I've been waiting to read this book for months and it did not disappoint. Haley has such a unique writing style that took a little bit to get the grasp of but once I did I really enjoyed the pacing of the book. The characters were all so real, I loved Sav - she is so much more badass than I thought she would be. This book is funny and I laughed out loud at many points. I found myself sad that it was over because I wanted to live in the world a little longer. Haley does a great job of incorporating mental health throughout the story. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a coming of age queer novel.

A delightful and authentic coming-of-age novel that explores that sadness that comes with outgrowing childhood friendships, the excitement of exploring identity in college, and the confusion and pain of living with sexual assault related trauma, especially when the perpetrator is related to someone you trust. Jakobson balances all the themes with memorable characters, humorous and realistic dialogue, and lots of nice observant details about finding your queer family.
Loved it.

3.5/5 ☆

TW: sexual assault

This took a second to get into, but I'm glad I stuck through and finished it to the end. The writing here is unique, a bit YA-esk, and is probably what threw me for a loop when I initially began my read. Old Enough is a powerful coming-of-age story about Sav, a bi college sophomore who is learning to navigate her friendships and past trauma after finding out her childhood best friend is getting engaged.

Haley does a really good job at dialogue in this book and the conversations surrounding SA (though very upsetting) was oddly comforting because of how retable Sav's feelings were. Definitely felt seen and I applaud Sav's honesty, despite how difficult it must have been. Her journey to healing is just beginning, but like her friends in the book, I am very much rooting for her.

This book is so well written. It has amazing characters, themes, and support. This book has parts that are hard to read but also so incredibly relevant.

Sav is coming into her own in college and finally had found her people. She is out as bisexual and proud, she has amazing friends who are unique and love her for who she is. She is over her toxic ex. But when her past comes crashing back into her life she has to figure out how to keep herself together and maintain all the progress she has made in finding peace and creating a life worth living.

The supportive figures in this book are fantastic, from Sav’s therapist helping her to process her assault to her professor who helps her to understand that she can reprioritize what she thinks she has to do. This book honestly says pretty much everything I would want to say to anyone who is a survivor of SA.

Her queer friend group is fantastic, and they are so supportive and kind. Finding your people is honestly a game changer and it’s fun to watch Sav come into her own because of the support and love she receives. Outgrowing old friendships and finding new ones that fit better is part of growing up and is so well explored here. All together, I really loved this book.

Parent’s guide:
Sex & Nudity: moderate (rape, masturbation, oral sex, penetrative sex, underage sex)
Violence & Gore: moderate (rape)
Profanity: mild-moderate
Alcohol, Drugs & Smoking: moderate (a lot of underage drinking)
Frightening & Intense Scenes: moderate (sexual assault)

five/five stars!

Old Enough by Haley Jakobson is a fantastic debut novel centering queerness, trauma, love, high school, college, friendship, and life. It tells the story of Savanna, a bisexual girl in college, through past and present narratives. It’s a book that doesn’t leave your head and is incredible and immersive.

Haley Jakobson’s writing style is refreshing and engaging. I loved it! I especially enjoyed the chapters taking place in the past, where she used the 2nd person. This is truly one of those books that stick with you- even after weeks and months of initially reading it. In fact, I ended up thinking about it so much that I reread it, which I rarely do with arcs.

I LOVED the characters. They were all very fleshed out and realistic. My favorite characters were probably Candance and Vera. The author also did a fantastic job in making Izzie and unlikable albeit nuanced character. Personally, I related to Sav somewhat and drew parallels from the characters in the books to people in my real life.

The plot was super engaging and it was an enamoring read. The novel was paced very well, and was hard to put down. It especially helped that I really liked the setting. It felt very realistic.

Overall, I would highly recommend this book. It takes a twist on the typical “college coming of age story” in the best way. A must read for sure!

“Old Enough” is an incredibly compelling read. It centers around Sav, a 19-year-old college student and recently out bisexual. When her childhood best friend, Izzy, announces her engagement Sav realizes she has to reconcile who she is now with who she was in the past. On top of that she navigates past trauma and a possible romance.

