Book review – We Are Okay (Spoiler Free)

“I wonder if there’s a secret current that connects people who have lost something. Not in the way that everyone loses something, but in the way that undoes your life, undoes your self, so that when you look at your face it isn’t yours anymore.”

• Title: We Are Okay
• Author: Nina LaCour
• Genre: Fiction
• Pages: 236 pages
• Publication date: February 14, 2017
• Publisher: Dutton Books

I found We Are Okay on a table at Barnes and Noble under “LGBT+ fiction” during Pride Month. I knew that I hadn’t read my fair share of LGBT+ novels as I should. I didn’t know which letter of the acronym this book represented, but the back sounded interesting. It also had high ratings on Goodreads, so I put it on my to-read list.

Doesn’t take much to persuade me to read a book sometimes, huh?

We Are Okay starts in a dorm room during the beginning of winter break. Marin had just finished her first college semester. An old friend, Mabel, was coming to visit her for a couple of days. But she hadn’t talked to a single soul back home, including Mabel, since she ran away.

The story switches back and forth between “now” in the dorm room and right before she ran off. It’s through first person, so it gives you the hazy thoughts of someone overcoming adversity first hand. Even though the story switches back and forth, there’s no real confusion of what time each chapter is from. The story comes together like a puzzle.

What I liked most about the book was the voice. As Ariel on Goodreads commented, “This is the kind of book I want to write.” And it’s true. It’s told in such a smooth way that it’s no wonder why this book got the 2018 Printz Book Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature.

The most trouble I had was how Marin and Mabel had similar names. I’m not one to confuse names much, but I did confuse their names at the beginning.

Also, the book had a lot of what I’ll call flowered language. It didn’t up right say what was going on when I wanted someone to say it out loud. Just one sentence in plain language. But I got flowered language instead.

Overall though, I loved reading this book. I would sit there and say that I would read thirty pages but fifty would go by without me noticing. It is a quick read for sure. I’d recommend this book to anyone who’s open to a sad story but one full of life.

Score: 9.4/10
Average rating on Goodreads: 3.96/5