I did like this book more than I was anticipating! All characters seem so real, I felt like I could call them and have a chat, or maybe just give them some advice?

This was such a moving read and definitely the first of many I will be reading by this author. I found all the characters relatable in their own way. The romance aspect was written so well.

This book has a lot happening and needs some content warnings for mass shooting (off page), death, homelessness, transphobia, homophobia & racist comments. These are addressed within the book and used to develop character and plot. I found the story to be very emotional and powerful for the most part.

The story is told from the main character, Verdad’s POV. In the beginning, she is isolated from her fellow classmates and teachers, spending time with her best friend Blanca’s memory. This memory is still a very real person to Verdad and helps her to navigate her days and deal with the aftermath of Blanca’s death.

As the story develops, Verdad is forced to face her own prejudices about her classmates based on their various ethnic backgrounds and to examine her own sexuality when she meets and falls for Danny.

Through Danny, Verdad meets a group of queer teens, all homeless because they had been thrown out by their parents. And she runs into problems of her own with her own strict, religious mother.

Verdad initially has a lot of racist thoughts, but she starts to recognize them and call herself on them. As she navigates her new realities, she helps the “Underdogs,” as they call themselves, find support from unlikely sources. And finds support for herself as well.

There are a lot of emotional moments through this story and I love how most things wrapped up. I was left a bit disappointed in the last chapter though, where there are not only happy endings but also fractures. But then again, I’m a sucker for romance and happy endings, and this is ultimately not a romance. But still well worth the read.

Disclaimer: I received a DRC through Net Galley on behalf of the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Great story and great writing. I really enjoyed this read. It tackles a lot of tough and important topics and is an emotional and powerful read.

Sadly, this book was a DNF for me. I don't really think there was anything wrong with it per se, I just think it was more of a "this isn't you, it's me" situation.

However, I have to say that the representation (at least, from as far as I read, which was about 30-40% ish) was really amazing to see! Verdad, our main character, is Puerto Rican and still discovering her sexuality, and Danny is transgender. I found Verdad to be especially relatable to me back in my high school days of loading up on honors and AP courses, all while juggling multiple extracurriculars and clubs (just like Verdad!)

All this being said, again, I really didn't have too much of an issue with this book, it was just really hard for me to maintain my attention on it. Maybe I'll even consider picking it up again in the future again!

I tried, and tried, and tried, and tried to finish the book but I found it near impossible. I did love the concept, but the writing seemed to drag out forever.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book probably had the most rep of any book I've ever read - sexualities, nationalities, different languages. That being said, there was A LOT going on - sexual assault, fun violence, racism, transphobia, teen homelessness. I'm not even sure I remembered it all. Though there was a lot going on, the story flowed seamlessly. The characters were likable and real. It's a great read if you're looking for a lot of diversity!

Verdad is a perfect example of teen exploration and finding out the truths in life, as well as continually challenging your perceptions of the world. This book tackles a lot of heavy topics but it does so very well. Everything is handled with the care it deserves and imparts many important lessons on both the reader and the main characters.

TW: homophobia, transphobia, sexism (all challenged), arophobia (as far as I read, completely unchallenged), shooting, grief, death of a close friend.

It took me a while to actually finish this book. It has a hectic writing style that takes getting used to. I think it is supposed to reflect the confused & “messy” state of mind of the 15 year old main character, Verdad. It didn’t really work for me and made it hard for me to connect to what is an important story to tell. I appreciated the author’s intention towards honesty in writing Verdad—she is definitely not sugar coated and I liked the realism of someone who says the wrong things and is figuring things out.

But the writing made it hard to connect it the character and the plot, and in the end it took me months to finish it. I didn’t dislike it in anyway, but definitely wanted more. There is a good amount of diverse representation here, although please be mindful of the trigger warnings as some heavy topics feature.

I made it 42% of the way in, but couldn’t make it any further. I wanted to put this down much sooner. The story features a lot of important situations and characters, but the writing is so disjointed and hard to follow. It was not captivating and I found myself either confused or bored.

I really enjoyed a great many things about this book. Characters were fleshed out and the plot was well spaced. Some of the secondary storylines could've used a bit more page space but all in all an enjoyable read!

I cried!! Verdad has faced so many issues, heavy ones at that. This book shows how powerful love, acceptance and forgiveness can be. I don't want to give anything away but please read this book. I feel like everyone could benefit from reading this book.

I have been reading like crazy and loving every minute of it! Lately, I have been reading and listening to so many books it's insane. If you look at my Goodreads currently-reading shelf it's off the charts with the number of books on there. However, I have already finished many of those and just have not yet written the review yet because I have been busy reading more books! So I am going to try to get on a schedule (we will see how well I keep to this schedule), ideally I would like to post two graphic novel and two novel or book reviews a week with Friday being a special post day! I started the special posts last week and they are located on my homepage. I did the Pokemon book tag for my first special Friday post and I included this book in that post! So I am super happy to now finally be getting my review of this book up!

SPOILERS AHEAD

Verdad is really struggling with her life. Her best friend died almost a year ago and she almost died with her. Verdad's best friend was shot when they were at the movies one night and ever since her world has been changed. Her mother also has incredibly high expectations of her. She expects Verdad to take AP courses, get A's, take on extracurriculars and excel at them and more. On top of all that, her father left when she was a child and has a new family including another daughter that live not too far away. However, Verdad meets Danny at school one day and everything changes. Danny is trans and when Verdad brings Danny home for the first time her mother is not approving of their relationship. This not only brings a lot of problems for Verdad but also a lot of big life changes and questions for her about herself.

