3⭐️

Were you blessed with watching the life changing GIRLS LIKE GIRLS music video by Lesbian Jesus herself Hayley Kiyoko? WELL I WAS! AND NOW I HAVE BEEN BLESSED WITH RECEIVING AN ARC OF THE ORIGIN STORY OF GIRLS LIKE GIRLS!!!

Coley is all alone. She’s 17 years old and was forced to move to a rural Oregon town after the loss of her mother. After a near-miss accident has meets Sonya, and her world stops. After the events of Coley’s life, she’s not sure if she is worthy of love and with the battle of internal homophobia, she’s not sure if she can make it work with Sonya and Sonya isn’t sure if she can risk it all for Coley.

I absolutely hate rating this so low but the writing just wasn’t there for me 😩 Hayley is an all around goddess, she’s Lesbian Jesus for a reason, but this book just needed a little bit more editing and fine-tuning. Hayley’s poetry really shines through and is a beautiful way to show sapphic love, it was just the dialogue that lost me. The storyline was fantastic and based on just vibes this was perfect. Girls Like Girls shows us the story BEFORE the music video and really ties everything up so well. This story is about acceptance, healing from grief, and being able to fully love yourself. And after I finished this I had to watch the music video again, for a full circle moment.

Please note that there are several triggering and heavy themes throughout the book like mentions of suicide, loss of a loved one, grief, mental illness, homophobia, internalized homophobia and struggling with identity and sexuality.

Thank you St. Martin’s Press, Wednesday Books, Hayley Kiyoko and NetGalley for an advanced reading copy for an honest review. I love you all! 💕

I had high expectations for this because I loved the Girls Like Girls music video when it came out, so what could be better than that but in longform? Unfortunately, this book fell flat for me. It read too much like an actor pretending to be an author, with way more telling than showing. There was so much drama and wistfulness that it crossed over to artificial. Don't get me wrong, I love and appreciate the sentiment of this story, but the execution was lackluster.

This was a masterpiece and I’d like to live in this book and be friends with these people and just idk. I needed this so much and I’m so happy our teens will have books like this.

I DNFed around 35%. The fact that Hayley Kiyoko wrote this book is what intrigued me but ultimately, I think I'm over slow-burn YA romances. I didn't find the characters very compelling and the story wasn't fresh enough to keep my attention.

Hayley Kiyoko really shocked me on this one. I was expecting a good story with okay writing. However, I found the writing to be really up to par with all other YA romance authors. There was a lot of unpacking of trauma in this book without it feeling gratuitous. I really enjoyed the way we got to see both characters POV, but in a more creative way than just alternating chapters.

great book and I enjoyed the characters growth. Loved the friends and how this all worked out. I enjoyed the characters journey to finding oneself and others. I hope to read more by this author again.

2.5-4 ⭐️ (very conflicted feeling)

I have a lot of thoughts about this book and I’m very conflicted on how I feel, I think I need to re read multiple times before I can know one way or the other because I personally think I wouldn’t like it nearly as much if I didn’t have the history I do with the music video. It was definitely a worthwhile read if it peaks your interest although I do wonder if the book can stand on it’s on away from the legacy of the music video and Hayley.

Fun, cute, something I think a lot of students will like but definitely wasn't perfect for me (as an adult, but I'm not the target audience!) I would be happy to have this in my classroom, but I'm not rushing out to buy it, either.

This is a little difficult to review. I liked the idea of this book, and I liked the song/video it’s about, but the execution wasn’t great. The book was so repetitive it was predictable. And then there was the end. That in itself ruined it all. BUT the narrators and sound effects saved it for me.

