Mia Siegert

This is a Young Adult novel with a jagged story arc. We follow Tristan, the twin in the shadow of his brother Robbie, the hockey star, both under the thumb of their domineering father and warped mother. And then it gets complicated. This is a well-written novel, and nearly free of typos which is rare (good job, line editor). It was a little more grim than I prefer (not the book's fault) and there was a magical element I find annoying, which is why for me this is a four star story rather than a five.

TW: suicide, abuse. But it ends well, or this would be a much different review.… (more)

4.5 stars

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review

It's been almost a month since I finished this book, and I still have no idea how to review it. I think this is for two reasons. (1) reading Somebody Told Me was honestly such a surreal experience and I don't entirely know what to make of it, and (2) this book focused so heavily on extremely personal experiences that I quite frankly cannot speak on

That said, this book was utterly fantastic, so while I'm going to keep this short I'm going to list a few things that I loved about it:

- Aleks/Alexis's voice was so strong and absolutely carried the book. I've rarely read any book with this strong a voice, and it utterly blew me away
- The discussions on religion and abuse of religious power it had, without villainizing religion in any way
- The side characters were so wonderfully fleshed out and alive
- The discussions on fandom and how it can be toxic sometimes
- I also thought the character growth we see in Aleks/Alexis was so powerful and beautifully written

TWs: sexual assault, child sexual abuse, mention of grooming, mention of conversion therapy, homophobia, transphobia, internalized homophobia and transphobia, murder and attempted murder, misgendering… (more)