I enjoyed this book for the way bisexuality is discussed, not just male and female affections, but those of other genders and identities. I was not a fan of the way some of them talked to each other, however some of the honesty was refreshing. I enjoyed the amount of photography with musicians and bands,I would’ve preferred the book be more about that but I do enjoy that it’s about sexuality overall.

Andrea Mosqueda has completely stolen my bisexual heart with this stunning release!! Like, my heart is completely owned by this author and these characters.

Maggie was such a wonderful character to root for. I saw myself in Maggie's experiences a lot; The way she navigates biphobia and queerphobia, learning to set boundaries with her friends regarding her sexuality, and working on building relationships with her friends and family were all such important things for me to see while reading this book. Teenage, closeted Kalanit Liat needed a book that explored this and adult, proudly Queer Kalanit Liat is so happy that it's coming out into the world. I loved the entire cast of characters that told the story alongside Maggie. There were so many wonderful moments of connection, realization, and absolute love between all of Maggie and her friends. And the Gonzalez family?! Oh my goodness. All four of them are, quite literally, my favorite characters in existence right now.

Plot wise, this book hits all the right notes. I mentioned this earlier, but it discusses the bisexual experience really, really well, including explorations of biphobia and queerphobia. Additionally, it explores racism, police brutality, and navigating teenage life. The focus on the quinceañera date was so fun and I loved that throughout the whole book, I felt that deadline alongside Maggie. It made the plot move quickly and, despite how quickly it went, it was incredibly complex and had a ton of depth. I read 70% of this book in one sitting. It is DEFINITELY one of those that you won't want to put down! 5/5 stars for me, and a MUST READ!

3.5 stars

Read this book if you like: Latinx representation, LGBTQ representation, coming of age

Maggie Gonzalez has always been a little messy, but she’s okay with that. She has a great family, a goofy group of friends, a rocky romantic history, and dreams of being a music photographer. Right now she needs a date for her little sister’s quinceañera.

She's starting to realize her feelings for three of her friends aren't so black and white. She’s forced to confront new (and old) feelings for three of her friends: Amanda, her best friend and first-ever crush; Matthew, her ex-boyfriend twice-over who refuses to stop flirting with her, and Dani, the new girl who has romantic baggage of her own.

I found this story very intriguing and relatable. As a bisexual I had similar feelings when I was a teenager. You always kind of suspect but then you get to a point where you just have to face that you actually are bisexual. I enjoyed this story. I do think that it needed to be scaled down quite a bit. There were times where it focused too much on some things and then times were didn't focus enough on things that needed more detail. It's a great debut! I recommend this book! Pick it up on the 24th or pre-order now!

**Check the triggers as there are a few**

Thank you to NetGalley, Andrea, and MacMillan Children's Publishing for the gifted copy! ❤️

This book has a very solid and straightforward plot, while it's characters are quite messy and unique. The bisexual representation is very good, especially when it comes to the subversion of the "bisexual who can't decide" trope/stereotype, though it did contain some stereotypes, such as the lesbian who loves Girl in Red and the bisexual who cuff her jeans.
However, I ended up skimming through some parts of it, because the book was a little too long for the story and it could have developed some parts better, such as Maggie's relationship with her parents and Dani.
Maggie is an interesting and realistic protagonist, who also had a great support group (her friends, her siblings and her mom).
Her connections with Amanda (her best friend) and Matthew (her ex boyfriend) were much deeper than with Dani, whic made sense, since she knew them for longer, but in my opinion, Dani was the right person for her.
This book has some cringy moments though, especially the abundant amount of Pop culture references in short periods of time, like when Maggie calls herself "emo trash".
Overall it's a good book with great representation!

TW: mentioned police shooting, mentioned toxic relationship, drug use.

Andrea Mosqueda really gets the insides of a teenager. The constant interior questioning and wondering, self-doubt, fear, guilt, and stress - all of those are on full display as expressed through Maggie, the main character. Her life is messy as she navigates her feelings surrounding her best friend, ex-boyfriend, and the new emo girl. How can she have feelings for three people at the same time? This book is a wild ride that HS students will enjoy. It will have a strong appeal for those students realizing their identities.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read this arc in exchange for an honest review.

One of the books that I’ve been reading this month (now recently completed) is Just Your Local Bisexual Disaster by Andrea Mosqueda. Maggie Gonzalez has to choose an escort for her younger sister’s quinceañera.

Maggie’s up against a deadline as part of fittings and preparations for her sister’s quinceañera, but choosing an escort is compounded by romantic feelings that pull her in three directions: toward her best friend Amanda, toward her former boyfriend Matthew, and toward Dani, a new girl at school.

