I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Yes No Maybe So by Aisha Saeed, Becky Albertalli Published by Balzer + Bray on 2/4/20
Genres: Contemporary, Romance, Young Adult
Pages: 448
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
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YES
Jamie Goldberg is cool with volunteering for his local state senate candidate—as long as he’s behind the scenes. When it comes to speaking to strangers (or, let’s face it, speaking at all to almost anyone) Jamie’s a choke artist. There’s no way he’d ever knock on doors to ask people for their votes…until he meets Maya.
NO
Maya Rehman’s having the worst Ramadan ever. Her best friend is too busy to hang out, her summer trip is canceled, and now her parents are separating. Why her mother thinks the solution to her problems is political canvassing—with some awkward dude she hardly knows—is beyond her.
MAYBE SO
Going door to door isn’t exactly glamorous, but maybe it’s not the worst thing in the world. After all, the polls are getting closer—and so are Maya and Jamie. Mastering local activism is one thing. Navigating the cross-cultural crush of the century is another thing entirely.
Short and Sweet
Jamie is volunteering for his local state senate candidate and everything is fine as long as he sticks to doing things behind the scenes. Jamie is not comfortable around people so the thought of knocking on doors is not his idea of a good time.
Maya is having the worst Ramadan. Her best friend is getting ready to go to college and it seems like she doesn’t have time for Maya. On top of it her parents are separating. Maya’s mother thinks that the solution is to have Maya go canvassing.
Maya and Jamie learn that going door to door isn’t as bad as they thought it would be. The more time they spend together they learn that figuring out how to navigate their cultures and their crush is a whole different story.
Characters
Jamie: Jamie is a great character I loved how real he was. He cared about his family and friends and tried to help whenever he could. The only thing Jamie doesn’t like about himself is how he gets nervous when he has to talk to people he doesn’t know or public speaking.
Maya: Maya is also a very well written character. She’s having her own troubles this summer and it includes feeling like she’s losing her best friend and her parents due to their separation. Maya doesn’t like change so all of this is a lot to take in for her. Canvassing isn’t what she wants to do but once she starts she realizes that she really does care about the issues.
Romance
Jamie and Maya: I liked Jamie and Maya I think they brought out the best in each other. Jamie is Jewish and Maya is Muslim so when they were just friends things were fine but once they started to develop feelings for each other they really had to figure out how they were going to make things work.
My Thoughts
~ Jamie and Maya were childhood friends but they haven’t seen each other in a long time so when they’re partnered to canvass together its perfect.
~ I like how Jamie was more outgoing when Maya was around, but Maya also benefitted from Jamie because she found a new friend and also someone who gave her a lot of good advice.
~ While canvassing these two actually found that they were interested in things happening, mainly a new house bill that was going to be passed. These two did a lot to get people to know what was going on including social media and making flyers.
~ I thought Jamie’s family was great they were all very supportive, Maya’s parents were great too. Maya’s family was just adjusting to their new circumstances.
~ I thought Jamie and Maya’s interactions were cute, they were awkward at first but I love how much Jamie was trying.
Overall
Who would’ve thought that a book about canvassing would be so cute and entertaining? This book does deal with politics but I throughly enjoyed it and I was impressed by how Jamie and Maya become more involved because they know that they can make a change. I did like the ending and I’m just so happy I got to read Jamie and Maya’s story. I loved this book and thought it was cute and funny and a great look into political activism.
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