Thanks for Listening

I can't deny that it was Mia's ace rep that put Thanks for Listening on my radar. As a book club organizer, I'm always on the lookout for books that highlight all parts of the queer community, to give as recs to my members. The fact that this was a YA book made me especially happy, since it's nice to have a wide range of stories to share with different age groups. It's true that I also saw a little bit of myself in Mia. I too, was the friend who always wanted to fix her friends' problems and would often give us little bits of myself to avoid conflict. I was also the person who was always willing to give advice, but never willing to take it myself. I'm sure this book is going to resonate with a lot of readers out there for the same reason.

What I really liked though, was that Horan allows her characters to show some realistic growth within these pages. Mia finds a person who helps her blossom, and start to understand that her friendships may not be the healthiest. She learns to stand up for herself, and actually communicate her feelings. Younger me so needed a book like this, and so I see a lot of good here. Especially because Horan's solution isn't to cut Mia off from her issues, but instead to show how she can work on them.

Now I will say that even though the book is written from the POV of high school, this book is written in what felt like a younger voice. Which felt a little odd, since there are mentions of sex. It also bothered me a bit how oblivious Mia seemed to be about anything related to dating. I know Mia's character was ace, but I find it hard to believe that she wouldn't be able to spot a potential date when she was in high school and best friends with people in a relationship. Still, I can admit that it did make for some cute scenes so I was willing to keep reading on.

To wrap things up, this was a cute read but it just felt a little younger than I was expecting. I liked the messages about friendship and evolving, and really like Mia. The backdrop of high school theater was so well done. It made me smile more than once! For all those reasons, I'm happy to award this book a solid three star rating.