Authors: Becky Albertalli and Aisha Saeed
Rating: 2/5
Jamie Goldberg doesn’t mind volunteering to help his senate candidate win but speaking to strangers isn’t his cup of tea. Maya Rehman’s parents are filing for divorce and her best friend doesn’t have time for her. Instead, she’s roped into helping Jamie with political canvassing.
Spoilers ahead.
Detailed Summary
Jamie is at Target and crashes into a tangelo stand causing it to fall over. He sees two girls and recognises one of them. Jamie and his sister Sophie pick up snacks for the campaign office and drop them off. Gabe, Jamie’s cousin and part of the campaign staff, asks him to canvass but Jamie refuses. Jamie’s mother ropes him into giving the toast at Sophie’s bat mitzvah which he refuses because he hates public speaking and is bad at it. Maya’s parents are getting divorced and she feels she can’t talk to her best friend Sara who’s leaving for college after the summer. At an event at the mosque, Jamie and Maya meet. Maya’s mother agrees to get her a car if she canvasses for Jordan Rossum’s party. Maya and Jamie canvass together. One of the people they meet is a racist white man who makes Islamophobic comments about Maya. This along with H.B. 28 (which is a racist bill banning face coverings) propel Maya to canvass not just for a car but for a better future. (Plus, she’s slowly falling for Jamie.) Jamie’s car has been tagged with a Fifi sticker which is antisemitic. Jamie and Maya talk to Holden’s legislative director but don’t feel listened to. Maya’s relationship with Sara becomes increasingly strained because they don’t spend any more time together and Sara is leaving early to get a job at a bookstore. After Ramadan, Jamie and Maya go to Intermezzo for cake. Sara and Maya have a falling out. Maya goes to Jamie’s house for comfort. Jamie and Maya work on flyers to encourage people to vote for Rossum and stop H.B. 28 from passing. Jamie’s grandmother’s car is about to get tagged with a Fifi sticker but she catches the perpetrator and Jamie films it and puts it on InstaGramm (his grandmother’s Instagram account, she’s an influencer). The video goes viral. Jamie and Maya make a few videos to educate the public which also gain traction. At Sophie’s bat mitzvah, Jamie makes his toast, he and Maya leave flyers all around and then talk alone. They confess their feelings and are about to kiss when Gabe interrupts. Everyone keeps staring at them and they learn Gabe posted a photo (clicked by Sophie’s friend) of the near-kiss which then goes viral. Maya says she can’t date Jamie because of her religion and culture and the two stop talking. Maya gets her car and her parents tell her dating is complicated. On Election Day, Maya realises she’s in love with Jamie and goes to Target and they kiss. They watch the results at the election party. Rossum loses but Jamie is told that a group of lawyers have gotten together to fight the bill passing (they saw the flyers at the bat mitzvah).
Plot and Pacing
Ooof, this book! I really don’t know how to feel about it. I had been putting it off for a while (ever since it was released actually) because I just wasn’t sure I’d enjoy it very much. But then I found it just sitting on the shelf in the library and I felt that was a sign to pick it up. So I did. And, as it turns out, my apprehension was spot on. Yes No Maybe So certainly has important messages to convey about the importance of youth engaging in politics and how sometimes it feels like the whole political system is in shambles and resolutely against you yet you’re still expected to be “okay” how things are run.
BUT.
I think it was trying to do waaaay too much and ultimately read as a very flat novel.
With the politics, I will admit I had a tough time really understanding what the hell was going on. I don’t understand (the finer points of) USA politics. I’m not from there and don’t intend to go there any time soon. I did understand the general bill and how it was racist etc. And the canvassing–I didn’t realise that was a thing! People actually go door-to-door begging for votes? Fascinating. No, seriously, I’m not being sarcastic there. And it was the perfect way to nudge Jamie and Maya in the “right” direction (by which I mean being more aware of current events, not the romance bit).
If the book had been solely about engaging the community, I think that would have been a far more cohesive read. Instead, religion is also brought into it which would have been absolutely fine if it had been woven in better! I felt as though both Maya and Jamie were using their religions as identity markers and nothing deeper than that. The book opens with Maya willingly fasting for Ramadan which I loved seeing. But then midway through the book, Maya’s identity as a Muslim sort of just…fades away? Why didn’t she have more interactions with the Muslim community? Perhaps seeing how the bill was actually going to affect the people she saw at her mosque would have been more impactful. Same with Jamie, I guess his being a Jew was a little more evident with the whole bat mitzvah toast subplot but sometimes it did feel a little shoehorned in. There was so much room for development! I would have loved to see how Maya and Jamie’s religious differences caused initial clashes and then communication and clarity about how they could make their relationship work (or not work).
I’m not sure how I feel about Maya and Jamie getting together in the end. Was I shipping it? Hell yes! But Maya’s opinion on dating and relationships, how you shouldn’t “casually” data someone and should be looking for people who are in it for the long haul, all that just disappears. I have a similar mindset towards relationships. Not that I’m expecting the first person I date to be my spouse or anything like that but I don’t want to just date people for the sake of dating. So, I was surprised that Maya pretty much gave up on her beliefs so quickly. I understood she had to for the sake of a “slomance” but it still bothered me.
Also, every event in the story felt like a plot point. You’re probably thinking, “No shit, that’s how stories work,” and yes, I hear you but everything–the racist man, the bumper sticker, the legislative lady not taking the pair seriously–felt like very obvious ways to get characters to react and I just didn’t buy it. They were so randomly thrown in that I couldn’t really savour it.
Characters
I’ve talked quite a lot about the characters. On their own, I thought they were quite cool. I have a soft spot for Jamie. What an adorable little cinnamon bun. I loved how well he got along with his sister and was willing to give her and her friends rides to the mall and all. He was so cutely passionate about politics and his awkwardness was painfully relatable. I also really liked Maya and how she was torn between her friendships and found it difficult to open up about her issues. It was cool to see her start canvassing not just for the car but to genuinely make a difference. I appreciated the diversity in the books and it was pretty cool that both authors were, you know, from those cultural backgrounds. As I mentioned above though, I do wish there had been room for more conversation about religion and how you don’t have to bend over backwards completely to compromise.
Writing Style
I will admit I was a little disappointed with the writing. I enjoyed the humour in Jamie’s chapters but other than that, this book felt quite bland. Also, is it just me or are all of Albertalli’s protagonists VERY similar? I mean, I love Becky Albertalli’s books but even Kate in Waiting had a lot of fangirling and pop-culture references. I’ve never read any of Saeed’s work and while there wasn’t anything wrong per se in Maya’s chapters nor was there anything particularly remarkable. I also got very annoyed with the sheer number of times both authors used “suddenly” in their sentences.
OH AND ALSO, what is with everything going viral SO DAMN QUICKLY? Even my cute fluffy adorable doggo hasn’t gone viral yet and he’s got everything it takes!
Earnestly Eccentric 