The Review of 'Yes No Maybe So'.
By Chidiebere Sullivan Nwuguru
Blurb:
Jamie Goldberg is cool with volunteering for his local state candidate – as long as he’s behind the scenes. There’s no way he’d ever knock on doors to ask people for their votes…until he meets Maya.
Maya Rehman’s having the worst Ramadan ever. Her best friend is too busy to hang out, her summer trip is cancelled, her parents are separating and now her mother thinks the solution to her problems is political canvassing – with some awkward guy she hardly knows …
Going door to door isn’t exactly glamorous, but maybe it’s not the worst thing in the world. After all, the polls are getting closer – and so are Maya and Jamie. Mastering local activism is one thing. Navigating the cross-cultural crush of the century is another thing entirely.
— Goodreads
The Review:
“Yes No Maybe So” is a romance book that is a product of the collaborative efforts of Becky Albertalli and Aisha Saeed; a collaboration that yielded a seamless and riveting story. The story captures the themes of family, politics, friendship, and romance, and is loosely set around the 2016 US Presidential campaign. The story centers around Maya and Jamie, who were friends from childhood but grew apart at some point until their growing enthusiasm for their political quest, brought them together. While on the cause to canvas for a state senate candidate whom they believe would bring necessary changes to the places that itch them most, they surprisingly resuscitate their friendship to a burgeoning companionship adorned with scintillating romance. Although both Maya and Jamie are not of voting age, they still put so much effort into canvassing for votes and going from door to door to inform people about the need for political participation. Hence, even while both were too young to vote, they ensured they contributed positively to the Rossum Campaign.
One beautiful thing I love about the synergy between the writers who co-authored the book is how seamless it is, even when Aisha Saeed wrote Maya's POV, while Becky Albertalli wrote Jamie’s, one would barely tell that both POVs were not written by the same person. Also, seeing how at some point, both Maya and Jamie begin to feel unsafe in their environment, the authors were able to depict how issues like Islamophobia and antisemitism can impact not just the older ones in society but also young people. Thus, as much as the story resonates with everyone, it mostly targets young audiences.
The characters of Maya and Jamie are very likable, especially with how both complement each other. While Maya is calm and confident, Jamie is unconfident and shy, however, through their respective families who encouraged them to go into canvassing for votes together, we see how Jamie's who although socially awkward has a great enthusiasm for politics, with a dream to someday become the president of US; it is through this great enthusiasm that Maya was inspired to continue working with him to propagate more political awareness across the neighborhood.
One thing I, however, noticed about the story is that it dragged out for too long, thereby denying the development of the story an opportunity to be concise and economical in its delivery. The story, especially the part that centered around the canvassing, at some point began to feel repetitive, which I feel would have been delivered better in a few pages. Aside from that, the story is very enjoyable and the ending, very unpredictable.
Overall, for anyone who is looking for a story that delivers a riveting narrative built around politics and romance, especially for young people, “No Yes Maybe So” will definitely be a good choice. I sincerely appreciate how the authors were able to capture various demographics of society in this story, ranging from the people of color, queer community, individuals from broken marriages, etc. thereby, making the story a diverse read. So I highly recommend this story for everyone out there, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did, or even more.
