It's Not Like It's a Secret

Winner of the Asian/Pacific American Award for Young Adult Literature * 2018 YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults * 2018 Rainbow Book List * A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of 2017

"Well-paced, brimming with drama, and utterly vital."--Kirkus (starred review)

This charming and bittersweet coming-of-age story featuring two girls of color falling in love is part To All the Boys I've Loved Before and part Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda.

Sixteen-year-old Sana Kiyohara has too many secrets. Some are small, like how it bothers her when her friends don't invite her to parties. Some are big, like the fact that her father may be having an affair. And then there's the one that she can barely even admit to herself--the one about how she might have a crush on her best friend.

When Sana and her family move to California, she begins to wonder if it's finally time for some honesty, especially after she meets Jamie Ramirez. Jamie is beautiful and smart and unlike anyone Sana's ever known.

There are just a few problems: Sana's new friends don't trust Jamie's crowd; Jamie's friends clearly don't want her around anyway; and a sweet guy named Caleb seems to have more-than-friendly feelings for her. Meanwhile, her dad's affair is becoming too obvious to ignore.

Sana always figured that the hardest thing would be to tell people that she wants to date a girl, but as she quickly learns, telling the truth is easy...what comes after it, though, is a whole lot more complicated.

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400 pages

Average rating: 7.88

8 RATINGS

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Mrs. Awake Taco

Nov 13, 2024

8/10 stars

Interesting book. It really explored the ideas of truth and honor, particularly with respect to relationships. It took the idea of judgment and sort of turned it on its head. It explored issues dealing with ethnicity and "fitting in" in unusual ways, like how it can feel so good to be in a group of people like you -- but is that racist? Is that bad, to isolate yourself from everyone else? Or is it good, like how people are always talking about finding your tribe? Interesting questions, all. The only problems I had with this book were, first of all, it took me a while to get into it (I have a 50 page rule but still) and that there were some parts of the book that were literally so uncomfortable that I had to put it down. I guess that's good, though, because I always tell my kids that if you're constantly comfortable, you'll never grow and get anywhere. Being uncomfortable challenges you and changes you, hopefully into something better and stronger and kinder. But I still closed the book for a few minutes and checked Tumblr because my face hurt from cringing. Anyhow, interesting little book!

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