Our Year of Reading This: a review of Rachel Lynn Solomon’s Our Year of Maybe

Thank you Net Galley for the ARC of what might be my new favorite book. I loved Rachel Lynn Solomon’s Our Year of Maybe.

I just want to dive right into the praising and say how impressed I am by how well this book accomplishes something really difficult: Our Year of Maybe features a protagonist with a chronic medical condition, but totally keeps that from being the central plot of the book. I know some will argue that it is a central part because without the illness, Peter’s indebted feelings towards Sophie wouldn’t exist. I get that, but I still argue that even then, the book isn’t about a kidney disorder or a transplant. Those things are mentioned, but this is not a sickness story. In fact, if a friend came up to me and said: “gee, Bib, what’s this book about?” I wouldn’t even mention Peter’s illness. My one sentence summary would be: a pair of teenagers who have spent much of their lives enmeshed with each other have to figure out whether their relationship can survive each one’s search for independence. 

And damn did this book deliver on showing that struggle. I have almost never read teenagers who were written so well. Peter and Sophie were neither giggly,  shallow, vapid vapors, nor were they the too smart for their own good, pretentious creatures that are so beloved these says (although Peter might be borderline). They’re real. They are immature and selfish while also shockingly insightful and complex. They are exasperating and exhilarating, frustrating and inspiring.  Sophie, to me, feels particularly real because teenage girls are so susceptible to defining themselves by their relationship to another person, whether that person is a significant other or best friend. I loved watching Sophie grow.

I’m not going to lie: Peter’s bisexuality was my favorite thing about him. I hate saying things like that because ideally sexuality is a meh type issue, but bisexuality is so often treated like the invisible step sister in young adult writing. A friend and I were talking about it recently and in all of fiction, we could only think of Callie from Grey’s Anatomy and Jack Harkness from Torchwood/Doctor Who we’re the only bi fictional characters we could think of (I know there are many more—like Leah—-but in that moment, that’s all we could come up with). To me, when there is such a huge absence, seeing more representation gives me all the feels. I won’t bore you with my “why representation matters” spiel, but it does.

All in all, read this. I can honestly say that I loved it. 5/5