Ok so let’s talk about the writing style. I couldn’t put it into words, but as I was talking it out to my mom about it, it finally made sense. It was so repetitive. Like they kept cycling round and round. It was like a weird adult relationship and they wouldn’t leave each other because of the kids or some shit. It wouldn’t have been so bad, but it was also so toxic. One of them didn’t even want to admit that they liked the other and she was being hurt so bad. And I hated that. She didn’t deserve that at all. Then there was the ending. All the things that were building up and building up finally happened….. And then it was over. It felt so rushed. Like it hit the climax and then it was over. I would have liked it more if she had finally given us some time together instead of them fighting and all that. And then for the one person to give them an ultimatum and she still went the other way. I was so annoyed.

The romance was mostly nonexistent. It was so much of them going back and forth and her not wanting to out herself. Which, understandable, but you don’t get to continue hurting her and leading her on the whole time. You don’t continue to hurt someone you say you love. If she loved her she would have left her alone until she was ready. Especially since she knew she couldn’t resist her. It was hurting me to read that part. The actual romance didn’t exactly come out until the ending. And even then it wasn’t a good one.

The actual reason I rated this so high was because I read the audiobook version. The narrators were fire, there were multiple narrators, AND there was some special sound effects in there too. It made me feel like I was in the middle of the story. Like I was in Oregon with them. And it helped that one of the narrators was one of my favorites, Nadus. She has done so many audios and they’re all good. If nothing else about this book, I liked the audio and was really impressed by it.

This was ok, but I don’t think it was executed right. I do think it just needed a few tweaks here and there and it would have been ok. But without those things I was a bit bored and I don’t think it landed well. It’s unfortunate because I liked the song and the music video, but this just didn’t hit the same.

I loved this book. The characters were written incredibly realistic, as though they came straight out of reality. The main character of Coley intrigued me, and I loved seeing the character development throughout the book. There were moments were I felt so strongly for her as a character that I wanted to fight people for her. I also loved when I could place the book in the music video it's based on, which really took me back in time to when it was first released. I think these kinds of books are essential, not just about gay people, but about gay people still coming into themselves and figuring their identity out, as we see with not only Coley but more intensely with Sonya, especially in this small town where everyone knows everyone. Before I read it, I knew I would love this book, and I was right. The only thing that keeps it from a five-star for me, is that it almost verges on Insta-love, which I am not a fan of, and takes it out of reality for me slightly. This is remedied as Sonya and Coley get closer, and actually forge their relationship, but Coley seems almost obsessed with her in the beginning. Other than that, I truly loved my experience reading this, and will recommend it to everyone,

When Coley moves in with her father in a new town the summer before her senior year of high school, she has some unresolved trauma. Namely, her mother's death and her father's previous abandonment, but also that she is interested in women. When she meets Sonya, a beautiful girl with a terrible ex-boyfriend, she can't help but be drawn to her. The two develop a close friendship but after a kiss, Sonya pushes her away and denies her feelings.

This book is based on Hayley Kiyoko's song and music video of the same name, yet despite having seen the video I somehow didn't see the ending coming. This book was a struggle at first, with the character feeling immature and flat, but dang it, by a few chapters in I was HOOKED and dying to see how everything turned out. There was a not insignificant amount of underage drinking and drug use in the book, which at times felt over-the-top. But perhaps that just wasn't my youth, and in smaller towns there really is nothing else to do. The ending felt rushed, and perhaps, in retrospect, it strove too hard to match the music video. But I was enthralled by the story, and there was something about it that made me keep reading.

Thanks to Wednesday Books for my eARC and finished copy! All thoughts and opinions are my own.

4 stars - 7/10

The release of Girls Like Girls by Hayley Kiyoko is the culmination of a long-held dream of the lesbian pop star -- and it paid off in dividends. This is the absolute perfect continuation of Kiyoko's music video by the same title, and a much-needed and to be much-loved entry into the sapphic teen literary canon.

I’d first like to thank NetGalley and the author for allowing me to read this beautiful love story.

This was out the gate a five star read. I loved the characters so much and a true tell is when you can also form strong dislike for some of the characters as well.