To help navigate her feelings while fulfilling a class assignment, Maggie creates a private Instagram account, where she expresses her feelings about Amanda, Matthew, and Dani through her words and her photography. (The “Bisexual Disaster” of the title refers to the user name that Maggie gives to her private Instagram account.)

Along the way, Maggie begins to question a future she thought she’d had all mapped out, which is studying at New York University to be a music photographer.

I enjoyed this book, and thought Maggie’s feelings were fully realized toward each of her potential escorts. I anticipate that readers will be able to relate to her experiences.

One of the things I appreciate about this book is its non-explicit storyline. There’s some kissing, and there’s emotional closeness between Maggie and the people she cares about, but the lack of further intimate contact opens this book to a wider readership.

Just Your Local Bisexual Disaster will be published on May 24 by Feiwel & Friends / Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group. I read a digital ARC of this book through Publishers Weekly’s Grab-a-Galley sweepstakes for Spring 2022, fulfilled through the NetGalley platform.

Move over Casey McQuiston; Andrea Mosqueda's debut novel hits shelves on Tuesday, and it's coming for your spot.

Navigating your sexuality is a lot of guessing, overstressing, and being out of your depth, and Andrea Mosqueda shows that magnificently tortuous unpredictability on paper. Just Your Local Bisexual Disaster explores the messy, scary process of becoming yourself. Showing us that we must lose pieces of ourselves in the process to grow to our full potential. Those pieces were never meant for us in the first place, and it's okay to be disappointed that someone didn't turn out to be the person we needed. We are not a maybe. We are not an unsure decision, an option, a choice, or a chore. We never ask too much; we were just asking the wrong person, and feeling sad after making that decision doesn't mean it was terrible. Because heartache comes and goes, relationships are messy, complicated, and an overall disaster. We deserve someone who wants the chaotic, the hard, not just when it's fun or convenient, we deserve someone who chooses us when it might not be the easy choice, and we deserve someone who would instead do chores with us than anything with someone else. Because at the end of the day, if they wanted to make a grand gesture, they would. I adored the reference to the legend of Korra

Maggie is negativing her bisexuality in a true love triangle with both sexes. She has her ex twice over Mathew, who still flirts with her, her best friend and first girl crush Amanda, and the new emo wild girl Dani. Throughout the novel, you watch how Maggie tries to figure out the complicated process of relationships, what is too much, what to give when it gives it, and when it pulls back. Not all relationships have a romantic level with them to have love involved. True friends will be there no matter what, and sometimes you must fall down to learn what is really important to you. Lying is never the right choice, and we should never stop trying to fix ourselves. Reading this, songs jumped out of the page at me, and by the end of the book, I had a playlist of over 100 songs. I dwindled it down to 33, which I feel gives the vibe of the book.

The book's relationships but in songs
Maggie & Matthew: Meant to Be by Ber & Charlie Orain
Maggie & Amanda: Here With You by Marshmello & CHVRCHES
Maggie & Dani: Emo Girl by Machine Gun Kelly & Willow

⭐️Rating: 5/5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
✍🏼Author: Andrea Mosqueda
📚Genre: Teens & YA | Romance | LGBTQIA +
🗏 Pages: 338

Thank you to NetGalley, Macmillan Children's Publishing Group, and Feiwel & Friends for the e-ARC to read and review. I had a mixed reading experience, and I'm finding myself neither here nor there after reflecting on the full read.

If there's ever a case of a book's title and cover combination being absolutely *chef's kiss* perfection, it's this.

I liked a lot about the story itself, but kept getting distracted by the introduction of SO many characters at once (and then new names thrown in throughout) and aside from the lead, Maggie, I didn't see special traits of anyone coming through. For all the friends, sisters, and love interests alike, I found that this made me have a hard time distinguishing or rooting for any of them in particular. I also didn't really connect to the little sister's quince storyline until it was time for the actual party itself, and I'm thinking it was because it took up a lot of page space and Maggie's involvement was simultaneously constant and disconnected (as in, it wasn't her party but she was stressing or helping or planning etc.) I did skim these passages, because as much as I think it's important for a work to have some kind of main event to keep the plot going in a specific direction, this one had a lot of potential and didn't hold interest. There were a lot of plot points added in and not followed through with (like Maggie's father's story!!) and I either wish they were further explored or left out to keep the focus tighter.

That being said, I think this story did a great job of working through a lot of issues - like biphobic stereotypes, having our lead clearly delineating friend boundaries, and navigating multiple simultaneous crushes.

