I had a fabulous time with this YA coming of age story! As someone who grew up in fandom spaces I have seen up close both the benefits of that close-knit community and the damage that can be caused. I adored what Berky Albertelli had to say about parasocial relationships, especially given her experience with people feeling entitled to her personal information. Her discussion of the "two inches" that exists between a public persona and their real self was so important to unpack. The romance itself was super cute. I love a friends to lovers story (especially a queer one). I related to Amelia's questioning her feelings because as a woman it can be confusing untangling all the layers of feelings you can feel for another woman. The romance is a slow burn one because Amelia has a hard time determining if her feelings are platonic or romantic. This is also a closed door story so beyond the frequent references to MILFs it could be perfect for teens on the younger side. I am thrilled that this book is being published because queer teenagers deserve to feel as seen as I did by this book.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC of Amelia, If Only.

Amelia, if only you weren’t so exhaustingly annoying, I might have enjoyed this book, but you were over the top and clueless. And I am tired.

From the start, I just couldn’t get into this book. I had to put it down for a bit and read something completely different before deciding to try it again. I still didn’t enjoy it, but I kept reading because I wanted to see if Amelia would figure anything out. She did but just barely.

The narration was from Amelia’s perspective throughout the book, and there were multiple times where she seems to break the fourth wall speaking directly to readers as though her conversations/internal dialogue is supposed to be reminiscent of someone posting a video online. This narrative structure didn’t work. I’m not sure if the book would have worked better if two MCs shared the narration. It might have added some context to everything though, which would have been interesting to see someone else’s perspective on what was going on rather than be stuck in Amelia’s weird headspace.

To clutter the narrative voice even further, Albertalli inserts vignettes between some chapters that include online discussions from various social media platforms where fans/shippers discuss Walter (the You Tube star Amelia is seemingly infatuated with). These sections were pointless though since they added nothing of value to the overall plot of the novel. Honestly, I just didn’t care about Amelia’s online world of Walter and Hayden and the ship of it all. It was boring and tiresome to keep muddling through this plotline.

I read a lot of YA Novels and the key is to make sure to capture the voice of these teenagers/young adults. At times, the teens in this story seemed a bit younger than their age and too old for their age. Because of this, I had a hard time buying into any of their banter and interests. I could tell that a lot of the banter was meant to be funny, but I wasn’t laughing. I was confused by these teens fascination with Simon and Garfunkel as well. Really? They’re listening to Simon and Garfunkel. Sure. Sure. Sure. And what in the world is Amelia’s fascination with MILFs and DILFs. Like, girl, what are you going on about?

There seems to be a desire to explore parasocial relationships in Amelia, If Only, but it’s heavy handed and not done well. And it became clear early on that even though Amelia seemed to be infatuated with Walter the You Tuber, she wasn’t really into him as a love interest. But the love interest in this book was barely present. Sure, Natalie was there, but Amelia seemed clueless more than anything else. And you’re telling me that nowhere during the entire time that this friend group has known each other that the idea of Natalie and Amelia dating ever came up. Sure. Sure. Sure.

And that cute love story that reader’s are probably hoping for – doesn’t even truly start to appear until 80% in. That’s way too long to wait for any sort of story development for the love interests. This book spent so much time stuck on the parasocial relationship aspect of the book that the IRL relationships get shoved into the last 20% of the book. Not good. Not good at all.

I love that Becky Albertalli writes novels about everyday people that are relatable and easy to like. The story was a little slow but I love how her novels are connected within the same universe.

3.5 stars

This is a lighthearted coming-of-age story, a sapphic romance and a critique of fandom and shipping culture. It works amazing as the latter and great as the former but falters as a romance.

The titular main character, Amelia, is so full of life and is so clearly distinct with her chaotic bisexuality and exaggerated humor and I love her, she's so much fun. Her spiraling, obsessiveness, denial and nostalgia felt so real and relatable.

It's extra disappointing then that the rest of the characters are... not like that. Amelia's group of friends (especially her love interest) feel so dull in comparison, with not much to show for themselves. They feel like they're there mostly for the plot and as something for Amelia to bounce her humor and banter off of. (Although I do have a very soft spot for Mark who has a more distinct character, if not much depth.)

Amelia's childhood best friend (and love interest), Natalie, feels so plain and boring. The only things we as an audience learn about her are that she keeps going back to her on-and-off ex who does grand gestures to get her back, and that she plays guitar and has dimples. She could be anybody.

That's why I feel the romance falls apart. We are not shown a single believable reason why Amelia and Natalie like each other as more than friends. Hell, we're not even sure why they're friends in the first place. There isn't any emotional connection between them other than what we are told they're supposed to have. All the moments that are shown to be romantic and give Amelia butterflies feel hollow. It's a bummer, there's so much potential to work Nat into a really great interesting character.

