Books › It's Not Like It's a Secret
It's Not Like It's a Secret
400 pages
A tender, tangled exploration of first love, family fractures, and the courage it takes to stop hiding.
What it feels like
Reading this book feels like stepping into the bright, complicated haze of a California high school, where the thrill of a new crush collides with the heavy reality of family fractures. The narrative moves at a steady, engaging clip, balancing the swoony, stomach-flipping moments of a sapphic coming-of-age with the sharp sting of parental disappointment and friendship friction. It is a deeply earnest and emotionally tangled experience, wrapping the reader in the protagonist's vulnerable interiority as she navigates intersecting cultural identities and the exhausting weight of keeping up appearances. Perfect for those who crave YA contemporaries that don't shy away from the messy, imperfect ways teenagers stumble toward their own truths, offering a bittersweet but ultimately hopeful journey toward self-acceptance.
- Mood
- sun-drenched
- emotionally tangled
- tender
- bittersweet
- Tone
- earnest
- vulnerable
- slightly angsty
- warm
- Pace
- steady
- Themes
- messiness of first love · weight of family secrets · navigating racial identities · friendship friction · coming out and coming of age
- The writing
- Accessible and conversational, capturing the authentic, spiraling interiority of a teenager trying to figure herself out.
- The arc
- Moves from the suffocating anxiety of hidden truths to the messy, liberating relief of living authentically.
- Who it's for
- Readers who love character-driven YA contemporaries that balance swoony sapphic romance with complicated family dynamics and nuanced cultural conversations.
Content notes
- parental infidelity
- racism and microaggressions
- internalized homophobia
About the book
When her family moves to California, Sana falls for the beautiful and smart Jamie Ramirez but struggles with differences between their diverse friend groups, a boy's sweet but unrequited affection, and her father's increasingly obvious affair.
Description from Open Library.
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