I really wanted to like this book, but it just wasn't the one for me. I'm not sure what it was about the writing, but it didn't resonate with me and it felt a bit flat. It actually felt like reading fanfic, which isn't a bad thing, per se -- it's just not *my* thing.
The characters didn't really come alive for me, either, which made it hard to care about what happened to any of them.
I'll give Cynthia So another shot, because I can see how someone might really enjoy this book. I just wasn't that someone.

A great first attempt for a debut author.
This book talks alot about discovering who you are, your identity and overall family dynamic.
They way it represented the fandoms aspect in this book was very relatable to me as I often found myself trying to find who i am and where i belong by trying to connect with other people who liked the same things as me.
The characters are a bit dull for characters that are suppose to be on their way to college. The plot is going no where. I wished there was less information pushed into my face and more plot points instead.

The representation and relatability factors are the key points in this book that made me love it. Everything else was okay at best. Overall I think alot of asian readers would be able to relate and like this book which i did.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I love the concept of this, of the girl who is bi, who has a long lost crush come back into her life, even while she has a crush on a fanfic writer in the states, and a best friend that she might also like. Plus, she has abandoned who she is, dressing feminine, because she figures that is what she is supposed to do.

Problem I had with it was that Elsie takes so dang long to realize all this. To realize who she really loves. To realize what she has done to herself. It isn't really her fault, as her mother has kept information from her, such as that her uncle is not only gay, but also estranged from his mother, and is living with his husband, who Elsie met as a child, but never made the connection about.

And the sub-plot about finding a long lost love of her American crushes grandmother is interesting, but I find it hard to believe that they have never met any older lesbians. It isn't as though we are all locked up some where. Perhaps Elsie and her friends just don't know how to recognize them.

There are good things about this book. It was just so slow, that I had to force myself to keep going.

<em>Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.</em>

This book is easily one of my favorites of the year -- I absolutely adored it. If You Still Recognise Me has SO much representation when it comes to gender, sexuality, race, and age and it all feels genuine. I loved reading about Ada's journey becoming comfortable with herself and working through her past toxic relationship. I also thought that the way both platonic and romantic love were represented was really beautiful. Read this book!

This summer, Elsie is finally going to confess her feelings to her longtime—and long-distance—crush. Ada’s fanfics are to die for, and she just gets Elsie like no one else. That is, until Joan, Elsie’s childhood best friend, literally walks back into her life and slots in like she had never moved away to Hong Kong and never ignored Elsie’s dozens of emails and letters.

Then Ada mentions her grandmother’s own long-lost pen pal (and maybe love?), a woman who once lived only a train ride away from Elsie’s Oxford home, and Elsie gets the idea for the perfect grand gesture. But as her plan to reunite the two older women ignites a summer of repairing broken bonds, Elsie starts to wonder if she, too, can recover the things she’s lost…

With a beautifully earnest teen voice, a light epistolary element, and a dash of fandom, this wistful and delightful debut is a love letter to queer coming-of-age, finding community, and finding yourself.
A beautifully written LGBTQIA+ romance. Elsie is such a cute character and I loved the grand gesture idea
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed are my own

I wanted to like this and felt that while the premise was great, the overall execution of the plot itself and the characterizations of several of the cast didn't do the novel justice.