LET US BE HONESTY, Boys I Know caught my attention because of the cover.
I actually really like that it doesn't avoid the difficult subjects that teenagers deal with, including racism (along with the problems that come with being biracial) and sex.
Although the character did end up evolving in the second part of the book, there were still some loose ends. I really appreciate how Asian American culture is presented. I just hope that it's a little bit better organised because, to be honest, most of the time, it was just disorganised.

I don't even know my stance on this book so I can't say about recommending it to anyone, but if you like YA consider reading this book and see for yourself!

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley. Review based on final copy. All opinions are my own.

My interest was piqued by Boys I Know due to the cover and a brief scan of the blurb. I didn’t entirely expect the book would be so hard-hitting, much less controversial, but indeed it is, per Anna Gracia’s Twitter, with it being on a list of books that are being heavily scrutinized in the wake of book bans in the US.

But upon finishing it, I actually really appreciate that it doesn’t shy away from tough topics teens are navigating, like racism (along with the identity issues that come with being biracial) and sex. And she depicts these issues in all their messy glory, without sugar coating anything; it’s not overly explicit, but it’s blunt and to-the-point, instead of dancing around them. Like many of the characters, this book is unapologetically itself.

I appreciate that June is messy and is allowed to make mistakes. A large part of the book is occupied either by her complicated relationship with her identity, which really resonated with me, and the messy, sometimes toxic relationships she has with boys. As for the former, I really loved her relationships with her family, especially her mother, who has a vibrant personality, all her own.

As for the latter: This is absolutely one of those books where you’ll either love or hate June for how she navigates love and sex, but I’m glad we’re pushing back on purity culture by allowing young women to be able to make mistakes (sometimes multiple times) on the road to finding themselves. I especially love the way she took charge of her sexuality and reproductive agency when a condom broke, procuring and taking a morning-after pill. Interestingly, this may be the first time I’ve ever seen emergency contraceptives used on-page, and as much as I love the representation here, I find that fact simultaneously disappointing.

I really enjoyed this book, and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys YA contemporaries with flawed protagonists.

CWs: dubious consent, pregnancy scare, racism/microaggressions, toxic relationships

June is an Asian American high schooler trying to navigate big life choices--where to go to college, who to date. Though June is a likeable enough character, I really struggled watching her being treated so poorly by the men in her life. A couple of her "friends" call her racist nicknames regularly, and she just puts up with it. I found this so frustrating! She deserved better!!

Unrelated but where even was her dad?? He's mentioned constantly when she's talking to her mom, but we never see him.

I did not finish this book but I think there is a likely chance I may eventually come back to it. Some of the decisions that the main character made, as well as, the boyfriends written about in this book made it hard for me to continue. However, I feel for this character and I feel for this story.

I did feel slightly old while reading this book. There were lots of serious themes mentioned in the book, yet I wasn't able to connect to the main character.

Boys I Know is one of the most interesting and moving debut I've read this year. It told the readers (especially the young Asian girls) to be unapologetically themselves and confident of what they truly are. It's rare to see an Asian American literature with a protagonist or heroine who isn't 'meek' or soft and confident in her skin and Boys I Know is certainly one! The heroine isn't afraid to explore her teenage self. Anna Garcia needs thumbs up for this book.

Boys I Know is a young adult book set during the period of time of high school ending and real life beginning. Or at least what is perceived to be real life. It is a messy part of life for some. June Chu is a character who fulfilled the role of messiness during this transitional period of time. She is trying hard to live up to everyone's expectations while also trying to just figure her life out.

Right from the beginning the reader is thrown into the roller-coaster of June's life. She is filled with so much angst. She feels like she doesn't fit in especially being an Asian American in a small town. She has her own ambitions but has people telling her what she should do. She desires love but desires her independence too. June is a complex character and while I appreciated what the author was trying to set up with her, it also felt like complete overkill.

There is so much going on with June and it just keeps getting piled on. This is where I really felt like it was being overdone. It all felt disorganized to me. It was almost as if the author was afraid that a point was going to be missed so it is all put together in one massive ball of information. Now I can't speak for the author but, if the intention was to make the reader as high strung as June, I would say mission accomplished. I just wish I had more of a resolution in the end though.

