Cynthia So's "If You Still Recognize Me" is a sweet sapphic love story about friends reuniting after being out of touch over time and continents. This story follows Elsie, whose grandmother comes from Hong Kong to live with her family in England. She has a long-distance crush on her internet friend Ada who she bonded with over the comic Eden Recoiling and the fanfiction that Ada writes. However, Joan, Elsie's childhood best friend, re-enters her life after spending several years in Hong Kong.

Parallel to Elsie and Joan's rekindled friendship, the novel uses letters to tell the story of Theresa and Rebecca, Ada's grandmother, and her long-lost pen pal. Elsie and Joan use the summer to search for Rebecca and rekindle their friendship or possibly more.

In addition to the love story, So weaves in Elsie's journey about her identity as a queer person of Asian descent and the prejudices her family and friends may carry. The author's skillful storytelling and parallel narratives create a compelling exploration of reconnection and self-discovery. With its themes of love, friendship, and the power of finding oneself, this book is a heartfelt story about family, friends, and love.

adorable and fun to read book, great characters

Thanks to the publisher and netgalley for the review copy.

I don’t normally go for sapphic romances, but I might have to rethink my preferences after this one! Wowza!! A beautiful exploration of cultural identity and the complexities of friendship and romantic interests. This book is a wonderful celebration of the LGBTQ+ community and queer identity. The story is complex without feeling like the plot isn’t completely developed, and I loved the first person narration here. A beautiful coming of age story and a new personal favorite!

Thank you HaperTeen for providing me with the opportunity to read and review and advanced copy of this book.

I honestly didn't know what I expected. I knew I would enjoy it but I didn't expect to fall in love with the story.

I felt myself laughing and gasping at all the little moments. It was just what I needed to help me ease out of my current reading slump.

I had a feeling I knew where the story was going but it still hit me nonetheless.

This is one of my favorite books of the year and we're only in June!

Elsie is a bisexual Chinese-British teenager who is in the summer before starting university. She hasn't come out to her family and lives most of her life online aside from her best friend. This follows her coming of age and discovering a more fulfilling real life.

The prose is beautiful and introspective, This book perfectly balances pace, daily life, and romance. It made for an engaging and enjoyable read. I also loved the family relationships in this book. They were difficult at times, but the love was almost palpable even when characters were struggling with things they don't understand.

This book is unapologetically queer. The main character struggles at times with her expression of queerness and what it means for her. It does so in a beautiful way where it shows the beauty of exploration of identity. And then there's the love interest, Joan. A butch lesbian who has lived in Hong Kong for the past six years and is unapologetically queer and masc.

And the older queer characters. I can't get into details without spoiling some family dynamics but there's something so hopeful about older queer characters. Especially ones who are happy.

Plus there's an ace side character and they were very well done.

There's just so much queerness in this book and it's all wonderful. Overall, I highly recommend it

*Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review*

This was a really sweet sapphic ya romance. I personally wasn’t the biggest fan but that was mostly my preferences. The characters felt a bit younger than they are and I don’t love, love triangles. Despite that, I enjoyed the characters and family dynamics.

Not only does Cynthia So show the importance of fandom spaces and give online friendships the importance they deserve, but they also use it to highlight the disparity of queer and POC rep in media, and the effect this not only has on teens themselves, but how it can negatively impact those around them. At one point of the book, Joan explains how there isn't really any queer rep in Hong Kong and the effect this has on her homophobic dad. Positive queer and POC rep is SO important, and that's what Cynthia So provides with this book.