What this book does deliver on is the entire parasocial element of it. Amelia's love for her favorite YouTuber, Walter, comes from such a sincere place and the weirdness of meeting him in person and seeing him as a regular human vs having a specific image of him from watching his videos online is so on the spot. That line between parasocially enjoying someone's personality online and unhealthy obsession can be thin sometimes and Becky Albertalli balances it perfectly.

All the social media interludes portraying real person shipping and the fandom it resides in is so realistic it made me want to throw up lol. The nuance of fandom, the good and the bad, is spot on. The way so many of these people erase boundaries and bring online discourse into real life without a care in the world about how uncomfortable they make their favorite celebrity is so unhinged and scary but so true to life.

Overall, I enjoyed this one a lot and read it much quicker than anticipated. Might pick up the Imogen book.

Thank you Netgalley and HarperCollins for the eARC!

A little bummed I didn’t love this one. I still enjoyed it for the most part, but it felt like Becky was doing a little too much with this one and the result was some of the plot and romance not being fully fleshed out.

The commentary on parasocial relationships was nice and well done. I just wish there had been a little bit less focus on the Walter of it all, so that there could be a little more backstory for the actual romance here. I did like the conclusion to Walter's storyline. It definitely went in a direction that I was not originally expecting.

I really liked the friend group though and it was great getting a little Imogen and Tessa content.

Becky does it again! I adored Amelia - she was so relatable, and her friend group was fantastic! I adored this book so much, and I cannot wait to recommend it and hand it off to readers.

Thank you so much to the publisher and NetGalley for the e-ARC!

Oh I feel perfectly giddy and such joy. Can I keep this book as a hug for always ? I’ve been a super fan of this author since imogen became an all time favorite (it still remains a favorite over this book, but I digress this book is still lovely). I wasn’t sure how the whole crush on my bestie was going to pan out, and I think I missed the signs of Nat, but I loved the Walter turn around having her finally realize it, I love the bi representation, and the youth rep of becoming your own. And such clever clever writing ! I wanna bottle it up

Thank you so much to NetGalley and HarperCollins Children’s Books for accepting my request for an ACR of this book!
4/5
All things considered, I’ve been minimally unhinged about the situation. In fact, I’m fully hinged.
First off, the tone of the main character was immaculate. This is honestly a perfect queer summer romcom. The way the media is represented was spot. on. My only critique is that as much as I love the characters, I couldn’t keep all of them straight.

Thank you Harper Collins and Netgalley for the ARC!

Another great one by Becky Albertalli. This such a cute and fun read. Some parts did drag for me. I can't rank this above Imogen, obviously but I still throughly enjoyed it!!

Thank you Harper Collins and Netgalley for the arc!

This was such a cute and fun read and so happy to see Imogen make an appearance!

I absolutely loved Imogen and absolutely loved Amelia! I hope Becky keeps writing books in this universe because they are SO good and weasel their way into my heart!

I’m going to preface this by saying that I LOVED Imogen, Obviously. To the point where I don’t even think I read the synopsis of this one? I just heard “set in the same world as IO” and I was sold. That’s my bad. I probably wouldn’t have requested the book based on this synopsis, honestly.

I also really like Albertalli as a human - her activism and how she carries herself in the semi public online space with important information and advocacy.

However, Amelia was just too much for me. She’s talking constantly, poking at her friends (not mean spirited but definitely sharper than she should), and is just all over the place. She exhausted me (as an adult) almost immediately. I couldn’t even make it to the main plot because I was desperate to escape Amelia and her Too Much-ness.

Becky Albertalli makes me feel old, but in the best way. Her latest work is perfect for today's teen.

Thank you to HarperCollins Children's Books | HarperCollins and NetGalley for providing an eARC for a honest review.

I would like to thank
HarperCollins Children's Books and Netgalley for the advanced copy.

This book was difficult to classify. Because there were some things that were very well done and developed and others that were not so well done.

Let's start by saying that once again Becky Albertalli has written a set of well-developed and realistic queer characters. From the language used to their hyper-fixations.

I found the arc around Walter super interesting, it was probably my favorite part of the book. The question of why we don't really know a celebrity, or how problematic it is to compulsively theorize about the kind of relationship between two people, especially teenagers, even when those two people deny it. The Hayters reminded me a lot of the Gaylors.

I wasn't expecting the appearance of characters from "Imogen, Obviously", or for these two books to be connected.

Now, on to what I think was most poorly constructed. The romance. Although I could see the romance coming from both parties, due to some reactions that were clearly jealousy, I felt that the romance was an addition to the book and wasn't really taken seriously. Yes, it was there and they resolved the romantic arc, but it was all sudden. I couldn't root for the romance between the characters because there was no build-up to it.

In conclusion, I still recommend this book, it has some very strong parts. I'm definitely going to continue reading more books by Becky Albertalli and I'm curious to see if she's going to extend Imogen's universe.

Queer representation: sapphic main relationship, background sapphic relationship, even more background achillean relationship. Bisexual main character, lesbian love interest.

