If You Still Recognise Me was a great read which explored many different ideas such as cultural, childhood, and sexual identity. This book well represented Queer, Black and Asian characters who went through their own relationship and family struggles. I found the book heart-warming and relatable with lovable but flawed and realistic characters. These ideas being explored also made for a more interesting read and made the characters more real and less perfect which helps break down expectations for an unrealistic perfect person.
If You Still Recognise Me was an exceptional read for many different reasons. The exploration of childhood, cultural and adult identity was shown through the main character, Elsie, who struggles through these different aspects of her life. Elsie being bisexual and finding her way through a bad relationship, family problems and growing up in different continents and therefore cultures shows the struggles of teens in the world today. This book also gives amazing LGBTQIA+ representation through the young and older queer characters. It also shows the characters questioning their gender identities which is another aspect of the book that is very real and represented well, along with the representation of bi-racial, Asian and Black characters.
Additionally, the idea of Elsie growing up with Chinese culture and English culture and different beauty standards is explored and handled very well in this book. Being a person who may not belong to a singular ideal and not being able to fit in is shown through the main character going through these things herself which allows the reader to relate to the book or explore new ideas of cultural identity which they may not be exposed to before. Specifically, living with two different cultures being apart of you and finding yourself through these different aspects is an idea I am happy to see being explored in a book whilst being written so well. This also resonates with me, especially being a part of two different cultures and living in England, whilst not being able to see your family or really get to know them, shown through blurry memories and other ideas.
Being apart of a fandom is another well portrayed idea which many people also grew up relating to and also found solace in throughout their lives. The idea of having different types of relationships is shown through the book in a way which shows Elsie with online and in person friends and with healthy relationships in both cases. Ada and Elsie are shown as becoming more confident through their relationship and through the Eden Recoiling fandom which allowed them to become friends from the start this also portrays the idea of fandom culture bringing people together and helping people through different times in their lives, especially when they may feel alone.
I also find the idea of unrequited love between friends well explored, this is a struggle for people who find themselves in that situation and gives a representation that helps people feel less alone. This is also a slightly awkward but very real thing which happens often and is handled well in this book.
The idea of having to label yourself in this modern society is also explored with an interesting take. This book shows the idea of having labels such as being Bisexual or Lesbian as helpful to create communities but also a struggle when trying to find your own identity or when your identity is more fluid and maybe even having hopes for an ideal world with no labels.
Overall, I enjoy the different relatable ideas explored in this book and found it a very good and heart-warming read.
I was hooked into this story with the illustrious descriptions of the setting
18 year old Elsie has lots to think about the summer after her A-Levels – dreaming about her life in college, going on holiday with her best friend Ritika and confessing her crush on her online-friend Ada, after they both bonded by fangirling over their favourite graphic novel. This book is a coming-of-age romance and touches on multiple positive themes, including love, self-discovery, identity and friendships – old and new! I would only recommend this book to people 13+ due to some of the serious themes the book explores, including homophobia, racism, missing family, grief, toxic relationships and loneliness just to name a few, hence no matter how lovely the message of the book is, you cannot ignore how complicated and thought provoking the plot is.
I was hooked into this story with the illustrious descriptions of the setting; straight away introducing us readers to the protagonist (Elsie) and her best friend Ritika, and immediately being able to understand Elsie’s hopes and dreams really helped me to engross myself into this book – with one of the novel’s main storylines being introduced as the duo’s close friendship being so close really helped me understand Elsie..
However, although the book gripped me at the start, in a couple of chapters two thirds into the story I felt that the suspense was perhaps unnecessarily prolonged and at some points, I felt that there was too much going on which in my view perhaps didn’t allow each new ascent in the storyline to be fully explored, especially with big changes to the storyline (break-ups, friendship troubles etc were amongst some of the issues which would have been lovely for the author to explore more). However, the story is overall well written. In addition, the front cover design is very imaginative, and it represents Elsie’s feelings throughout the story really well, with the front cover consisting of a girl (presumably Elsie) wistfully gazing in the distance, with some wisps of (silk?) entwining around her, and the back cover consisted of the same gentle sunset vibe with pages of letters dotted around the synopsis.
In all, I would give this book 4.75 out of 5 stars for this poignantly heartfelt and intricate queer romance.