elise (the petite punk)'s Reviews > The Song of Us

Thank you NetGalley for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review!

This was a quick middle grade novel-in-verse with the perfect amount of cute and serious. I was surprised by the content of the book (in a good way!), as it was a lot less sanitized than I'm used to in middle grade. I've definitely read LGBT+ books for younger audiences before, but this has to be one of the first middle grade books I've read that actively mentions younger kids drinking underage, vaping, slut shaming, etc. Hey, we probably shouldn't promote that to middle schoolers as I'm sure at least one angry parent will suggest this book is doing, but I think The Song of Us does a good job of reflecting the reality that some middle schoolers have without screaming "hey kids, wanna hop in this suspicious white van and smoke some weed????" I knew I was going to like this book, but I was pleasantly surprised with the direction it took and its narration style!