If You Still Recognize Me is a coming of age and LGBTQIA identification story that is wrapped in a YA Romance. Elsie is the heroine, who is required by her family to care for her grandmother. The novel evolves into LGBTQIA identification and a crush on a same sex person. Additionally, this is about a family who must reconcile with their biases when a family member comes out as gay. Elsie must learn to navigate her own feelings as a bisexual young woman. While this was a very well written book, adding cultural elements in addition to feelings, I felt here were so many issues the heroine had to deal with. Yes, it’s life—realizing that family can be asses when it comes to our love life and personalities which may conflict with their culture—but I would have preferred to read a narrowly focused story about Elsie’s burgeoning feelings for someone from her past.
Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was a very fun summer read! The romance was cute, the character growth was wonderful to see, and the friendships and familial relationships all felt very true to life and familiar (who among us hasn’t had an online friend they’ve know for years that they crushed on one point? …that’s not a universal experience? Sounds fake, but ok.)

At first I was a bit worried that were too many separate plot threads going on, but by the end that didn't bother me. I really appreciated the portrayal of friendships, and an intersectional look at part of the queer community that doesn't get much representation. The MC's involvement in fandom could be a draw for some--it does, however, feel a bit dated by name-dropping tumblr. (Except for the phones, I'd believe it was set a decade ago.)

If You Still Recognize Me, by Cynthia So, follows Elsie, a closeted bisexual girl, during the summer before university. After pining after her online friend, Ada, for years, she has decided that she will finally tell her her feelings. However, when her childhood best friend, Joan, comes back into her life, Elsie's plans in that regard get derailed.

This book felt like such a hug during Pride Month. I was expecting a summer rom-com, but it turned out to be a lovely book about grief, family, and queer community.

I have a complicated relationship with Elsie as our main character. One the one hand, her bisexuality and her relationship with fandom made her intensely relatable to me, but, on the other hand, she definitely has issues with boundaries and treats both Ada and her real-life best friend, Ritika, somewhat poorly. I also struggle to truly tell you anything real about Elsie's personality. As a femme queer girl I can't speak to her relationship to her gender presentation, where she has dressed more femininely than she is comfortable with in order to fit in, but that aspect of her journey seemed like one of the best-written aspects of the book.

Joan, Elsie's childhood friend who has just returned after moving away seven years prior, is an okay character, but does not feel multidimensional or like she has any depth at all. I honestly would have been fine had she not been there at all and the story was simply about Elsie discovering a queer community while trying to impress her online crush. I didn't feel like she added anything to the story other than being present until Elsie eventually realizes that she likes her. There isn't any chemistry at all between them.

Ritika, Elsie's best friend, is my favorite character in the book by far, which is helped by the fact that she is the character in the book who feels the most like an actual human with a personality. I do feel like Elsie's mistreatment of her is ignored somewhat, but I really appreciated her subplots and everything.

One thing I absolutely adored about the book was its depiction of fandom, and particularly the way in which it called out the nature of fandoms being obsessed with shipping white male characters but pay virtually no attention to any sapphic ships, especially those between people of color. That's something that bothers me so much in fandom but which I have never seen noted in depictions of it before, so I really appreciated that.

I really didn't love the way that asexuality and aromanticism were treated in the book. There is one asexual character there whose identity is literally discussed for one page and who very much just feels like token rep, while there is another questioning character who says things that sound very aromantic (they enjoy sexual activity but don't seem to have felt any real romantic feelings for anybody), but that aspect of their identity is ignored and clearly unintentional. As an aspec person myself, I really wish those identities had been approached with a little more care. I think it otherwise depicted the multitude of queer experiences really well though.

My feelings about this book are definitely complicated. I enjoyed reading it and loved the queer community and fandom aspects of it, but otherwise cannot really bring myself to recommend it that strongly. I think that it has really good sapphic rep, and I'd give it a try if you're looking for a feel-good queer story, but ultimately the characters felt flat enough to me that I cannot give it any more than a 3.5/5 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a free eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I got an ARC of this book.

It has gotten to the point when the MC is super into fanfic that I should just know the story isn't going to work out for me. There has only been one book where fanfiction played a part that I didn't have to force myself to keep reading. It is probably coincidence, but it is a trend I am noticing lately.