June is able to comes to terms with the transition in her life. This felt both realistic but also a little bit of a let down. I felt like there was so much still unsaid which makes sense she is a young adult. Yet it felt undone and like there were so many things left unsaid. Personally as a reader I felt disjointed by the end. Part of me was grateful that the ending was there but a larger part of me was still trying to figure out all the information that was dropped on me.

Boys I Know tackles several themes that are point to young adulthood. These include love, sex, relationships, friendships, community, education, and parental expectations. I feel like something something but likely that is because there was so much presented to me as the reader. I liked that this book was so sex positive but, also felt that June was using sex as an escape. Not that there is anything wrong with that but for me it felt like it was a way to not have character development. The second half of book did wind up developing the character but as mentioned before there were loose ends. I also like the presentation of the Asian American culture and conflicted with immigrated parents. This is something that is much needed within the young adult genre and hope to see more from author Anna Garcia. I just also hope its a bit more organized.

Rating: 3.5 Stars

This book will absolutely tug on your heartstrings. I loved it from start to finish. It's raw and honest and truly captures the spirit of what it means to grow up and learn who you are. It's a refreshing take on a coming of age novel -- and I think Anna Gracia did a phenomenal job. I loved it!

Imaginative and hilariously funny, Boys I Know explores the reality of being an Asian-American teenage girl in a judgemental society. I really loved the rawness and grit woven into each piece of this story, as well as the fact that Anna Gracia was unafraid to discuss important topics. In spite of this, I felt disconnected from the main character and though I enjoyed parts of it, the overall story was largely forgettable.

Boys I Know was everything it had said it would be and more. Depicting messy teenagers, hard situations and bad decisions with a mix of finding oneself amidst the problems spread around, this novel was a very enjoyable read.

Anna Gracia brings readers into the story with a down-low plot. This story does not have an ulterior plan or motive, it is simply a coming-of-age about a girl that makes some really bad decisions before coming full circle into realizing her wrongs and beginning to right them.

Gracia’s characters are some readers will easily recognize to be as “dislikable” and “messy,” as had been described in the book’s pitch. The main character, June, is not the best person. Judgemental, a bit rude, and somewhat self-absorbed, June is not fully aware of how she really is. Throughout the story, she makes mistakes that a lot of real-life teens make too. Saying the wrong things to friends, not communicating the proper reasons for why you are upset to your partner, sleeping with another just because, dating someone because you are not entirely sure what love is, not listening to your parent even when they might be right. June struggles a lot with her mom being overbearing and, at times, negative about anything June finds fulfilling. But come to the end of the novel, much of June’s problems are sorted out with the new comprehension of all she had been doing wrong and what she needed to do going forward to be better.

When it came to the side characters, one can find they might be unsure of whether to be supportive or not. In the case of characters like Brad, readers can find it easy to dislike him (or even hate him, when consideration is given to what he had done and said to June). However, when it came to June’s friends like Candace and Liz, as well as June’s ex Rhys, it became a bit more complicated. Candace, Liz, and Rhys all had separate problems–the type that you could not help but be frustrated by but hold an understanding of how they got there and/or why they would be making such statements, actions, or decisions. Gracia made this possible by expanding those situations throughout the story instead of just within a chapter or two, and it made the experience all the more worthwhile.

As for the story itself, this was one that was both hard and easy to get through. As mentioned several times before, this is not a happy-feeling story. That is what makes it harder to get through. With all the messy teenagers and situations, one can easily find themself frustrated if not having been faced with similar circumstances before or if having been through the circumstance but having not quite fully healed from it. Boys I Know is meant to be this way. This is what sets this book apart from others. It is different, but it is still a very good and enjoyable story.

What was interesting to see, however, were the differences pointed out during the shifting settings. June was born and raised in the Midwestern United States, specifically Iowa. The Midwest is a predominantly-white culture setting, and because of that, oftentimes, minorities are left to struggle in many ways. Gracia capitalized on this, and this was a necessary detail that was a part of the story.

