What If It's Us

What If It's Us is an amazing and refreshing new take on meet cute, YA romance! Told from alternating points of view, sometimes across the same event and sometimes jumping to the next day, the narration is lively and interesting. The different perspectives are clearly distinct and full of their characters' emotions and different worldviews, and the characterization for both narrator characters is consistent and clear. All of the characters feel unique, fleshed out, and realistic. Arthur and Ben are amazing characters, but even the supporting characters are well thought out, feeling rich with life. The plot is fun, funny, and while not entirely unpredictable or surprising, it manages to avoid the stale, stereotypical YA romance plot show more enough to keep it feeling fresh and engaging. The authors don't shy away from that most important aspect of any teenager's budding relationship - sex- but also keep it appropriate for the target age group, and the focus is clearly on feelings over graphic sex acts. Even the way the different narrators approach this topic is well defined and distinct between them, fitting into their characterizations in general. Overall, the only issue I had with this book was that the sequel was not yet out when I read it - something soon to be resolved! A clear five out of five read, and one I cannot recommend highly enough for anyone interested in MLM YA romance. show less

I'm about 40 years too old to squee like a fangirl about this book....so I will just say that I enjoyed it and it broke my heart just a little bit (unlike Adam Silvera's [b:History Is All You Left Me|25014114|History Is All You Left Me|Adam Silvera|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1462807691s/25014114.jpg|44686341], which completely devastated me). Cute, funny at times, and perhaps a little more realistic than most YA romances (but I'm still holding out hope after that ending). It will never be a comfort read like Albertalli's [b:Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda|19547856|Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda (Creekwood, #1)|Becky Albertalli|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1402915678s/19547856.jpg|27679579] but it has a lot more to say show more about the different types of love and how all of our relationships help us grow, even the ones that seem painful at the time. show less

My mouth is the guy in the horror movie with his hand on the door. My brain's the guy on the couching screaming, "DON'T OPEN IT."

Four stars for all the technical stuff, three stars for how much I actually personally liked it once I sat back and thought about it. Again, really, romcoms aren't for me in any shape or form, but this was a great one - even I can tell, behind my trillion filters of "TEEN DRAMA IS SO ANNOYING" and general impatience with the genre. I'm gonna go on because what bugged me REALLY BUGGED ME, but I don't mention any of them to say "this book is bad!!" (Look...it's got enough reviews, I've got free range to get my feelings out.)

So it's a bit of a multi-layered mess for me. I mean, bottom line, go ahead and read it. show more It was SO effing sweet, funny, and addictive - deeper and more honest than Simon, but still with Albertalli's lively wacky cast and absolutely bonkers narration. I've never read Silvera, but these two made a perfect match.

But man oh man. The main two characters were maddening. And they were supposed to be maddening at some points, and I can't even gripe because they learned their lessons and righted their wrongs (some in obvious ways, and some far more subtly, god damn it, it was so well-written, heck), but there were some sections where I was genuinely just frustrated. And yes, I know - they're...they're stupid, idiot teens, so this is my problem! Like, it had to happen! But I was so annoyed!

These two were such bad friends to their groups, especially Arthur. If I can dig through the book and find one thing that I don't think was wrapped up properly - that they didn't have to take responsibility for - and really stuck in my craw, it was the fact that everyone was so invested in Arthur/Ben, and it just let Arthur and Ben walk all over them. A lot of that was needed by plot, so I rolled my eyes every time a friend tossed away their time or feelings because "uwahhh, Ben and Arthur are so cute~! I ship One Direction members too!" For a book that (wonderfully, thankfully, blessedly) had such a heavy focus on balancing/repairing friendships and relationships, this shit just kept happening without it being addressed and they were automatically forgiven for everything. Arthur was absolutely the freaking worst.

Actually, I can safely say I was super done with Arthur once the Big Obstacle went down. Maybe it's a testament to how good it was - I'M SERIOUS IT WAS REALLY GOOD - that I was more begging for him to grow up already rather than getting annoyed at the actual construction of the book.

