Senior year of high school, I finished a book called It’s Not Like It’s a Secret by Mia Suigara. It is a fantastic, young adult novel that is about two teenage girls — Sana Kiyohara and Jamie Ramierez — and how they combat romance, cheating, sexism and racism. It’s a book that won the Asian/Pacific American Award for Young Literature, the 2018 YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults and the 2018 Rainbow Book List.
I found myself remembering this book late last night, picking it up and skimming through it, not realizing how heavy and amazing it was to read it. It had everything I had ever wanted in a book — it had LGBTQ+ women of color as main characters, an actual supporting/supportive cast and themes that aren’t commonly said in classic YA novels like immigrant-family relationships, “model minority” racism and even racism that’s prevalent in other non-white cultures.
To which I then said, “Why is that? Why is it that even though this book had a decent-sized list of cons and a shocking amount of three/four-star reviews on GoodReads, it’s my personal underrated favorite?”
To which I say, “I got you! I’m going to write a long pros and cons list about this book because it’s currently 4:15 a.m. and I can’t sleep, so I might as well do something productive!”
Well, I got the answer for you.
First, this book addresses a topic I’ve never seen in any form of media before: racism and stereotypes in non-white communities. I would like to first address that this book, while executing albeit a bit satisfactory, definitely made an attempt. For example, let’s just say Sana’s mother says some pretty stereotypical, prejudiced and ignorant statements against Latino-Americans, which just so happens to be Jamie’s ethnicity. It was very interesting to read something that’s hardly talked about in many non-white cultures. However, it does seem like a lot of the statements that even Jamie physically hears herself get thrown under the rug like it never actually happened.
Second, this book also talks a lot about cheating and miscommunication. While I am all for miscommunication in romance novels because it just adds a little bit of spice, it does get a little silly. But, when you take into account the fact they’re literally high schoolers that only recently figured out that they like women and only just starting to get into relationships, they get a pass.
Third, there’s the romance. Ugh, I’m such a huge sucker for women-loving-women fiction, especially when they’re both people of color. I love a good romance that I can relate to, and being able to cheese out and connect with a romance is always so, so good. I love a good high school fiction to make me not feel so bad for my pre-pubescent high school era.
This book was so good. I’d recommend it to everyone — give it a try and let me know what you think!