I just couldn't get into this book. I tried, I really did. I love the long distance pining for an internet friend. That is something I love seeing in books. This time it just didn't work for me.

This is probably a me and not the book problem. Sometimes books just don't click, even when there is nothing wrong with them. I feel like this is one of those times. Give this book a shot.

I read about 20% of this and had to dnf. Sapphic young adult contemporary is usually something I enjoy, but this story read too young for me and the characters feel quite flat. The characters are 18 years old but are written more like 13-15. Unfortunately, this did not work for me but it seems to have amazing LGBTQ, Asian representation for a much younger audience.

This books plot wad different, but it also felt the same?? It was basic and flat. Inreally need to stop getting books just based off of adorable covers. I feel like maybe I've out grew the YA genre? It might be ok for a young teen to read bc it felt very juvenile.

This book gave a perspective that I had not yet seen; the Chinese attitude towards not only gay members of society, but even towards anyone that did not toe the expected gender norms. Elise when she was younger and Joan now dressing too 'boyish' or men wearing floral shirts, these were deemed wrong in the eyes of the Chinese society that they grew up in.

I appreciated the LGBTQA+ community that was present in this book. Elise had SO much support in her life, even though she was not getting it from her family. The multi-generational love stories were interesting, as well; it is always fascinating to see how views have changed over time.

Here is my difficulty with this book. I love a YA that appeals to adults, as well, and I don't think this one would crossover well. The constant references to fanfic just lost my interest, as did Elise's continual pining for her toxic ex. She recognized that he was an awful person, but kept thinking of him in an 'I miss him' light. Between that and all the wishy-washy feelings I lost respect for Elise.

2.5 stars, rounded up for the cultural value.

I absolutely adored this book. There are so many things I liked about it, but I'm really bad at making sense of my thoughts, so I'll do my best. The way queerness is written and portrayed throughout the book was amazing. The author does a great job showing the difficult aspects of it, while at the same time really focusing on the positive experiences. The joys of having a community, finding your place in it, it was a reminder of how beautiful it is to be queer.

I also loved the relationships we see, be it friends, family or others. I liked the exploration of Elsie and her family, especially her mom, as well as their complicated relationship with her grandma. The friendship she has with Ada and the way it exists and evolves was amazing. The relationship with Ritika, her best friend, and Joan, who returns to her life after a long time, were definitely my favorite part.

The discussions of identity were so important, even though elsie is very sure about her sexuality, there are other parts of her identity that she's not so sure about and that she works on, I love to see characters learn more about themselves and grow.

The plot was interesting, and while it's clearly somewhat predictable, it was still entertaining and carried the story and characters in a good way. There are also things that are kind of small I guess, like the fact that we get to see multiple generations of queer people and their different experiences.

Overall, one of the best books I've read this year and a new favorite.

elsie’s story is one about the joy in fandom & friendship along with what it means to find a love that makes you feel seen—especially after being hurt in the past.

an absolute must-read. ♡

I really enjoyed this book! For a while i was like "wait a queer story where literally everyone has a crush on the main character? I don't buy it." then i decided that even if that was true, you know, fair enough! Even though she was making terrible choices, being a teenager is a mess so i will accept it. (It may or may not have been an accurate take, just for the record.) And once i let myself just enjoy the ride, i really liked it. The characters were likeable but... imperfect. I want this book in high school libraries!

This was a wonderful lgbt coming of age story! I found Elsie’s journey to be so similar to my own and I really found solace in that. She is a bisexual girl figuring herself and her life out. Amidst all of that we have a wonderful romance between Elsie and Joan. It was a slow start, but it took off beautifully in my opinion and ended the story right where it needed to. I truly enjoyed reading this book and it will be on my mind for quite some time!

If You Still Recognize Me is a very sweet coming-of-age romance, perfect for teens that are queer or questioning. The pacing isn't perfect, but this is still a great story about self discovery, love, and grief. I really enjoyed the format this story was told in, and found it to be very well written.