This is a story of your first love as well as being confused in sexuality and a coming of age story all rolled into one. It is so beautifully told and really made my heart ache for the characters as they are trying to not only define themselves but also their sexuality and what that means to their friends and family.

Trigger warning for mention of suicide.
This was written so well and I cannot wait to read what’s next for Hayley. I highly recommend this book.

This one was wholly not meant for me. The writing is very 2011 and I am just not about that life anymore. Would recommend to someone who really liked that music video but I am not it.

If you want a Sarah Dessen book from your millennial childhood but make it queer, this is your book. Unfortunately the writing lacked the depth and description to pull my interest in as much as I would have liked.

This book put me through the wringer, I knew I'd enjoy it because Girls Like Girls was a formative lesbian experience for so many people, myself included, and an extended version of it in a book was a dream I didn't realise I could have.

I loved Coley, there was just something about her and her characterisation that hit home for me, and I wish I could say the same about Sonya. I spent half the book hoping they wouldn't end up together, only to let out a sigh of relief when they did.

I was conflicted, but at no point in reading this did I really consider myself having anything less than a good time.

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

This was a pretty decent debut novel, and pretty standard YA romance. I love the song and music video that were the inspiration for this book and it was really nice to see the backstory behind the characters in the MV. I just wish the supporting characters were a little more fleshed out- they all seemed pretty one more. I understand Trenton’s character being kind of flat because I have known guys like that, but the others deserved better.

This was also, as someone who was in high school in 2006, starting my senior year, an absolute blast of nostalgia. The AIM conversations? The flip phones? The LiveJournal entries!?! Complete with mood and music! And the music for public entries being all upbeat pop and the private entries being Sad Girl Music? Exquisite.

I loved this! I have been a fan of Hayley for a long time, so when I heard her announce a Girls Like Girls novel, I knew I needed to get my hands on it. The progression from song to music video to book just kept adding details to make the story more and more fleshed out. I loved how within the story both Coley and Sonia make mistakes and fumble their way through coming to terms with their sexualities and how they fit into the world around them. The story kept all of the charm and magic that made the music video so important, while still adding more layers to create a world in and of itself. This is the perfect pride month read, and I can absolutely see myself rereading this to hear Hayley's audiobook narration!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

1.5 stars

I was very excited for this, and I commend Hayley Kiyoko for branching out and trying something new, but Girls Like Girls was not just a disappointment, but also a straight-up chore to complete. I started this the first of March and couldn't bear to finish it until the middle of June, which I finally did because I was sick of it lingering on my "currently reading" shelf.

There were a lot of aspects about Girls Like Girls that I was ready to be lenient towards: 1) This is a debut novel, and everyone has room to grow after their debut! 2) Hayley Kiyoko is established as an actor and a singer, and sometimes it's difficult to break into a different industry. 3) This is YA, and the tone of YA can greatly vary since its target audience can really be from middle school to college. 4) It's set in 2006, so I'm sure Hayley Kiyoko intentionally put some references in her novel that would not be as relevant today.

Unfortunately, even with all of that in mind, I could not get past how fundamentally poor the writing was. And I mean like, all aspects of it. The sentences. The dialogue. The plot. The characters. The pacing. I understand the idea of the book (as it's one that's been replicated numerous times in YA), but the execution was far from great. Here are some examples:

~you don't understand, she's not like other girls~
The first time I got to a "I'm not like other girls" line, I genuinely thought it was supposed to be funny and ironic. And then they just kept coming. Profusely. I get it, this book is not set in 2023, but there's a reason the tables have turned and we now mock the "I'm not like other girls" girls (oh, and trust me, I was the BIGGEST Not Like Other Girls girl to ever exist, we all have a dark past LOL). That reason is that it's annoying, and quite frankly misogynistic! So to read it over and over again was exhausting; yes, those thoughts are valid, and again, I suffered from that kind of thinking for most of adolescence, but it was never suggested to be something harmful, and if anything, it was seen as a unique, pure trait from the narrator.

