A review by lindentea
Something More by Jackie Khalilieh

hopeful inspiring lighthearted fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

Ok so. This was cute but it wasn’t quite what I was expecting, which isn’t like the best way to be reviewing books but…. I got fed up pretty quickly with how this was mostly boy drama and not really an exploration of Jessie’s intersecting identities to the degree I was hoping it would be. Idk! Like some of the best parts were at the end when

she had that talk with her dad abt his immigration story - though it’s lowkey weird to me for him to be like “Palestine and Canada are both my homes, they’re my two loves because my family is there” and her takeaway from that was “hmmm maybe i should get myself out of the love triangle I’m in”

and also

as cheesy as it was, her understanding that she can do scary things and succeed, even though her announcing all that at the end of opening fucking night made me roll my eyes a little…. Like ok Disney channel… but ig it’s for the age group so i get it

. Levi actually made me so angry so many times so

I didn’t like that we spent most of the book with him as the love interest

, and while I don’t think Griffin is perfect for her either because he said some weird things throughout

im still glad she ended up with him because he’s ultimately much sweeter & nicer idk!

. So like this wasn’t exactly for me as it was wayyy more lighthearted than I assumed but I would very happily give this to like… a 12-14 year old