This book!!!!

I finished Old Enough in one night because I just could not put it down.

Sav finally feels like she’s starting to become who she’s meant to be: she’s openly bi, found an amazing community of friends, and working towards her goals in her sophomore year of college. However, she faces a set back when her best friend from her childhood, Izzie, gets engaged and invites her to the wedding. Things haven’t been the same between her and Izzie since they were 16, after what happened between Sav and Izzie’s brother. Past trauma is brought to the surface, and Sav has to decide how to move forward.

This story was heartbreaking and hopeful, telling a story of true friendships and when it’s time to let go of those that are hurting you.

Thank you NetGalley and Dutton for this arc.

Actual rating 3.5.

As a story with gender and sexuality representation, this absolutely did the work. Unfortunately the character development was lacking, and everything felt very paper thin and at times unbelievable. I wanted to be grabbed and enveloped, but instead I felt more like an outsider never invited in. The main feeling I got from this was that it was more of a draft than a finished product, and would've been improved with a little editorial nudging towards depth. Jakobson has the skill to create a good story, this just missed the mark.

My thanks to Penguin Group/Dutton, the author, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and Dutton for the eARC! I was so excited to read this book, literary fiction that’s “coming of age” is typically right up my alley. I was especially excited to read a book about a bisexual woman and a best friend breakup. Not every book is for everyone, and even though the premise was highly intriguing I wasn’t a huge fan of this due to the YA-ish writing and dialogue. I was hoping for more maturity and nuance and this just wasn’t for me. This book is so important for representation and I love seeing queer books celebrated, this one just wasn’t my cup of tea.

Just not for me, though I think the premise is sweet. Very much reads as YA-- would reccomend to my teen patrons, but not to my adult queer readers unless they are looking for something on the kind of cheesy side.

I really really loved this debut. Sav was such a relatable main character and her college found family filled me with such joy. I love the insight into evolving friendships as you grow up and how that can be more devastating that a relationship break up. This novel dealt with some heavy topics but it was approached it a delicate yet serious way. I definitely recommend this read. A bisexual must read.

I had softly dnf'd this ebook a while ago since I kept getting distracted while reading since the writing was a bit off. Not super sure why; when she would talk about her friend Izzie in the past tense, she would use 'you' like she was writing a letter. Why not just say her name in that context since it was mostly present tense?
The audiobook was really what kept me interested so much, and I played it all day to finish it basically in one sitting. The reason WHY is because Haley wrote the side characters SO WELL. Also, I will always prefer a college or adult setting for learning the queer normative world since the story starts with Sav being new to it since she didn't come out as Pan until college. This story had so many good things to add to our brains, normalizing therapy, friendships than relationships, consent, triggers, safe talk before sex rather than just jumping in there, and great explorations of critiquing rape culture and justice/injustice. You get a perspective in nearly all the people in the story, and that was amazing because I ended up liking everyone, even the annoying girl from their class that had a 180 in self-reflection at the end of it. Once you read the book, you can even tell the relevancy of the hair; love it.

DNF @ 41%. This book is trying to be a heartfelt exploration of sexual assault and finding your queer identity. It frankly fails at both. Izzie and Lara are both insufferable, the portrayals of polyamory are unrealistic (at best), and the young-military-marriage-for-benefits storyline fails to explore the harm of that trope. Overall, could not force myself to finish it. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the free advance copy.

This book was amazing. It did so much while being entertaining to read. I loved all of the characters, and they felt like real people. They felt like people I knew or could have known. I think the book tackles heavy things in a way that educates and entertains, and also gives the reader space to feel all of their feelings. I appreciated the use of different pronouns, and I thought it was helpful for the characters to explain pronouns without taking the reader out of the book. Thank you to Dutton and NetGalley for this ARC!

4.0

Many thanks to Dutton and Netgalley for providing me with this eARC! Old Enough is a new adult debut novel by Haley Jakobson that explores important topics like identity, gender, sexuality, friendships, relationships, sexual assault, and knowing when to let go. The story follows Sav, a college sophomore who has recently come out as bisexual and come into her own, as she struggles with coming to terms with a past sexual assault and her relationship with her childhood best friend, Izzie. I found the author’s voice in this novel particularly powerful and important with how they address that sexual assault is a not always black and white. All the supporting characters were incredibly fun and fleshed out and I would always smile when they would appear. Even Lara, who actually turned out to be one of my favorites! All in all, I give this book 4 out of 5 stars and am looking forward to reading more of Jakobson’s works in the future!

A beautiful, heartbreaking debut from Haley. This story is difficult to read at times and falls into cliche at others, but it’s always honest and emotionally raw. I enjoyed reading it and hope others do as well!