I lowkey lost my mind when Ben was expected to apologize for Arthur being an absolute dramatic tool, and he did apologize, CONSTANTLY.


I think mainly I was just expecting these loser kids to GET IT TOGETHER, ALSO I DON'T UNDERSTAND ROMANCE IT'S IDIOTIC.

(so, spoilers, the end was very satisfying for me, because that's what I was asking the whole dang time!!)

And that's...that. Mad as I was, still, it was so cloyingly sweet and funny that it got to me anyways and I finished it in two days. I hope they have nice fulfilling lives, and Arthur gets his ISSUES SORTED OUT, GOD. show less

Becky Albertalli and Adam Silvera each write terrific YA-LGBT novels. They understand teens in general and LGBT teens in particular. When they collaborate on a book, they become like Lennon and McCartney (Beatles) or Weber and Rice (Musical Theater). In other words, Albertalli and Silvera rise above their peers in every way when they come together to write a novel. In , the authors demonstrate all of the attributes that make them so terrific. Their characters seem real, authentic, credible, and genuine. The situations these characters are in share the same characteristics.
In this book, anyone who recalls their own years as a teenager will recognize all the feelings, fears, anxieties, passions, and other powerful emotions that make show more being a teenager so difficult.
Ben and Arthur first cross paths at the post office, each quickly and instantly drawn to the other, but they do not easily cross paths again. Once they do, each falls deeply in love with the other. Each of them believes that they have found the love of their lives, just as most teenagers in love do. (In my case, I was correct). Each of them allows his own insecurities to get in his way, overcoming them only to fall prey to them again.
Arthur and Ben are surrounded by other teens who also find themselves in various relationships, sometimes as friends, other times as boyfriends/girlfriends, convinced they will be in long-lasting relationships, and in one case, that hope is fulfilled.
The protagonists are each also supported in their sexual orientation by parents who understand that love is only love when it is unconditional: they do not quit loving their sons just because they are gay. In other words, the parents in this novel accept and even embrace the orientation of their sons.
As the boys get to know each other, they stumble over their own anxieties as they navigate the terrors of first dates, second dates, and getting to understand each other. They reveal interests that they do not share in common while also finding some that they do. They each understand the many references to contemporary culture the authors weave into the storyline: Harry Potter, Hamilton, and popular musical groups. The reader may miss a few of these references, but overall, they are straightforward and help propel the plot and the relationship between the teens to deeper and deeper levels. These allusions are welcome additions to the novel adding significantly to the authenticity of the setting and plot.
This is a fun book for an adult to read, a charming reminder of days gone by. For a teen, it could feel very much like looking into a mirror. Arthur and Ben are the two protagonists we all have been at one time or another.
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I bought this one when it came out for the Read it Purple Collection, but only just got round to reading it. With all the furore around Love, Simon, I knew it would find its readers. Now I wish I’d read it earlier, cause it’s a refreshingly realistic look at first love. Arthur, in New York for a summer internship, passes Ben at the post office to send back an ex-box to his boyfriend. They meet, exchange pleasantries and part, only to wonder ‘what it he was the one?’ (“Maybe it wasn’t just a solidarity thing. It felt like fate and recognition and standing straighter and oh hello”) and set out to find each other from among the millions of inhabitants of New York. Like all of Albertalli’s novels, there are plenty of pop show more culture references to music, films, eateries and online sites, but they serve to anchor the time and place rather than as product placements. While I’m not sure what this means for the novel’s longevity (Craigslist’s missed connections, specific café’s and donut shops, Barack Obama references etc will date), this form of world-building creates it’s own reality, so it worked to me.
I found this slow to begin with, but the further I read, the less I wanted to put it down. It’s easy to care about these characters and to empathise with the friends on both sides who suggest ways they might be able to find each other again, and you don’t need to be young or queer to relate to the awkwardness of first dates (or their do-overs!). The narrative voices and the dialogue are spot-on-relatable, as are the characters’ preoccupations with first dates, first kisses and first sexual experiences (told with tenderness, but no graphic details). By the time the relationship reaches a fairly predictable complication you feel the same compulsion to force everything to live up to that “epic beginning,” and desperately want Arthur and Ben to skip over the reality of first dates and summer flings into True Love.
I loved the representation of Ben as a Latino character, and was delighted to have his voice provide a commentary on Arthur’s upper middle class White privilege (his non-Kosher Jewish background barely rates a mention). In lesser authors’ hands this might have become a central conflict between the lovers, but I love the way that it sits there quietly between the voices for the reader to reflect on. Instead Ben has Native-New Yorker privilege and the relationship traces the tender awkwardness of falling in love. “I always thought life was about the showstopper moments. No dialogue. No filler. But if the quiet parts are filler, maybe filler’s underrated,” Arthur tells us. “I want this to be the unforgettable experience Arthur has been dreaming about for who knows how long... The pressure is getting to me. I can’t ruin this for him,” Ben reflects, before realising that “It’s nonsense. Arthur and I have never done anything that’s perfect. Perfect for us, yeah. But not on paper.” It’s this series of imperfections and almost-rights that keep us reading. This is real-life romance with all the insecurities left unfiltered.
A paean to love in all its forms – plantonic or otherwise, What if it’s us? is highly recommended for everyone that ever fell in love and was thwarted by reality, or for anyone whose besties stood up to the vagaries of fate. show less

