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It just felt very juvenile, and honestly outdated.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.

OMG! I loved this book! It literally felt like I was IN this music video for Girls Like Girls. I was so immersed it's unreal. There were characters I hated, characters I loved and characters I were half and half on. I loved the growth of Coley's relationship with her estranged dad. This book navigated grief and troubled parental relationships so well.

The book started off slow but eventually picked up just before the middle but the ending was quite underwhelming and rushed. I would love a second book to see how Coley and Sonya's relationship pan out. The story could have been developed a lot more to give it more depth, however, for a debut book, this was one solid book.

I like Hayley Kiyoko, I like her a lot. I grew up with her being on Disney Channel and I listened to her music all throughout my teens. I think she's a brilliant artist but she's not a writer. At least not yet.

While I love the mother-daughter/father-daughter dynamics in this book and I got a smidge emotional as Coley was talking about her mother's death, this book felt very lifeless. Like there were pieces of it missing. The narrative is all over the place and none of the side characters feel big enough for you to really care about them.

Sadly, this just wasn't the book for me but I'm glad I read it and I have hope for books from Hayley in the future.

I felt like this had potential to be really engaging, but fell really short and so cringey!
Thank you to St. Martin's Press/NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I was very skeptical of a book based on a music video based on a song at first, but this book was absolutely a full story! If you are not familiar with the music video, give it a watch before or after reading to see some basic parts of the book in action!

Very interesting fun story of girls who like girls… but have to deal with that in a society that’s not always approving of that. Set in 2006- so you’ll see some old technology such as AIM ( look it up kids) and nostalgia. Very realistic, fast paced and fun.

I had a good time reading this book, and really appreciated the emotional journey that Coley went on. I especially loved the unpacking of her relationship with her dad, and the care with which that was handled. I think what kept me from really connecting with the book as a whole was just my pessimistic viewpoint and inability to believe that Coley and Sonya would ever really be able to make it work together.

It’s taken me a while to formally write this review, but I needed some time to collect my thoughts.

Firstly, I was super excited to find out this was being released, especially because I used to watch the music video a million times when I was younger. Secondly, I wasn’t expecting to enjoy this as much as I did.

While reading, I was low-key trying to figure out which scenes from the book were in the music video, but in the end, this felt like its own story rather than a direct copy/paste of the video.

This was super fast paced as I read half of it in one day and the writing was easy to immerse myself into. I also loved the additional illustrations and AIM chapters from Sonya’s POV. And the scenes with Coley and her dad were very heartwarming, yet realistic considering the circumstances. I wished they were more of them.

My only issue with was with the friendship dynamics. I normally enjoy reading them in a YA contemporary, but I wasn’t the biggest fan this time around. Trenton was the worst and the rest were pretty toxic. I truly think Sonya deserved better friends.

All in all, this was probably one the best queer YA books I’ve read in a while. If she writes more books—I’m reading them.

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

Thank you, Net Galley and Wednesday books, for an arc of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Inspired by her 'Girls Like Girls' music video, Hayley Kiyoko wrote the story of 17-year-old Coley, who finds herself in small-town Oregon after the sudden loss of her mother. Upon moving, Coley meets Sonya, and the sparks fly instantly. However, Coley's inner struggles have her conflicted on whether love is possible for someone like her. This is a young adult novel and deals with heavy themes like suicide, grief, homophobia and substance abuse.

Girls Like Girls was a good debut for Hayley Kiyoko, with excellent representation and a great approach to difficult themes and conversations. Kiyoko's music video was a culturally significant moment, and I enjoyed the expansion of the storyline and its broadening to a new and younger audience.

I did find the overall experience to be fairly middling and anti-climatic, but I would continue to recommend this novel to younger readers.

I enjoyed this for what it is - a story built from a music video centering teenage love. Was it cringy at times? Yes! But being a teenager is cringy! While the writing wasn't the best, I thought it captured the big feelings of growing up and young love well. And I thought the use of the Live Journal format was clever and effective.