A coming of age story that is very inclusive and diverse, with characters of all different sexualities and genders.
Unfortunately, the story and the characters were just surface level, I needed more depth; a lot of it! Even their interactions with each other seemed petty and unrealistic.

Sav is a Sophomore in college who has just come out as bisexual after a summer fling. She is navigating her new identity and her new community while struggling with her old self and life. As she becomes closer to her new friends, she realizes she has outgrown her childhood best friend who is living a very different life at a college in the south where she is in a sorority and planning a wedding to a guy who is in the ROTC. To make things even more complicated, Savannah is grappling with a sexual assault that occurred when she was sixteen.

I thought this was a really interesting peek into college life and queer life. There were a lot of important conversations in this book, and the growth of the main character was inspiring.

I had mixed feelings about this book until about 40% in. I just didn’t know where it was going, it felt scattered and all the relationships very surface-level.

But I ended up liking it a lot, how the friendships evolved and how it dealt with the issue of sexual assault.

I also think that one of the reasons I struggled to connect with the book at first it’s because it is a new adult/YA story and it’s not what I gravitate towards. But I’m very glad I didn’t give up on it!

In Haley Jakobson's debut novel Old Enough, we meet Savannah "Sav" Henry and her best friend from childhood Izzie. They had spent many nights planning what college they would attend together, what their wedding dresses would look like, and how they would be maids of honor at each other's wedding. Fast forward to the present: Sav is in her sophomore year at a liberal arts college and has finally come out as bisexual. She's making friends with others in the queer community and is exploring what her newly-admitted queerness means.

Meanwhile, Izzie is away at a prestigious east coast college. As often happens when friends move away, their closeness fades. But Sav is shocked when she sees Izzie's engagement announcement on Instagram. That's not how it went in their plans! But that's not the only thing that plagues this relationship. When they were teens, Sav and Izzie's brother had a falling out, and it affected Sav's and Izzie's friendship. Having to face Izzie's brother again forces Sav to examine what happened and deal with the trauma.

Old Enough was an okay novel. I didn't connect much with any of the characters or their relationships. Somehow, it felt forced, like the book was trying too hard. I did like how Sav had to deal with her trauma, and name it. That resonated with me, as I had to do the same thing, but it took me over 40 years to do it. Overall, the book was good for a first novel.

Old Enough by Haley Jakobson. #OldEnough #NetGalley

Ever had a friendship that you held on to because you were friends as kids, you have a history but you don't so much like the person they've become and they don't understand you at all? Or maybe you didn't feel like you fit in anywhere, you haven't told anyone about the awful thing that happened to you and oh yeah, you are trying to navigate college too? All of this is going on at once in this book and damn.

I remember trying to figure out who I was in college and I'm still figuring it out 20 years later. To say I loved this book is an understatement. The found family aspect of this is truly amazing. The relationship development was perfection. So why didn't I give it five stars? I had some issues with the back and forth in time POV. For a few chapters, it was confusing to me who was who and I had a hard time figuring it out. I got a rhythm eventually or it was clearer, I'm not sure. That's the only thing that kept me from giving this five stars.

I'm so grateful to Penguin Group Dutton for allowing me to read this book early. It's truly wonderful.

I couldn’t handle the depictions of sexual assault. Thank you for the opportunity. Otherwise I really enjoyed the book.

Thank you to Penguin, Dutton, and NetGalley for this ARC.

This book is already out in stores, I’m just awful at reading things in a timely manner.

I came into this book a little unsure of how I was going to feel about it. I came out of it in tears, smiling, and feeling like I’d made some very good friends in Savannah, Candace, Vera, and Wes.

This book covers heavy, hard topics, but does so in a way that is poignant. It is equal parts heartbreaking and uplifting, and Savannah is a perfectly imperfect, awkward, hilarious main character.

I deeply loved this book, deeply felt connected to it, and will be buying a finished copy asap.

Wow I LOVED Old Enough. Especially for a debut author, I was blown away by the delicate balance this book struck between lighthearted funny moments and deep emotional vulnerability and discussion of trauma. The characters were treated with such care. I really loved the author's exploration of girlhood and adolescence. I wish I could bottle up the way this book made me feel and experience over and over again. Please read this!!

It was cute. Felt more like YA. Wish there was more depth in a few characters rather than so little about so many. All of the different identities can at times feel forced.

The big Bi book of 2023, I didn't expect to love this as much as I did- it was fun, warm, engaging and charming, I loved Savannah and her struggle to find her place in the world as a baby queer while also negotiating her teenage trauma- the characters were quippy and witty and lovely, and this entire book just felt like a dance party for queer joy. Jakobson is a writer who makes the balancing act of remarkable characters and realistic pathos look easy, and I look forward to see what she does next!