Honey Girl

This is a really sweet, beautifully-written book that I think will resonate a lot with a slightly different audience. Which isn't to say that I didn't enjoy reading it–I did–but I think that this book is so granular in its representation of 20-something queer people of color that I think it will resonate most with folks in those demographics. I think its depiction of post-grad burnout will also be relatable for a lot of readers–I was a little thrown by how Grace so clearly had no goal point beyond receiving her PhD in astronomy. I obviously don't have my PhD nor do I know much about jobs and like...I get that she was stressed but I also feel like there can't be that many types of jobs you can do with an astronomy degree and I was sort of thrown that she just seemed to have genuinely no idea what she wanted to do after graduating. Which again, a lot of that was her burnout and dealing with the High Expectations of her father etc etc. But it felt more like a problem an undergrad student would have when needing to choose a major, or deciding if they want to go to grad school etc. Post-PhD seems like...you got it narrowed down pretty far??? (Again I understand she was super burned out and needed a break before she could really focus but it still seems like it would have...come up at some point. Even just “do you want to stay in academia or do you want to work for NASA” or whatever and from Grace's POV it seemed like it never did??)

I also think that this was sort of billed to me as “2 drunk strangers get married in Vegas, romance ensues!” and like...that does happen but it's sort of a b-plot to “codependent queer found family group gets therapy”. (also if you saw my tweet asking if people thought if it was weird for a brother and sister to cuddle in bed overnight with their shared best friend: this is the book that prompted that tweet. I still think it's kind of weird but in the context of this book it just seems like these people are constantly touch-starved like sad fanfiction characters.)

Anyway, if you're looking for a book with women of color wives, an important queer found family friends group, and a love letter to therapy...and I think a lot of you are...this is for you. Also think this would have a lot of appeal for older teens. Despite the age of the characters it's less explicitly sexual than your average SJM book and these characters are all uhhh moderately emotionally damaged so they feel like they're processing a lot of teenage-y emotions.