Overall, I really loved Boys I Know. I took my time with this book because I wanted to thoroughly read and enjoy it, and that goal was ultimately achieved. For that, I give it a single star rating and do recommend it to other readers, specifically those who are in favor of very messy characters. I look forward to seeing what Anna Gracia will release in the future.

DNF @ 34%

I really wanted to love this novel, but I couldn’t do it. It is all because of me, though, and not the book itself.

Largely, my inability to continue with this novel has to do with the fact that I’m ace. Whenever I read about teenagers who are REALLY interested in sex and follow-through with that interest, I just disengage. It’s so outside my experience that my brain can’t process it. This is not to say that I’m a prude as I read plenty of adult erotica. But when we’re following a teenager, I can’t help but think to my teenage years and have a total disconnect.

I wanted to like Boys I Know more.

"Good enough test scores to get the A but not the A-plus. Good enough skill to get a trophy, but not first place. Good enough to be someone's girlfriend, but not their first choice of company. Just Good Enough™."

June is refreshingly honest about her inner monologue; there's no stone left unturned here. But as much as I love YA, this was a little too YA: it read like a teenager's diary with no editor. Multiple paragraphs explain a feeling that could be expressed in a few sentences. I know the author has a very personal connection to the 'moral' of the story, but it's like she doubled down hard to get her point across and instead, it got lost in the words.

The main takeaway here is the imperfect relationships.
‣ June's friends Liz and Candace are good friends. Not great and not terrible, at times they feel very superficial - not really checking in or sharing a lot - and then other times they're just straight up mean to each other - blunt and rude to their face or laughing them into uncomfortable situations in front of other people. Why does June have to explain to others why things are racist? Why is no one telling a teenager she shouldn't be dating her 23-year-old boss? Why is no one there to support June -in a girlfriend feminist independent way - and help her find herself outside of a relationship?
‣Obviously, mother-daughter relationships are complicated. They get even more complex when you add in cultural expectations and immigrant families. Still, her mum is legit on her case 24/7 about school, the violin, and what she's wearing, but has a serious blind spot about how much time she spends away from home 'with friends'. Also, where the eff is her dad?! Yeah, he works a lot, but I don't think he said a word the entire book - a few looks here and there, maybe a shrug? Totally absent.
‣And then there's Wendy: the perfect big sister who knows exactly how to bully June into feeling less than and self-conscious. And you know it would have been so tough to be perfect all the time and to take the heat as the eldest sibling in that household, but you'd hope that moving away for uni would've softened or mellowed her a little.
This is all without going into the 'boys June knows' - but you knew going into it that these relationships would be imperfect. All these bonus ones show the actual reality of being a teenager.

Yes, Boys I Know is heartfelt and addresses the feelings of being overlooked or misunderstood. Of just wanting to belong somewhere or to be wanted. Unfortunately, the message gets a little lost, leaving it feeling unfinished. June's awareness of her cultural identity (or lack thereof) is questioned when she goes to Washington but seems to be quickly forgotten for another storyline. Her quickly aborted first crush/relationship is touched on a few times but is left feeling incomplete - the exact opposite of how I think it was meant to feel in the end. There's a weird tangent with plan b being addressed as a form of abortion that felt judgmental and strange that I still don't quite understand. Overall, it's all a little too messy for a cohesive story, so while I enjoyed it and found it easy to read, I don't think it made the impression it could have with further editing. And yes, I acknowledge the irony of calling for more editing within a long, rambling review.

The synopsis is pretty sufficient. We are delivered that and no less. Had I been a bit younger, perhaps I would´ve enjoyed it more. The family was awful, the boys too and the friends reminded me of some friendships I had. This is a factual high school experience, all the troubles, the doubts, the fights, everything. The ending was fitting and it was overall an enjoyable read. My thanks to the publisher, the author and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

I really liked the fact that there was so much focus on the pressure June experience, because this happens a lot in the real world. It is too big a part of a lot of teenagers life while growing up. In this setting I feel like that fact that June is from an asian family is why there's so much pressure and I guess that it is true on some level, but it happens in all kinds of cultures, which makes the topic really relatable.

