4 Stars

Something More is a fun and genuine story that captures the authentic and often times messy high school experience. Khalileh manages to portray through Jessie how teens aren’t perfect. She explores themes of fitting in and self-love through Jessie’s journey to navigate her diagnosis of autism and the messy nature of high school. I’m not the biggest fan of love triangles, but each love interest is developed beyond their basic characterizations creating a cute romance. The love triangle exemplifies how the person you think you need or want might not actually be that person but someone else entirely. Once again, similar to The Luis Ortega Survival Club, it was so great to see more Autism representation in young adult stories.

I feel 15 again, and that is exactly what you want from a YA novel. All the feelings are so clear and accurate. Both the joy, the pinning, even the awkwardness of being a teenager is beautifully written. The awkwardness is so well written that I felt it as if it was happening to me.

Khalilieh created a YA masterpiece with this one.

As an autistic girl, the existence of this book means a lot to me. We rarely get to see autistic people in books, let alone autistic girls who aren't white, and I loved that aspect of this book. I felt very seen by the representation and it's clear the author is writing from lived experiences, which made it so touching. I also loved reading about a fifteen year old who gets to be flawed and cringy (because, let's face it, all of us are at that age).

However, I didn't enjoy SOMETHING MORE as much as I hoped I would. There were some moments I could not see past, like misogynistic scenes that are never addressed and even some comments from the love interest that were addressed but just ruined it for me.

I see a lot of potential in this author and will definitely keep picking up her books! This one was nice, but ultimately not the favorite I hoped it would be.

A young adult/middle grade coming of age story focusing on a young arab-american teen who has just learned that she has autism. This book was very cute and I appreciated that the story, while heavily focused on the aspect of Jessie's inner turmoil with her autism, also did well with balancing unrelated life struggles and the struggles of her sharing her new information and family and friends reactions and willingness or struggle to learn/understand. Has some rather stereotypical coming of age plot lines but I loved adorable Griffin and Jessie and how she learned from her choices and initial naivete as the plot goes on an she opens herself up to more.

Thank you to penguin teen Canada and netgalley for giving me this e-arc for an honest review.

3.75/5

I’ll admit, there were some parts of the book where my attention started to slip a little, but overall I really liked it.

“Something more” follows fifteen year old Jessie as she starts high school and has to get accustomed to a lot of new things, including her recent Autism diagnosis.

I think this book is really important to have for young Autistic people, especially girls, who dont often get to see themselves in a positive light in media.

This book follows Jessie as she has new experiences, learns, and grows to like herself and not be ashamed of who she is. This book does a really good job explaining the concept of masking as Jessie copes and learns to unmask and better express herself.

My only thing is that Jessie, and most of her other classmates, didn't really act like High schoolers, The characters seemed younger then they really were, but that might just be due to personal experiences of high school .

Overall, its good representation and its pretty cute, I think its worth the read.

Often times we leave the real life to indulge in fiction. But with Something More, even fiction seems genuine. It was such a great joy to read this book. It was my first time reading a book that had a lead female character like Jessie. She is absolutely unforgettable.
A fantastic fun read.

I love reading a good YA book. This book starts off with Jessie, a young Palestinian-Canadian girl, learning to balance getting diagnosed with autism as well as starting high school. I read this book months ago yet I still think about it. Its plot is unique and unforgettable. Jessie is one of my favorite MC's atm. She keeps it real. There is a love triangle (which personally I don't mind if I can tell who the mc is gonna end up with and in this case. the person who I was rooting for ended up being endgame so im happy)

anyways, go read this !!!!

I’ve been waiting for this book for so long! An exceptional book!! And so so needed. This is definitely a book that I wish had been around when I was a young teenager who had never read a Palestinian main character before. Also the writing is so brilliant!! Definitely looking forward to more of this author’s writing.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the arc! I really enjoyed this one. It fits perfectly into that veryyyy empty younger YA space and I know a lot of readers will love it! It's also the first book I've ever read with Palestinian-Canadian rep, which was super super cool. Overall a very sweet story with important representation that will appeal to lots of readers looking to start in the YA section but aren't ready for older YA just yet.

This book was so good. I haven’t been into YA books in a while but this one was amazing! It was so captivating I couldn’t put it down. I loved watching Jessie navigate highschool life which is so difficult being neurodivergent or not! Watching her grow up and really find her place and what not. Can’t recommend this book enough.

I really like the diverse rep that exists in YA today. It used to be the same stories and over and over so I am so thankful for books and authors that help expand our lens of the world. Also CANADA rep - which is super rare. I look forward to reading more from Jackie Khalilieh in the future.

Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for providing me with an arc for an honest review!

Having just been diagnosed with autism before the start of high school, Jessie has decided to keep her diagnosis to herself. She finds a friend group (though not all of them are great friends, or great people for that matter), a crush, and ends up in a love triangle.

I thought this book was very well written and incredibly relatable. I easily became attached to certain characters and loved when one of the characters was booted from the friend group due to poor decision making. The friendship developments progressed throughout the book and it was wonderful to see Jessie grow as the year went on.

Thank you NetGalley and Penguin Random House Canada, Tundra Books for the eARC!

I received this book as an arc from netgalley. I absolutely LOVED this book. it took me awhile to get into it but as soon as I did, i read it so fast. The whole book just felt so realistic and i felt like i was back in high school again. The characters aren’t unrealistic like many books especially the love interests. You wanted to love and hate Levi but he was basically a real life man like noncommital and obsessed with sex. Griffin is my favorite book boyfriend which sucks because we never even got to see him as an actual boyfriend before the book finished.

This novel was in so many ways something that I *needed*. I’ve never read a ya book with an autiatic protagonist and although I have a list now this is the first I have read. Sure, Jessie and I are different in many ways and have very different life experiences. But I can still relate to her, I easily understood everything she did, why she made choices she made. The romance of this was such a beautiful story and made up a lot of the conflict, so I definitely recommend this if you like contemporary romances. I’m not usually a huge ya romance fan, but I adored Jessie from the first page so what can I say? No matter what had happened, I cared so much about her journey. plus I really appreciated the way that the messiness of life and being a teenager was discussed. Definitely something I’ve been trying to learn lately.I found the way that autism was discussed made me feel seen, but more importantly gave me hope—for myself, for other neurodivergent people, for the world. Overall, this was a really cute contemporary story, I loved getting to know and cheer for Jessie, and I think this is the type of book the Ya genre needs. I also can’t wait to see what this author writes next!

a cute and contemporary YA romance, i enjoyed this read

thank you to netgalley and to the publisher for this review copy.

I really loved how this felt like a true YA coming of age story. It had all the angst, pining, and longing of being a teenager, with the added bonus of an autistic character being beautifully honest about who she is. It didn’t feel like an “autism story,” but just a story about a girl who is autistic, and I think that was really wonderful to see. The writing was lovely and easy to read. I would love to give this book to any teenage girl.

I absolutely adored this book. It was such a cute YA Romcom with fantastic representation that is so needed in the genre. Jackie has written such a beautiful coming of age story for a teen who has recently been diagnosed with autism. Navigating a new school her freshman year, she finds herself in a bit of a love triangle. I loved Jesse as a character, as well as her supportive friends and family.

I had a really hard time getting into this one. It’s not that it was poorly written or not good. It just wasn’t really suited for me.

Something More’ takes you right back to the halls of your high school through the eyes of Jessi Khassis. She’s 15, she’s autistic, she’s in love, she wants to join drama club and she’s ready to be the main character in her life. ‘Something More’ is a messy and genuine story about what it feels like to be a teenager getting pulled by the waves of intense emotions, all the new stimuli in high school and figuring out your identity.

Jessi is so funny and such a great character to follow. I loved seeing the world through her eyes. I enjoyed seeing her make friends, figure out boys, and navigate her Palestinian-Canadian family shenanigans. Her story is uplifted by the hilarious cast of characters around her from her family to her friends, who are also all going through it. It’s a wild ride from start to finish!

Now, the romance. Listen - I’m a girl who picks a dude at the beginning of the story and stays loyal. So #TeamGriffin always, but I see the Levi appeal, I do. It really took me back to high school (my friends loved the Levis), so thank you, Jackie, for really helping me relive that chaos.

Something More ARC

This book is about Jessie, a fifteen-year-old first-year high school student recently diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). She discovered this diagnosis a few weeks before starting high school and is determined to hide her diagnosis from everyone else. With the help of her doctor, she began to write down her goals in a journal.

I like the overall vibe of the story. I liked how it is a book for autism rep, and we need more books that educate people about autism spectrum disorder. I also like the portrayal of Jess because it shows the reality of being a high school student.

One of the things that ticked me off in this book is the often use of the word “autistic.” We should start using “person/child with autism” rather than “autistic.” These labels do not define them; THEY are MORE THAN their illnesses. However, it still depends on the individual whether it’s okay with them to be labeled as “autistic” or “individual with autism.” I feel it’s better to ask them their preference as some people think their diagnosis becomes dehumanizing and stigmatizing.

Thank you, Netgalley, for providing me with this e-ARC!