Overall, I enjoyed this book. I will admit it took me a little while to get into the plot and fully understand the direction of where the book was headed. However, once I got into the plot and more of Verdad's story I enjoyed the book and her story. A non-plot related note I really love the cover of this book, the colors were bright and brilliant. The hands with the writing reflect a story point and were incredibly cool to look at! I am giving this book 3.75 stars on Goodreads which rounds to four.

My response to this book was all over the place. On the one hand, I liked that the plot was sort of nebulous and messy. It usually bother me but the issues we're dealing with are also nebulous and messy so that worked. A lot of the realizations made are a struggle. She's constantly re-framing her world, redefining herself. Its an uncomfortable process.She struggles with definitions and prejudices, both from outside and from within herself. Even "woke" she realized how judgmental she can be. And she goes through the journey of affronted at being called out on her judgement to trying to better several times. It's a constant journey. I also like the message about everyone having their own struggles. That just because someone has it worse doesn't invalidate your own struggle. Yes, these teens are homeless. They have it worse than she does. THat doesn't mean that her pain doesn't matter and it is wrong of them to dismiss it. THe characters are hard to relate to, though and most of the secondary characters are lacking depth.

1st off I'm not discrediting anyone, but I don't understand all these 5 star ratings. Perhaps I was reading the wrong version of this book, because from what I did read, it was pure garbage. This whole book was a stereotypical cliche. It was so irritating, and believe it or not I forced myself to finish it in hopes that it would get better but much to my surprise, it didn't.

Unfortunately I have to give it a 1 rating because I can't give it a 0

I was given this arc in exchange for an honest review.
I liked the main character, Verdad. But the writing style was odd and distracting. For instance, the protagonist, describes wanting to kiss her love interest's "boo boo." There's also multiple sections where dialogue is missing quotations marks, a strange stylistic choice. I liked the plot, though the pacing felt too quickly in certain places.

Hard-hitting, gritty YA. NoNieqa Ramos does brilliant character work in this novel—Verdad is complicated, thorny, and difficult to like at times, but Ramos's clear respect for the character and her world made this a compelling read.

**Content Warning: Racism, Homophobia, Transphobia, Mass Shooting, Sexual assault (brief mention), Animal Death (brief mention)**

I was honestly surprised by how much I enjoyed this book. When I first started reading I was worried about what direction it would take, and how the trans character would be portrayed. But the book does very well with the characters, and the plot does get more interesting and isn’t solely focused on the romance part.

Verdad was an amazing character, simply because she was not perfect. She is just a teen who was slowly encountering things she had never dealt with before in her life. Verdad makes so many mistakes, constantly finds herself saying the wrong thing, but you get to see her grow and become more educated. I also really appreciated how her trauma led her to have all these specific coping mechanisms, and how easily they are brought up in the story. Even if at first it doesn’t click for the reader that that is why she does those things, you do connect the dots after a bit.

Danny’s character was great, and I really love seeing a trans character who is so true and comfortable with their identity. I’m so thankful the whole “I hate myself for being trans” thing was fully avoided in this book. I also really adored the rest of the Underdogs too, and the diversity of their identities.

So I was a tiny bit confused at first with some of the formatting. Since the parts where Blanca is speaking are different, at first I wasn’t fully aware on why the formatting had changed like that. I did really loved Blanca as a character, and enjoyed her chiming in on whatever was going on. Despite her not fully being there she becomes such a major part of the story.

The plot itself definitely took a more interesting turn halfway through. This book deals with a whole lot of heavy subjects, and seeing Verdad having to navigate through all of that was good. Not only because she learns more about the world, but because it actively shows her changing her mind/opinions on a lot of things. You actively get to see her calling herself out when she thinks or says something that is wrong or privileged. Through all these experiences she also starts finding new parts of her identity.

Overall I really enjoyed this book! It has some very sweet romance, but it also is balanced out with some very relevant social issues.

I really enjoyed this novel! Verdad is not a perfect protagonist, she's realistic. She's an intentionally problematic character who constantly puts her foot in her mouth. She's only fifteen, so she's figuring out who she is and beginning to realize that maybe it's time to question the values that have been instilled in her. This is a book that looks at identity, ingrained prejudice, and processing trauma.

I really like what this book is. It's a story about a questioning 15-year-old Puerto Rican teen as she falls in love with a trans boy, and learns more about herself just as she unlearns a lot of toxic things she believed before. It's a story that has a realistically messy, confused protagonist who says a lot of bigoted things because she's still figuring out the world, and the book handled this aspect of her perfectly. I also really liked how this talked about culture, and feeling detached from your own culture because you can't speak a certain language as much as you'd like. (Also, it's always nice to see realistic portrayals of bilingualism in YA)

However, the fact that I really didn't like something about the writing - the something that made the sense of passage of time get so weird and confused it gave me a headache - and the fact that right now I'm not in the right place to read about homophobic close relatives means that I had to stop; but I don't want this review to be seen as a sign that this book is bad or there's something wrong with it. I actually think there should be more books like this, following realistic young queer teens of color in our really confusing world. This is something that is missing from YA, and it shouldn't be.