Girls Like Girls By Haley Kiyoko

Warning: Non graphic mentions of suicide mentioned.

This book was a great example of how to transition scenes from high tension scenes to low and mellow. I personally love how Kiyoko used the small town and really enhance the setting so we could be drawn into the story and keep reading. Sometimes, when I read stories a lot of the criticism I have is that the setting wasn’t as engaging as it could’ve been. However, Kiyoko did a great job of giving us different settings in the small town and really hone in on the community they have there. I found that insightful in how Coley knows the risks in where she is, but it doesn’t deter her from doing what she has to towards the end of the book.

This book also was able to give layers to every character, even Trenton. I mean, yes, he is abusive however as the book progresses, Trenton’s control/power overshadows Sonya and attempts to hurt Coley in order to make sure Sonya stays with him. Everytime he was on the page, my stomach would churn because I saw him as an abusive/toxic man that no one should hang out with. Especially towards the end when he grabs Coley by the hair and slams her on the cement as he antagonizes Sonya. Kiyoko shows us how toxic men and relationships can be and in certain cases, the victim can end up dead. In this case, Sonya is hiding her identity as well as her true feelings for Coley. While some of her actions aren’t justifiable (e.g. telling SJ about Coley’s mom dying and denying that there was more to her and Coley’s relationship), I can understand why she felt she couldn’t express her feelings to Coley, though a lot of it was toxic so it made things a lot more complex for her and the relationships she had outside of Coley and her friends.

Also something I do like is that Kiyoko really marinated the relationship between her and her dad. While first glance, I thought I would hate the dad character, he really was a complex parental figure in the book. Unlike Sonya’s mom, we got more layers to him and reasonings for why he did what he did and made an effort to try and repair things with Coley. I’m glad she didn’t outright forgive her dad because I think it not only would’ve been unrealistic, but stunt Coley’s growth from timid and willing to do anything for love to someone who loves herself and respects herself to enforce boundaries towards those around her. The father/daughter relationship felt realistic and I can’t wait to see how that might be expanded in the upcoming film.

One thing I wish we got to see more of is Sonya’s relationship with her mother. In the book, she constantly talks about how her mother is on her but yet we didn’t see enough of the Sonya’s mom to really understand why she is so tough on Sonya. While I’m glad Sonya was able to break the cycle of self-loathing towards the end of the book, I wish we saw more interaction with her and her mom to fully understand why Sonya has the feelings she has towards her and I wish we got to see more of her experiencing the moments of dance camp rather than hear about it from her AIM as it would’ve added more depth to her character development/thought process (minus the AIM journals).

Overall, this was a great read with so much exploration on young love/sexuality. Though the amount of weed use/cursing, this book is not meant for young readers!