Another thing I love about the book is the whole rebellion act June has going on, because that is often a part of being a teenager, especially if you come from a background of pressure.

I feel like June had a big character development throughout the book. She started as a teenage girl with very little personality, to becoming a young women who knew what she wanted and had her own opinion on things. I felt like she had a lot of confusion going on, but as I got further into the book also felt like that confusion got smaller and smaller.

The whole story about her love interest Rhys felt so real. Two teenagers who had a hard time showing and taking about what they actually wanted, which made their relationship end before it even really started. Instead of talking about it, they just went their own ways and wasted a whole lot of time where they could have been together instead. It's a typical teenage love story and even though I wanted them together since the start of the book, I think that June needed to experience the break up and everything that came after in order to grow older and wiser and become more sure of herself.

throughly enjoyed the story and the characters. I will definitely recommend it to everyone who wants to read a well written and pretty amazing coming of age story.

I really loved this book, I think it´s a pretty good reflection on what the sexual life of teeneagers looks like, the pressure of being with someone and havig a relationship, it´s all here.
I really liked how June discover herself and kind of learn from each expirience with each boy what she wanted and how she liked to be treated, which I think it´s a good way of showing the reader how life is, it isn´t totally just you what makes your life the way it is, it´s the other people around you, especially a partner, I believe that a relationship teaches you more in life than anything, and this books shows that.
I loved how she learned to love and RESPECT herself, coming from the treatment she grown up used to from her parents, she wasn´t used to put her opinion and what she wanted first, she put her parents opinions firts all the time, and seeing how she grown out of it during this books makes me want to start doing that even though my parents are nothing like June´s haha.
This book is the type of book that teenagers need, something that validates their feelings and at the same times, teaches them how to validate them themselves. I wish I read something like this one or two years earlier, I´m becoming jealous of the new generations that get this type of books when all I got were books where women fought each other ffor the attention of men.

My favourite part of this book was easily the character growth we see in June over the course of the story. Watching her grow and learn to realise that she was deserved so much more than any of the (dumb) boys she liked could be bothered to give her. Sure, June wasn’t always in the right - she made mistakes, but so many of them were also just a big part of being a teenager. I think this could be a great book for a lot of teenagers in high school and heading into their university years. But to an extent I also think whoever is reading this needs to have a certain level of maturity to be able to properly recognise all the things that are going on in June’s life for what they are, because she doesn’t always see the problem with what she or others are doing wrong. This book is marketed as showing “messy” teen relationships, but that feels like a gross underrepresentation of some of the relationships that are just incredibly toxic, manipulative, and even abusive.
I would also say that there was a lot of different (albeit mostly interwoven) plot points going on throughout which made it kind of a chaotic reading experience at times. And as alluded to previously I couldn’t always get behind June as a character or her decisions. Though as I also said before I did really appreciate her growth and that was definitely the highlight of the book for me.
June’s perspective as an Asian American going through high school in a place with minimal cultural diversity is not something I can at all relate to, but this was another part of the book I did really appreciate. What June was going through at this stage in her life was very different to my own experiences, and I valued the new perspective this book offered me.

I devoured this excellent debut from Anna Gracia. BOYS I KNOW is a nuanced exploration of Asian American identity in the Midwest. From the first sentence, I was hooked. What may seem like a love story is actually a coming of age story—June is a character who grows and is pushed to challenge her thoughts about herself. What she used to want and expect comes at a cost, and when she realizes she can want more for herself, I loved seeing the fire light within her. As an Asian American who grew up in the Midwest, I felt completely seen by June’s experiences as she travelled outside of the region. It was heartwarming and heartbreaking to see her experience it all. I cannot recommend this book enough.

Ohhhh this was one of my most anticipated releases of the year and it did not disappoint. BOYS I KNOW is sharp and funny and heartfelt, and June is such a compelling narrator. What a wonderful debut!

2.5/5 stars
I enjoyed this book enough I lacked trigger warnings and it was too drama filled for me personally.
YA books are really hit and miss for me they have to have a special quality to them