Review: If I Was Your Girl by Meredith Russo

Challenges:

Diversity Bingo: Romance with a trans main character

This book follows Amanda who used to be known as Andrew. She moves to a new school after she no longer feels safe in her old town due to an attack in a women’s bathroom. She moves from her mother’s house to her father’s and her father hasn’t really talked to her or seen her since her transition, and he struggles a little bit, but he does his best. 

Amanda starts her new school and soon she finds a group of friends and a potential new boyfriend. She struggles to decide if she should tell these people her secret, but knowing who to trust is hard and trusting the wrong person can turn out to be dangerous. 

I found this entire story interesting and enlightening. We see things from Amanda’s point of view and that gives us an insight into the thought processes that brought her to where she is today and her struggle trying to decide just who to trust with her secret, if anybody. I found all the characters believable,although the friendships and her relationship with Grant moved a bit fast for my taste, but I guess that is just the teenage way. 

My only qualm with this book is that I would have liked more. Just more of everything. I’ve said before that I often find YA books a bit too short, and I feel like this is yet another example of that. I would have liked to hear more about the internal struggles Amanda had when she was younger, and the decision to make the transition and how that impacted her family, and also a bit more on her thoughts about her new relationships and her relationship with her father. We get glimpses and short bursts of that, but I would have liked everything to just go a bit more slowly and be more detailed. 

I gave this book 4 stars out of 5.