This kept me up reading the entire night! I love the way the story unfolded. The character building was amazing, the plot was gripping, and the vibes were even better! Absolutely everything that I want in a book! Can't wait to read more by this author!

Fiona Warnick continues to impress me. Alex felt like looking in a mirror of previous “relationships” that continue to overstay their welcome.

I remember The Skunks being a well-written novel that highlights mundanity in a new way…..I can confidently say Alex does the same. Something about the way Warnick writes that has magnified me. Not quite “weird girl” but similarly unsettling. Also, the simplicity and brashness that our main character possesses creates unique humor I’ve only seen in Fiona’s novels so far.

I can’t wait for people to read this one! Thank you Net galley// Simon & Schuester for the ARC!

In Alex, Fiona Warnick's protagonist poses a question that countless young adult women have asked before: was I just having sex to have a story to tell? Willa and Alex stop hooking up when college comes to an end. Six months later, Willa receives a casual text as though no time has passed and no feelings were hurt. The message prompts Willa to analyze their entire non-relationship, starting with the first time she heard their name.

What sets Alex apart is the writing style. Warnick's novel is actually Willa's novel—the entire book is Willa writing down her thoughts on herself and Alex. Early on, Willa makes an important decision. She is struggling mentally to separate Alex The Person from Alex The Sex, so she pulls them apart in her writing. In the main plot of the book, the story cuts out each time they start to hook up. In its place, there is an endnote linking to a sonnet that describes the sex.

I made the decision to wait until the end to read the sonnets, and I think that was a good idea. This was prompted by a comment Willa made. She had a professor that believed all endnotes should be read at the end, since they distract from the story otherwise. Given this was important enough for her to write down, I assumed that's how she wanted her story to be read as well.

In waiting to read the footnotes until the end, I heard about Alex without knowing how the sex was. Alex and Willa's relationship was almost entirely predicated around "you up?" style messages, so I found myself trapped in the interim periods. I knew about the torture Willa put herself through pining after Alex. I knew about the way they looked when they arrived and when they left. I could only assume about the in-betweens. It also allowed me to sit in the same predicament that Willa is in while she's writing. What actually is there to like about Alex? Is the relationship one-sided?

As someone in their mid-to-late 20s (I read Alex at 26 but by the time you're reading this I'm 27!), I can relate to Willa's conundrum. I have deep female friendships, but there are other people who drifted away as they got into serious relationships. It turns out, some friendships were built entirely on talking about sex. I'm not sure if that meant they were dating for the plot, but it does mean their relationship life was, in their opinion, the most interesting topic to discuss. Willa's attempt to separate her self from her relationships is a time-honored tradition of getting older.

I found it interesting that Warnick chose a nonbinary love interest for a story that felt so heteronormative in many ways. Alex is about a girl who's hopelessly in love with a person who doesn't really want a relationship but does want to have sex. Although Alex is genderqueer, they check the box of "boy" in the story. Still, though, because they are not a boy I kept hoping they would be better. In some ways their gender served to give the reader the same hope that Willa , an in-love 21 year-old old, had.

I loved reading Alex. I was immediately thrust into Willa's headspace and it was an entertaining place to be, full of doubt and fear but also an odd sense of assuredness. The use of endnotes and sonnets made this book unique while capturing a time-tested truth. If you're looking for a book about being in your early 20s, Alex by Fiona Warnick is the book for you.