the outset, to expect depictions of racism, homophobia, poverty and crime from the onset but they also understand why he wrote this novel.

Every Variable of Us is one of the most gritty novels I've read in years. It goes places The Hate U Give didn't dare to tread and explores the life of a severely underprivileged Philly teenager as she experiences the loss of her future and navigates her sexuality.

Alexis Duncan is a star basketball player on her way to a college scholarship. Rising above her mother's drug addiction and a life in and out of foster homes, Alexis is set to escape the confines of her upbringing and become a superstar. That is until she is shot in a gang shooting. Barely able to walk properly, Alexis needs to explore other options for college admission, and fast, before she becomes another statistic.

Alexis makes the shocking (to her) discovery that sports is not the only way to get college scholarships and she joins the school STEM team as a reserve. Has she got what it takes to go from jock to swot? More importantly, who is the enigmatic Aamani Chakrabarti and why is Alexis developing feelings for her?

I related on so many levels to this novel and it might help to explain why. I spent time in care and absolutely thought I had no future after school until I was made aware of the possibility of a scholarship to university which changed my life. The descriptions of poverty, neglect, parental drug abuse, the contradictory experience in care homes, and living on the street were especially authentic in Every Variable of Us and very well researched. The chaos that Alexis experienced on an every day basis is a chaos that is familiar to many children living in poverty.

Bush also explores life in gangs and the allure and often inevitability of gang membership amongst deprived teens. While Every Variable of Us is about Alexis and Aamani, it is also about Britt, Alexis's best friend who shared Alexis's past but not her future.

Every Variable of Us features a diverse range of characters including a Black sports girl protagonist, bisexual and gay teens, a Muslim girl and a neurodivergent boy. I appreciated seeing underprivileged teens on page as books often focus on unattainably privileged and wealthy teens.

It wasn't always easy to read Every Variable of Us and this is why Bush's foreword was especially well placed. With on-page racism and homophobia, including significant slurs, I had to stop and think whether these words were appropriate in this novel. I feel that the depictions were realistic and that characters displayed character growth in moving on from these positions, or moving on from those who continued to hold them.

I give Every Variable of Us a superb five out of five stars and recommend to fans of Angie Thomas, Jewell Parker Rhodes and Brandy Colbert. I cannot wait to see what Bush writes next.

“I don’t care about why our hands are touching, or how oxytocin works. I don’t even care that there are some serious gay vibes floating around right now. All I care about is figuring out a way to make her never let go.”

This book deals with very real life situations, the characters felt real and raw and at times it was painful to read and feel their pain. The author did and amazing job helping me see through the eyes of the characters. Somehow through the pain this book was equally full of hope and laugh out loud moments and a few seriously embarrassing teenage antics. There is also a new and beautiful queer love story between the main characters (that I low key lived for) But I would say equally important was the friendship between a new group of friends which is one of the best found families I have read in a long time!

Did not finish after 20%.

The book was interesting, but it was heavy, and I am not in the space for that.

Alexis has a lot going on, and her only way out is a basketball scholarship - until it isn't. Aamani is new, and interesting, even if she is kind of a nerd. What is it about her?

I know this story would be good, but with mentions of gun violence, drug abuse, theft, poverty, and more, I am not in a space to read it.