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A review by nicolemhewitt
Maybe He Just Likes You by Barbara Dee
5.0
This review and many more can be found on my blog: Feed Your Fiction Addiction
I decided to start reading this book before bed a few nights ago, and the next thing I knew it was midnight and I was finished. And I had shed tears. I was not expecting to have this reaction to this book. In fact, honestly, at the very beginning of the book I was feeling a tad bit skeptical. I was thinking, “Wait, is this going to be a book about a boy who squeezed a girl’s shoulder without asking?” But that’s sort of the beauty of the book. It starts off almost completely innocently—with Mila feeling a little bit uncomfortable in a relatively benign situation. The sort of situation that you could reasonably see people brushing off, including Mila herself. But then things start to spiral. The little shoulder squeeze turns into an unwanted hug, which turns into brushing up against her, and then the boys start making comments, and soon Mila realizes that many of the boys are in on some kind of game they think is funny—it’s not funny to her.
Dee does a fantastic job of showing a situation where things get out of hand without ever truly crossing into outright sexual territory(which is realistic in a middle school setting). She shows Mila’s confusion over the situation, wondering if she could be making something out of nothing, her fears about talking to someone about it, and the backlash she gets when she does speak out. All of this rang true, and it’s important for a MG audience to see. Even the fact that the boys didn’t seem to think they’d done anything truly wrong until they got in trouble feels realistic. I highly recommend this exploration of consent to MG readers and adults alike! This book will stimulate the types of conversations we need to be having.
***Disclosure: I received this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. No other compensation was given and all opinions are my own.***
I decided to start reading this book before bed a few nights ago, and the next thing I knew it was midnight and I was finished. And I had shed tears. I was not expecting to have this reaction to this book. In fact, honestly, at the very beginning of the book I was feeling a tad bit skeptical. I was thinking, “Wait, is this going to be a book about a boy who squeezed a girl’s shoulder without asking?” But that’s sort of the beauty of the book. It starts off almost completely innocently—with Mila feeling a little bit uncomfortable in a relatively benign situation. The sort of situation that you could reasonably see people brushing off, including Mila herself. But then things start to spiral. The little shoulder squeeze turns into an unwanted hug, which turns into brushing up against her, and then the boys start making comments, and soon Mila realizes that many of the boys are in on some kind of game they think is funny—it’s not funny to her.
Dee does a fantastic job of showing a situation where things get out of hand without ever truly crossing into outright sexual territory(which is realistic in a middle school setting). She shows Mila’s confusion over the situation, wondering if she could be making something out of nothing, her fears about talking to someone about it, and the backlash she gets when she does speak out. All of this rang true, and it’s important for a MG audience to see. Even the fact that the boys didn’t seem to think they’d done anything truly wrong until they got in trouble feels realistic. I highly recommend this exploration of consent to MG readers and adults alike! This book will stimulate the types of conversations we need to be having.
***Disclosure: I received this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. No other compensation was given and all opinions are my own.***