My biggest complaints were around the opening and close of the story. The opening smacks you in the face with a potentially triggering event and closes with NO accountability and minimal growth of the romantic interest (Sonya). Coley....you've done all this growth and recognized this girl has so much self-loathing and has treated you badly....but her wanting to be with you is the happy ending? Girl, no!

I really enjoyed the depth to both main characters. Coley and Sonya make a lot of growth throughout the story and it was beautiful how they came to realize they are both worthy of true love. Kiyoko does a great job of capturing teenage angst and catching feelings for someone.

I’m of two minds about this book. On the one had, I am so happy that this book exists. I remember when the song and music video came out how exciting it was to see such open and honest lesbian representation become part of wider pop culture and I loved seeing a more fully fleshed out version of the story. That being said, it was not a perfect book.

Kiyoko is a talented storyteller and crafted a story that had me wanting to keep turning pages but I almost feel like she was trying to pack in too much. This book is marketed as a romance, but the plot mostly centers around Coley learning to love herself and accept that she is worthy of being loved which I love to see. The actually romance itself is rocky in the way that many teen relationships/first loves are, but I was never able to fully buy into it. I found the love interest to be toxic which was understandable given her circumstances but it made it harder for me to see why Coley kept going back to her.

The book handles some really heavy topics, like grief and suicide and of course homophobia, and while I think it handles them well, I wish some of the elements had been developed a little more. Especially towards the end, some plot threads were added that really didn’t go anywhere and then the reunion between Coley and Sonya felt rushed. I also struggled a little with the decision to set the book in 2006. While it makes sense given Kiyoko’s age, I alternated between forgetting that it was set in 2006 and wondering how well certain aspects of being a teenager nearly 20 years ago would play out for teens today.

Overall, I thought this was a really solid debut and a good summertime / beach read, and I look forward to seeing if Kiyoko writes another novel!

i loooved this. i've been a fan of hayley kiyoko for yeeears, literally since i saw her on wizards of waverly place! i also love her music & so when i found out she was writing a book based off of one of her songs/music videos, i knew i NEEDED to read it asap. i literally screamed when i received this arc & WOW. i loved it sm! the representation was amazing but i didn't expect anything less.

This probably could have done better with a better editor or dare I say a ghost writer. It was kind of all over the place, wasn’t sure if it was YA or adult, and missed the mark for me. I love Hayley’s music and this was a bummer

Girls Like Girls by Hayley Kiyoko

Published: May 30, 2023
Wednesday Books
Pages: 311
Genre: LGBTQ+ Romance
KKECReads Rating: 4/5
I received a copy of this book for free, and I leave my review voluntarily.

Hayley Kiyoko is an American singer-songwriter, dancer, actress, and author.

“But I guess love is the strongest tether, isn’t it?”

Coley moved in with her estranged father after her mother passed away. She has a lot of emotional weight to unpack, so her last need is a crush. Sonya is trapped playing a part she isn’t sure she wants, but she doesn’t know if she can stop.

This was a typical teen story, filled with big feelings and angst. While Coley was dealing with how to process her grief while building a relationship with her dad, she also has to process being the new girl in town.

The characters were well-defined as teenagers. There was an element of emotions and despair that I think all teens feel as they evolve.

The storyline was decent. The romance aspect was very high school. Hang out for a couple of weeks, and bam, it’s love. I would have liked to see Coley work through some of her inner struggles as she started on the path to finding herself.

I think Sonja needed some more growth throughout the book. She comes across as flighty and a bit shallow at times. Her character had some issues I think would have been interesting to see processed.

Overall, this was a typical YA novel. Dealing with young people who feel too much and not enough.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the eARC!

I was initially intrigued by the author, probably like many other people familiar with her work. And of course, I am always here for new queer YA so I was excited to dive in.

I think perhaps this book isn't the right fit for me, however I did enjoy my reading time of it! I enjoy that it was set in the near past; the journal entries felt very teen and were a smart way to give the reader other POVs. I'm definitely the right age to remember this past familiarly. However I definitely feel too old for this style of writing and narrative.