This book was so good. It tackled a lot of different themes; college, coming of age, trauma, drifting away from old friends, fitting into queer culture, in a very masterful way without feeling heavy handed or overwhelming. Sav was so real and relatable and a protagonist I wanted to root for from start to finish.

This is a good look of figuring things out in college and becoming the person you are meant to be.

Thanks NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

A wonderful coming of age story. It was a pleasure getting to see Sav’s personal growth once she was away from her family and high school friends and find a community where could feel good about herself. The way the story went back and forth between the present and Sav’s high school years was deftly written. Sav’s coming to terms with the past was a large part of her growing up and being able to have other relationships that really had meaning for her. Sometimes, you must leave people behind to move forward and Haley Jakobson handled this so well. A touching story that had some humorous moments. Well done and I look forward to reading more from this author. Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to read and review an advance copy of this book.

In Old Enough we follow our protagonist Savannah in her sophomore year of college, a big one! She's finally come out as bisexual, and started making some fun queer friends that feel very authentic to her, not to mention she has her eye on a cutie from her gender studies class. Things are really turning up, until Savannah finds out her best friend from high school is engaged. This is where things become complicated, and Sav is taken on an emotional journey through her high school trauma, and forced to confront her past in order to keep movin' forward. It's heartfelt and tough at times, and definitely had me tearing up.

Jakobson has really written a beautiful ode to being young and gay and figuring out how to navigate the world. A lot of Savannah's experiences within this book felt so relatable to me in my own journey of coming out and navigating college life and complicated friendships. Sav deals with some heavy stuff, there's a lot of discussion of SA assault and working through trauma that could be triggering for some, but the representation is very important. This book also has great representation for bisexuality, and trans identities, which were fun to see. I would recommend this to any queer person looking for a good coming of age novel, it was a speedy and fun read, with great relationships and friendships, and diverse characters. I give it 3.5/5 stars, rounded up to 4 for Goodreads.

Disclaimer: I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley. This is my honest and voluntary review.

The premise to this novel sounded great, but I really didn't like the writing style, and the story seemed to focus on too many topics.

Compelling and propulsive coming of age campus novel--always a genre I will gravitate towards--that delivers across all of its marketing copy themes: queer love, friendship, community, and survival. Especially appreciated is that it focuses on storytelling within a queer community that doesn't focus primarily on the coming out experience or having to defend itself (though those stories are crucial as well). It's simply that this is the community this narrator is living within, and the reader gets to be brought into it with her.

This was a wonderful comin-of-age debut as well as a story of survival. There are not enough books about how beautifully complicated it is to be Bisexual, especially in college. Jakobson did a great job paralleling the world of Savannah's hometown friends versus college community. The duality of two different parts of yourself that are at odds. This is a really great debut and I will be recommending it to every reader I know!

A lovely and tender coming-of-age story about identity and friendship. Sav is a sophomore in college. She has come out as bisexual and is getting to know herself better, as she makes wonderful friends and becomes a part a queer community. She is a survivor of sexual assault. Just when she thinks she is on the brink of thriving, an invitation to her childhood best friend’s wedding brings trauma back up to the surface and threatens to upend the new life and identity Sav is carving out for herself.

This was a compelling and moving read and Sav was a great character who is easy to root for, even as she makes some questionable decisions. The story moves from the present to Sav’s teenage years as we learn more about her relationship with her former best friend (Izzie) and her best friend’s brother. The flashbacks are written as if Sav is writing a letter to or having a one-sided conversation with Izzie - I found this a bit distracting at first but it did make sense for the overall story. 4.5 stars.

Thank you very much to Penguin Dutton and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advance copy.

There is nothing Haley Jakobson could do that I wouldn't love. I've followed her on Instagram for years, and am lucky enough to get an ARC of her debut novel, Old Enough. It's about making friends and losing them, and navigating sexuality along the way. There need to be more books like this.