Narrated by Noah Galvin and Froy Gutierrez. Arthur is in New York City for the summer, interning at his mother's law firm. Ben is coming off a romance that ended badly--and his ex is attending the same summer school. The two boys meet at the post office and there's chemistry but a flash mob separates the two before they can exchange numbers. Arthur puts up a missed-connection poster at the coffee shop which miraculously Ben sees. The two begin dating and the romance that ensues is magical and messy. In Galvin's performance of Arthur's chapters, Arthur is charmingly neurotic about his first boyfriend, while Gutierrez's Ben is sensitive, with a laidback confidence. Readers seeking gay romances will enjoy (and recognize) the ups and downs show more of fresh love. show less

Take the genuine, good natured goofiness of Becky Albertalli and the heart-wrenching beauty of Adam Silvera and you've got Arthur and Ben.
The two high schoolers (midway between Junior and Senior year) bump orbits at the start of one fateful New York City summer. Ben is on his way to the post office to mail off a package of his ex boyfriend's things and Arthur is bopping around, on break from his summer internship.
The boys each have a full set of their own, heavy baggage going into the summer and and they couldn't be more different from one another.
Arthur is a bit of an anxious basket case, in the city for a few short months before returning to Atlanta. He is so hyperactive and tightly wound that you kind of get the impression he show more could out bounce a rubber ball. He is obsessed with musicals (Hamilton obsession, anyone?), comes from money, and has his sights on Yale. He is also a dating virgin and afraid of his own shadow when it comes to approaching cute boys.
Ben a lot more grounded. He's calm, cool, and is, unfortunately, nursing a broken heart. He writes in his free time but school is not really his thing. Which is a pretty big bummer since his last relationship landed him in summer school with the creator of said broken heart. He is cautious, pragmatic, introverted, and definitely not into musicals. But he is into Arthur. And he stands a chance, as long his insecurities don't throw him off track.
Still, it's hard not to hear a Broadway-scale orchestra strike up an epic soundtrack as they stumble into and around one another. Though Arthur got under my skin a bit, I kept having to remind myself that he was fresh out of the closet and that's not usually a pretty picture. I definitely liked Ben a lot better but I tend to go for the softer, quieter folks. (Oh, goodness, I think maybe Arthur got irritating because I saw myself in him. Oh no...)
Anyway, the characters are flawed because they're human. The writing, on the other hand, is something magical. I wasn't surprised, obviously. It came from two heavy hitters in the contemporary feelings department. Im glad I saved it for vacation because it's one of those books that you just want to curl up and live in.

I really want to see more of this duo's collaboration and hopefully we'll get it. In the meantime, if you haven't gotten around to reading this one, definitely do yourself a favor and get on it. show less