I feel like it really accurately captures the stream of consciousness, the emotional turbulence, and (lets be honest) self-centeredness of teenage life. Everything is so immediate and important when you're a teenager. Its hard to trust adults, its hard to trust yourself, everything is changing and you hate it.

For Coley a lot of things have turbulently changed recently! And she definitely starts the book kind of unlikable because of this trauma she's still working through.

It's a long book for a short plot, if that makes sense. I wish a little bit more happened, but it makes sense to take place over the summer like it did.

I think anyone who loves teen romcom movies, is a teenager themselves, and is a fan of Hayley Kiyoko should give this book a try. I will say, go into it expecting a LOT more angst then you may think would happen for a book based on a music video.

As a lesbian do I even need to say that I loved this!? I mean come on a book based on one of the best sapphic songs written by lesbian Jesus herself, this book is literally everything! This book had me on a roller-coaster of emotions. I was sobbing and it hurt so much but in the absolute best way. I really don't think I can say anything new about this book. It was fantastic and you just need to go read it right now!

i love hayley kiyoko and her music, and i was so pleasently surprised by this book. i love how it directly ties into her song and the story was fantastic. we need more sapphic books all the time!

I love Hayley Kiyoko, I love the original music video, and I was so excited to receive this ARC. Kiyoko honestly pleasantly surprised me with her writing, I'll admit my expectations weren't too high going in. I think a few more edits/drafts would've done this book some good, but overall it was a sweet (if not a little too sappy) read. I would've loved to see more exploration of Sonya's character and a deeper connection between the two characters. Overall though, this is a very sweet sapphic YA that I could definitely see myself recommending to younger me.

Girls Like Girls aka THE book by THE lesbian Jesus (*screams a bit*) was exactly what the author (and that iconic video) promised it to be - two girls finding themselves and battling their inner demons while doing so. Their love story was sometimes very gentle and sweet but also very much filled with angst and pain and even self-loathing that seeped into their relationship at times.
After Coley is forced to move to her dad's after her mother's death, her life is turned upside down. But when one of her first days there she crosses paths with a fearless Sonya and her gang, Coley's summer starts looking up. Hanging out with Sonya, tolerating her friends (mostly), spending endless days and nights cocooned in a fantasy - a fantasy that gets even better when Coley realizes that there might be something more than friendship between her and Sonya. But after soft kisses comes a rude awakening - Sonya won't admit her feelings or the fact that she might be attracted to girls, and as the summer progresses and Sonya leaves for dance camp, Coley is left all alone to deal with her feelings. But maybe having some time to sort stuff out isn't all bad.

Coley truly found herself during this summer - who she was as a person, how she wanted her life to progress. At 17 she was dealt with too many blows, but as she allowed herself to be truthful with the people around her - be it her estranged dad or strangers that became friends, she grew into herself, learning what she deserves and refusing to settle for less. It was then only Sonya's job to catch up.

Girls Like Girls perfectly captures the vibe and the story of the music video it was based off of - so if you know and like the video, you know what to expect - some sweetness, some pain, lots of gay (yay!)! This story takes place in mid-2010 which is also mirrored in how much these teens know about the queer culture and what kind of rep they had growing up (barely any) - and that also colours how they see themselves a lot. I enjoyed Coley's journey and I think my favourite character next to her was Alex (a true friend - I wish we learned more about him and his queerness as well!). I had my problems with Sonya at times but I do believe that those tiny glimpses into her kinda "online private journal" made her a lot more likeable - she was struggling with her sexuality a lot and while her actions can't be completely written off, that can be taken into account.

All in all this will be a perfect read for any fans of Hayley Kiyoko and her storytelling through music, but also for fans of queer YA books that hit a bit harder (I do recommend checking the trigger warnings before jumping in).

Trigger Warnings: suicide of a parent, lesbophobia and homophobia, internalized homophobia, on-page violence (between teens), on-page drug use and alcohol consumption by minors