Summary:
Amelia Applebaum is almost done with her senior year of high school and everything is going swimmingly - sure, her best friend, Natalie is still with her on-again, off-again girlfriend, and sure she invited her favorite YouTube personality, Walter Holland, to be her prom date, but all of her friends are going to be in the same town for college and nothing really has to change! When Natalie's girlfriend breaks up with her at prom, and Walter announces a fan meet-and-greet in a town a few hours away, suggesting a friend road trip is a no-brainer to Amelia! Along the way, Amelia learns about the realities of being a public figure, using humor as a coping mechanism, being afraid of change, and above all, being honest with yourself.

Review:
Wow I would love to pick Becky Albertalli's brain someday because between Imogen and Amelia, I feel as though she maybe scanned my brain and put words to the brainwaves she found in there. While Amelia, If Only, wasn't quite the overwhelming self-read that Imogen was, she still read me for filth at times - the on-going theme of remembering impressions of feelings rather than the feelings themselves was something I related to deeply, in particular. I also found the discussion of fandom culture and real person shipping to be scarily accurate - as someone who still regularly uses Tumblr and sees discourse on other platforms, Albertalli really nailed the way people feel entitled to own and project onto real people, and how they will believe anything they want even if it's direct opposition to what is actually being said. I wish we'd gotten a little more traction/movement on the part of Amelia's personality that cannot sit with uncomfortable feelings, because I thought it was a very accurate read on Amelia's personality and I would have enjoyed seeing her struggle with it more, but overall, really really enjoyed this book! If Becky Albertalli ever wants a suggestion, I'd love to see a third Imogen-verse book focused on Walter, as I think she would probably have some REALLY poignant stuff to say about anxiety, and celebrity culture from his point-of-view, I am curious to see where the Walter&Hayden drama goes as more time progresses, and I'd love to read her write an established relationship!

becky albertalli has done it again! i loved this book so much. albertalli has this way of writing characters and making them so relatable and makes you want to know more about the story it’s impossible to put down!

I went into this one with really high expectations as Imogen, Obviously is one of my all-time favorites! While this wasn’t quite as perfect as Imogen, I still really enjoyed it.

Amelia has all the charm of Imogen while being so outgoing and chaotic. She’s such a bisexual disaster, and I love her for that!

I did feel the story started to lag a little bit in the middle, but once the Imogen gang and Amelia gang met up at Blackwell University, I was 100% invested! I loved getting a glimpse at Imogen and Tessa a year later, but I also was glad that they didn’t overshadow the plot. The story still felt like Amelia’s.

While I did initially feel that the romance was a little forced, by the end, I was sold. Nothing better than best friends to lovers!

This is a great follow-up for fans of Becky Albertalli and Imogen Scott!

This wasn't my favorite Becky Albertalli book, but I still really liked it. The first 60% dragged a little, but after that point, I zoomed through it. I adore Becky Albertalli's voice and humor (there were a few too many MILF jokes for my taste, LOL, three or fewer would have been sufficient). I loved the epistolary content. It was so different and refreshing. FYI, I wouldn't consider this a romance book. Not really even a contemporary book with a romantic subplot. We didn't get to see much of a relationship until the very end.

Ugh. Becky just has the best universes. She makes me want to live in them. I always love her main characters and side characters (though I didn't always love Leah in Leah on the Offbeat, but that's a rant for another day, haha). I love that we see some of the same characters from the first book, which makes me want to reread Imogen, Obviously (which I will probably end up doing shortly, haha). I adored Walter's character. I especially appreciated the discussion of queerbaiting and how accusing real people of queerbaiting can force them out of the closet before they're ready (just look at Kit Connor from Heartstopper). I feel like this discourse was handled exceptionally well.

Read this book for:

🌼💨 bi representation
🌼💨 Jewish representation
🌼💨 childhood best friends to lovers
🌼💨 a friend group you will want to be a part of!
🌼💨 commentary on fandoms and the harm of shipping real people
🌼💨 commentary on parasocial relationships, particularly with YouTubers
🌼💨 all the times you've wished you could be friends with your fav YouTuber (we've all been there)

(also those two emojis were the closest i could get to symbolizing a dandelion, LOL. i tried)

Thanks to the publisher for the eARC of this book!

Becky Albertalli can *do no wrong*. I will read anything she writes, and *Amelia, If Only* totally delivered. I’m not a fandom girlie myself, but the way she wrote that world? It felt so real—I could *see* the K-pop-stan energy.

Amelia’s friend group had my whole heart, and while I *might* have aged out of YA a bit, Becky’s way of describing feelings always hits so hard. Honest, funny, and quietly emotional in all the right places.

Also… if you’ve read *Imogen, Obviously*… the scissors!!! IYKYK.

Huge thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC!

A very sweet read. I loved seeing Imogen, Lily, Edith, and Tessa pop up again and the issues with Amelia and Natalie being jealous of each other's crushes without realizing was very cute :) Also yay for the ITGO reference!