e-Audio, 08:33:17
Narrated by: Alice Wen
Release Date: February 6, 2024
Published by: Harlequin Audio
Read from: February 10-12, 2024
Stand-alone
Source: Library’s Libby
TW: Bullying, Cursing, Toxic Relationship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Panic Attacks/Disorders, Misogyny, Sexism
For Readers Interested In: Contemporary, Romance, Race/Ethnicity Diversity, Academic Rivals, YASnarky and romantic, I Hope This Doesn’t Find You is Never Have I Ever meets To All the Boys if Lara Jean wrote hate emails instead of love letters.
Sadie Wen is perfect on paper: school captain, valedictorian, and a “pleasure to have in class.” It’s not easy, but she has a trick to keep her model-student smile plastered on her face at all times: she channels all her frustrations into her email drafts. She’d never send them of course — she’d rather die than hurt anyone’s feelings — but it’s a relief to let loose on her power-hungry English teacher or a freeloading classmate taking credit for Sadie’s work.
All her most vehemently worded emails are directed at her infuriating cocaptain, Julius Gong, whose arrogance and competitive streak have irked Sadie since they were kids. “You’re attention starved and self-obsessed and unbearably vain . . . I really hope your comb breaks and you run out of whatever expensive hair products you’ve been using to make your hair appear deceptively soft…”
Sadie doesn’t have to hold back in her emails, because nobody will ever read them… that is, until they’re accidentally sent out.
Overnight, Sadie’s carefully crafted, conflict-free life is turned upside down. It’s her worst nightmare — now everyone at school knows what she really thinks of them, and they’re not afraid to tell her what they really think of her either. But amidst the chaos, there’s one person growing to appreciate the “real” Sadie — Julius, the only boy she’s sworn to hate…
*MY THOUGHTS*
I can’t lie to you. I didn’t really want to write this review. I never know how to review these types of books. Did I love it off the dome? Yes. But did I get the REAL message the poems or just think up my own version and say I liked that part? I’m always so insecure about poetry lol
But this one was actually really good. Did I like all of them? No. But I DID really enjoy most of them. They all had some type of Black culture in it and I thought that was amazing. There’s so many topics covered, from losing family to police brutality to Black churches and more. I loved this so much!
There were some that I didn’t like, but it wasn’t all that many. And to be honest, they weren’t bad enough for me to remember either. For the most part I was just like ok, on to the next one. It wasn’t that they were bad, just confusing a bit or maybe disjointed.
The group of authors who are in this book tho are amazing. I have read and loved many of these authors before, so i knew I was going to be in for a treat. And of course, I was right. I’m not a fan of poetry, but Amber McBride, Kwame Alexander, Ibi Zoboi, and even Nikki Giovanni.
That discourse that was floating around that said you’re not diverse if you’re only reading books about a certain demographic is challenged from this book alone! The diversity of the Black experience is shown in this book and I can’t tell you how extremely powerful it is. I really hope people of all types pick this book up so they too can see the beauty of us!
Overall, I give this