Just Your Local Bisexual Disaster is a fun, but sometimes messy, YA contemporary. And messy isn't bad, especially in this case. This is about Maggie, a girl who owns her messiness and tries to figure out which of her three crushes is the real deal. Maggie is relatable, and I love how self-aware she is. That being said, this book wasn't a total standout.

This book suffers from a series of minor issues. First of all, one of the friendships/romances explored here is so toxic, and, quite frankly, should not have worked out. There's also way too many pop culture references, mainly to "emo" bands. I was taken back to middle school immediately. It was all just a little cringey.

Still, this book has a great friend group and an even better family dynamic. Maggie lives with her mom and her sisters, and I loved them all. They're all supportive, hard-working and understanding. The family is the real standout of this book, as well as Maggie's himbo friend, Jordan.

Overall, this was delightful, with a few flaws here and there. I can't wait to see what this author writes next. I am glad bi teens have positive representation like this.

Thank you to Colored Pages Book Tours and Fierce Reads for sending an advance finished copy for me to review.

I loved this book so much. Maggie was written so authentically and beautifully. I loved her journey of figuring out what she wanted in life. This book was about Maggie struggling to figure out who she should bring as an escort to her sister's quince. She happened to be confused about one guy and two girls and the biggest conflict was choosing between them. It was low stakes and the queer rep was so casual. She never once experienced homophobia or biphobia other than a few times dealing with internalized biphobia. There were other queer people mentioned in this book, it was never an issue that they were queer they had happy lives and were accepted. I loved Maggie's family so much how they would joke about her love interests and completely accepted her no matter what. I loved all the food references, Spanish dialogue, and internet references. It was so wonderful to read this it made me feel hopeful and happy. My heart is full after reading this I'm so happy books like this exist. 💗💜💙🏳️‍🌈

This book was a great way too show active interest in multiple genders without falling into the “bisexual who can’t pick” trope. The characters felt messy and genuine in a way I liked.

A fun, medium paced young adult novel about finding yourself amongst the people you like and finding the person that makes you feel the most yourself.

- JUST YOUR LOCAL BISEXUAL DISASTER is a lovely story about sifting through the complicated feelings of being a teenager, particularly one who's still figuring out herself and what direction she wants to take in life.
- This book tackles the uncertainties of being a young queer person, and how those get mixed in with biphobic stereotypes received from all sides.
- I love that this book centers queer kids of color, and how a love of the Rio Grande Valley shines through the pages. Maggie and her friends and family are both highly specific and broadly relatable. As a side note, I'm looking up if there's anywhere nearby where I could get a raspa ASAP.

This book is bisexual representation done right. There are love interests not all with the same gender unlike a lot of other books with bisexual main characters. Although I don't usually like multiple love interests, I liked it here. The characters felt very real, it's hard to make teenage characters feel like teenage characters without making it too cringe, this book did a good job of that too. I think this book could have been shorter, felt like there was a lot of filler.

Life. Love. Friendships. All of these feel messy to high school Junior, Maggie. She's caught feelings for three different people in her life: her ex-boyfriend Matt, her first crush/best friend Amanda, and new girl Dani. Maggie is also overwhelmed by her upcoming decisions about the rest of her life, specifically college and career options.

Maggie's passion for photography comes in handy as she begins to tackle her art assignment, she decides to use the project to help untangle her feelings for each person. Things seem to be going well until everything crashes and burns. Will anyone stand with Maggie once the fire is extinguished?

I truly enjoyed this debut novel. I loved reading about Maggie's familial connections and her friendships. It was also great to have a main character who happens to be bisexual without prejudice and trauma being the central theme of the story. I also loved learning about quinceañeras.

Thanks to NetGalley & Macmillan Children's Publishing Group for the copy in exchange for an honest review.

This book follows Maggie, a lovely bisexual disaster who is having a hard time deciding on a relationship. She broke up with a guy recently, her best friend keeps flirting with her, and a new girl rolls into town and catches her eye. Who should she date? Who is her destiny?

You'd think this would be an annoying love triangle (well, square in this case) but it was handled beautifully. The protagonist, Maggie, learns with every mistake and no one is really "the bad guy" in this book. Humans grow with each relationship and this book highlights that.

Lots of meme references go by quickly but are fun, though I fear some may become pretty dated in the next couple of years. I did especially enjoy the She-Ra references, Catra stay winning. ;)

This is weird, but I wish the quince stuff was explained more because I'm not very familiar with it. It was more like a background subplot but I wish Maggie explained it more to the reader or other characters so we could get why it's a big deal.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC of this book. All opinions are my own.