Here's a quote from Chapter 1: "Secrets that are more like truths when you winnow them down: I'm not like other girls. And no, not in that bullshit way guys use to try to compliment you. Please--give me some credit here."

It just felt very juvenile, and honestly outdated.

~someone turn on mcr because this girlie's emooooo~
I thought I was emo. I mean I've been rocking the same Justin Beiber haircut since I was 15 and I saw MCR three times last year. But our lovely narrator Coley takes the cake for emoest emo in emo town. It got annoying very fast.

Some quotes! "I learned the hard way that the only person you can need without getting hurt is yourself. or "I'm not supposed to be here, yet I am." or "The SJs of the world are definitely not fans of girls like me, and this SJ wasn't giving me any reason to think differently, but sometimes bitchy humor is universal." or "I don't fit here. At all. Oh my God, why did I come here?"

Okay I had a lot more highlighted but you get the point. I'm tired of typing them out.

~the toxic sludge romance~
The romance made me mad enough that I won't say much besides it was awful. Toxic, confusing, unhealthy, and really, just unbelievable. It's hard because, again, Coley's experiences are incredibly valid and I'm sure have some relatability to them, but there's nothing enjoyable about reading over three hundred pages of teenagers making awful decisions. Yeah, yeah, yeah, teenage love is messy. Teenagers make bad decisions as they navigate their first relationships. It's confusing. Sometimes we know things are wrong and yet try to ignore those gut feelings because isn't that what love is? Hell, I spent half of high school dating a guy who didn't believe in showering or brushing his teeth and would constantly tell him hentai girls were more attractive than me. Teenage romance can be rough!

But this romance was infuriating. I love unlikeable teenage characters. My favorite genre ever is coming-of-age YA. And by default, that genre is full of angst and poor decisions and partially developed frontal lobes. But there was such a lack of connection in Girls Like Girls that made it difficult to understand why Coley and Sonya liked each other, and why they'd endure so much pain for each other.

Also, at some points, I genuinely felt like Sonya was a bully. Or at least just concerning manipulative. Towards the end I had some hope because Coley starts to stand up for herself, but of course, in the last few pages that's all dissolves.

~everything else~
The side characters were flat and we really didn't get much background on them. The middle was very slow. Everyone was unbearable--both in the annoying sense, but also in the "oh you just might actually be a bad person" sense. Also, there was one tiny part that was full of missed potential. Towards the beginning of the book, Coley says, "So here's the thing: I'm not supposed to be here. Not like I've ever felt like I'm supposed to be anywhere. I'm never white enough. Never Asian enough. Never...enough." As someone who is also white and Asian, I was really excited to see how that in-between space of being biracial was going to be navigated throughout the book, except it just...was not. After that line, it was never mentioned again. I didn't want the book to be some commentary on race, but I was hoping it would show up again, but it never did.

~the bottom line~
This book was slow, toxic, and genuinely boring. If you took out all the poor communication and alcohol, you'd be left with an entire book of empty pages.

Thank you to NetGalley for my copy in exchange for an honest review.

I went into this book not knowing the author and not knowing the music video so maybe that has me in a different headspace from others. YA coming-of-age stories aren’t my normal so that’s already a strike against this book. It is, like the genre tends to be, full of angst and over-the-top emotions and problems that could be solved with a conversation. This book seems particularly so, as the writing tends to be a bit blunt and clumsy. The relationship development of Coley and her dad was decent but can’t say that about any other relationship in the book. Trenton was the west to the point where it made it distractingly unbelievable that he had friends at all. Sonya was flat, especially when paired with choosing to make her an insta-love object of affection. Overall the plot just felt super flat and anticlimactic, and so much was left undone at the end that I’m both irritated I didn’t see wrapped up but also don’t care enough about to keep reading. A solid “meh” from me.