What If It’s Us by Becky Albertalli och Adam Silvera

What If It’s Us was one of my most anticipated releases this year. The collaboration between two of the greatest YA authors today and the plot raised my expectations sky high. Unfortunately though, I was quite disappointed.

It wasn’t that it wasn’t good. It was. It was very cute, fast-paced read, with a lot of enjoyable New York scenery and pop culture and Broadway references, in a story about two teenage boys meeting at the post office in NYC and their efforts of finding each other again because maybe “life really isn’t like a Broadway play? But what if it is?”. It was just that it could have been so much better! Especially the characters.

The story was told from different POV:s, alternating between Ben and Arthur. Normally, I like this set-up, but here I found a bit unnecessary, and unfortunately I didn’t fully connect with the characters. Arthur was a bit over the top and Ben was always talking himself and Arthur down and reflecting on how Arthur was too short and not being chill, which after a while got a bit annoying. I also missed a bit of chemistry between them too; it wasn’t Broadway magic between them, which I had hoped for.

On the other hand, I really adored some of the side-characters. Especially Ben’s friend Dylan and his hilarious, awkward “future-wife”-way of jumping way ahead in a relationship. Jessie seemed to be a really good friend, and Samantha was an adorable character with a big heart.
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I also really liked that the story was a bit softer and sweeter, more quiet somehow, than most YA books. It was about Ben and Arthur and their little part of the world, which was enough. And the representation was great, the main characters are a gay Puerto Rican and a gay Jewish with ADHD who is obsessed with the musical Hamilton, yay to that! And even though I would have liked some more swoon-worthy magic between Ben and Arthur, the authors did a great job in describing the insecurity you feel about doing things for the first time (first date, first kiss etc.) in such a realistic and adorable way that it made your heart ache.

“I am actually dead. There’s no other way to explain it. I’m sitting in fucking Herald Square, holding hands with the cutest boy I’ve ever met, and I’m dead.”

I really, really enjoyed the descriptions of the dates all over New York and the pop culture and fanfiction references.

But, besides my problems with the main characters, I also have to say that I found the ending thoroughly dissatisfying. I just really, really wanted to love this so much more than I did. But that’s got more to do with my extremely high expectations than the book, and if I hadn’t read anything by Becky Albertalli and Adam Silvera before, I’m sure I would have thought that it was a really cute and sweet YA story.

Rating:
3 stars

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​Author info:
Becky Albertalli
Adam Silvera