In 'Old Enough,' a recently out-of-the-closet, college girl is torn between her thriving queer community on campus and her traumatic high school life that features a childhood best friend. The story covers sexual assault, queer identity, and the life-saving power of friendship. (Thanks to Dutton for the advanced reader copy. Opinions are my own.)

It took me a while to get through this book. As much as I sympathized with Savannah's situation, I struggled to get on her level as she proceeded to make self-destructive choices to distract her from reality. I understand that when you're a college student, you're young and impulsive and don't always know what's good for you. Plus, trauma is a mindf*ck to sort through. However, some of Savannah's decisions were so obviously bad (such as hooking up with That Guy and then That Ex) that I felt like an outsider looking in. Usually when protagonists are hot messes, they're still somewhat relatable (a la Fleabag); you're cringing at their choices but also thinking, "fair, I would do the same." I unfortunately didn't feel that with Savannah, but that might just be me. Lastly, I wish there had been a final conversation between Savannah and her high school friend. I mean, there WAS one but it felt inconclusive.

The bright spots of 'Old Enough' were its progressive qualities. The queer community is represented so well, and the way that consent is discussed in one college class is superb.

I would recommend this to others! And I would probably re-read the final, edited version too.

I didn't realize from the blurb that this book was going to have such a large trigger warning for SA, so I am deciding not to finish it. I have nothing bad to say about the writing so far, I just personally don't feel comfortable continuing because of the content.
I will say, on the positive side, this book uses multiple timelines very nicely and I was enjoying the snappy pace of the writing! And it's always nice to see a bisexual coming-of-age story. I will probably still recommend this book to my audience with a TW!

I enjoyed this but not nearly as much as I expected to. Queer YA is one of my favorite genre’s of books, but this feel a bit flat for me. I feel like it was trying to cover too much ground and the writing style couldn’t keep up. I am glad that I read this and am excited to read more from this author!

First thing’s first, I love a coming of age story. And in dual timeline to both pivotal coming of ages in a gal’s life?! So good 👏

Old Enough is the story of Sav discovering who she is and once was at 16. She’s a sophomore in college (one that reminds me so much of my own alma mater) and she’s fully out as bi, feeling grounded in her new friendships, when all of a sudden the engagement of her childhood best friend Izzie forces her to confront her SA trauma.

This book describes what it’s like to have your heartbroken: by a crush, by a friend, by a girl. It describes how trauma builds over time. It describes the story of friendship, old and new. And the ways all of those things help shape you as a teenager and then again in your twenties.

I found this book to be heartfelt, authentic, and overall lovely. Can’t wait to read more by Haley in the future!

I am in tears at the end of this book and specifically the acknowledgments. This book is the definition of the girls that get it get it, because while it is beautifully written, if you identify with the major themes it hits so much harder. I found myself shocked at multiple junctions at how accurately Jakobson described something I had went through exactly. The voice of Savannah is so real and so brave that you just have to love her. This book deals with SA, so please be advised if this is a trigger for you. It also centers bisexuality and the complexities that come with being confident in that identity as well as trying to find a community of people you can breathe easy with. This book is joyful, it’s heartbreaking, it’s uplifting, and it’s gut-wrenching. In a way, I really feel like this book helped me work through (or at least begin to) some of the things from my own childhood.
Savannah says “we are not beholden to the people we were yesterday” and that is one of the most standout lines of the novel. It’s advice I know will stick with me for a long time after reading.
I loved this book.

I really was expecting to enjoy this book, but unfortunately, I just couldn't connect with the overall story. I think the main problem I had was with the writing style. The prose is very choppy and awkward. Something felt off to me. Also, the characters were written in a cliche-ridden way. I felt like the characters didn't sound authentic to me. Everyone was written as a stereotype which really irked me. No one had any value or substance, so it made it difficult to root for anyone. The sexual assault storyline was interesting, but I just felt the ending left me unsatisfied. I felt no emotional connection to the main protagonist, Sav.