From the minute the title of this book was released, I knew I'd have to read it. I have never seen a title describe me more accurately than this. I am to a bisexual disaster. The best part? This book is as incredible as its title, if not more so. This was heartwarming, sweet and such a fun read! I can't believe how much I genuinely enjoyed this!

Maggie is such a great character and a phenomenal example of how it's okay to not have your whole life figured out and be a little bit messy. I really enjoyed watching her journey, even if it was a bit messy and chaotic. If you're looking for a light, fun read- I highly recommend this!

What could have been better?
This is a debut book by this author so I think I have a lot of the same qualms I have for most first time books that you run into: a lot of ideas and not enough time, some characters and relationships that needed to be built or seen more (particularly her relationship to her family, specifically her mom), and it felt trope-y at times. I also wish it had more of the project intertwined because I felt those posts were the strongest part.

What I enjoyed?
It was an easy and fast paced read, which I’m always here for.

I haven’t read a lot of books with bisexual representation as the center focused so I loved that! Especially since it from a queer author!

I loved the culture tied in from the spanish to the food to the quinceañera traditions! I thought it was really well done, also happy it came from an #ownvoices author.

The relationship she had with her sisters made my heart so happy and I couldn’t get enough of it.

I also think she captures the absolute confusion and at a loss, overwhelmed feeling we all felt in high school…and then adding the bi component was amazing.

While, at times, I wanted to shake these characters when I look back at myself in high school and all the students I know this age…I can see it and empathize 💕

For a debut I think this was a sweet and easy read and can’t wait to see what this author comes up with next.

Thoughts and Themes: I was drawn to this book because of its title since it describes my life. I’m so glad that I got a chance to read this one because there was so much to love about this book.

I really enjoyed the way that this story was told, and how things unfolded in this book. I liked that this whole thing first starts as Maggie needing to find an escort to Alyssa’s Quincenera. I loved how Maggie uses her school project to express her feelings about the three people she is trying to select from to try and see if that provides any clarity.

I thought that the whole story was done really well and I love that Maggie talks about how she doesn’t want others to think she’s a bisexual stereotype because she can’t decide. I like that this book brings up biphobia in subtle ways and talks about how harmful it can be. I also really enjoyed how real Maggie’s feelings were and how you felt things along with her each time her heart was broken.

Characters: In this book you get to meet several characters through their interactions with your main character, Maggie. You get to meet her sisters, Alyssa and Veronica, her mom, her best friend, Amanda, her ex, Matthew, and some other friends, Dani and Jordan.

I really liked the relationship that Maggie has with each of the characters that you are introduced to in this book. I love how this book shows that you can love so many people and that love is felt differently and shown differently depending on the type of love.

I love how supportive Maggie’s family is of her sexuality and how they are always there to support her through whatever she is going through. I really liked getting to read about the relationship Maggie has with each of her sisters and see how that developed over time. I liked getting to know their past a little and why they were so close with each other. I also liked how Maggie and Alyssa both acknowledge the role that Veronica has in raising them and how they support her as well the best they can.

I loved Maggie’s relationship with each of the people that she is trying to choose from. I loved how she really did have feelings for each of them but she had to let go of past feelings to allow herself to have new ones. I liked that we got to see how those past feelings were still affecting her and how we also got a glimpse into why she may still be holding onto those feelings.

Writing Style: This book is told in first person through the perspective of Maggie. The story included the instagram post that were a part of Maggie’s project along with text messages that she exchanged with her friends.

I liked getting to see the caption for the post that Maggie was putting onto her page. I kept thinking that they were a little obvious so I had to keep reminding myself that the only people who had access to this page were Maggie and her teacher. I liked that Maggie poured out her true feelings onto this page and didn’t hold anything back.

I think that this story being told through only Maggie’s perspective was a good choice because we don’t know how the others feel about her. We only know the feelings that Maggie is projecting onto them and is assuming about them. I liked that when things are wrapping up we really aren’t sure what direction things are going to go in. We are hoping for the best just like Maggie is but we are unsure about what the future holds.

Maggie is trying to decide which of three love interests (her female best friend, her male ex, or the intriguing new girl in town) to take to her quince. She ends up doing a photography project through Instagram to help her decide.

I didn’t finish this book. I’m not sure what about this book didn’t work for me. On paper, it seems like one I’d enjoy, but I think I wanted some more depth. I was intrigued by the conflict, and her feelings for each person are compelling. Sometimes YA books have an issue where I feel like they’re trying harder to do good representation than to tell a story, and this fell into that a little bit.

When this comes out on audio, I’ll happily give it another chance in that format.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for giving me an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.