Oh wow, W O W. I went into this expecting a fun, breezy YA: a teen's secret-filled diary is stolen and to get it back she needs to complete one of the lists. I wasn't at all prepared for the heaviness of this one! A secret crush on the childhood bestie/boy next door, yes absolutely! But having lied to overbearing parents about being accepting into a top college, a grandmother battling dementia, racism, bullying, privilege. I was totally caught off guard by EXCUSE ME WHILE I UGLY CRY!

Excuse Me While I Ugly Cry by Joya Goffney has to be one of the best named YA novels I have ever heard of.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me a free advanced copy of this book to read and review.

Quinn makes lists. She has a list of boys she’d like to kiss, movies she loves, and list of things to do before she graduates. All these lists are in her journal, so when it goes missing she’s desperate to find it. The last person who had it was Carter, a boy who happens to be on the kissing list. Quinn and Cater team up to try to find the journal after someone starts blackmailing Quinn to do things on one of her lists by threatening to post the whole journal on social media. Debut author Joya Goffney writes a real story about race, family, and friendships in this YA masterpiece. Quinn’s fears and feelings are authentic and poignant, and all of the characters feel real. All YA readers should pick this one up for a small dose of contemporary romance and big insight into life as a black teenager.

this book was everything I needed and more. I’m absolutely obsessed with the storytelling and the characters. Quinn is a little too relatable than me, she had very close to home and I absolutely adore her. A lot of the things she’s experienced, I have experiences well. We have pretty similar childhoods in the terms of growing up in predominantly white areas. I love how that was incorporated in the story and her conflicting feelings throughout at all, it just felt very real and raw me. I love Carter so so much he is everything. He is amazing hero and I just love how he atributes his story and livvy was a very enjoyable character for me as well. Olivia was someone I did not expect and I think that her presence in the book really brought aspect to the book that cannot be replaced. Love the romance I love how he grows in blossoms I love how both characters come in terms of their feelings and the scenes that we get like this scene with quinncarter singing Tyrese in the car and he was cradling her jaw with his finger and holding her hand I just love that seems so so much. Overall I am obsessed with this book and I think everyone should read it. It.

Thank you for letting me read and review this book. This book was just so so good and i can't wait to read what is next for Joya.

I love how much Jenny Han's work is influencing other books! While this is slightly reminiscent of To All the Boys, it is entirely its own work. This was a great read!

Excuse Me While I Ugly Cry, has serious potential and but falls flat in the end for me. The pacing to me at least felt off because there were so many issues that were being discussed all at once. Racism, family, and the pressures of parent’s expectations with getting in college. The different feelings of being a teenager were depicted pretty well. Although these are valuable issues to tackle in a YA novel, in my opinion it caused the story to feel scattered. I gave this book a 3.3-star rating but rounded down to a 3. Excuse Me While I Ugly Cry, was a little cheesy at times and predictable but an all-around good read.
Quinn keeps a journal and makes a list of literally everything. From the most mundane things to the most embarrassing. One day, her journal is stolen and she is black mailed into facing her seven greatest fears otherwise the entire journal will go public. I get the thrill of making lists because it makes you feel productive especially when you cross things off. So, list making is something I can relate to. The main character Quinn on the other hand, I could not relate to her at all. She was self-centered and judgmental. I understand this can be attributed to internalized racism and the whole point of the book is Quinn coming into her own and finding her “voice” I still found it very hard to sympathize with her. The plot of the story wrapped everything up neat and tidy which made the story seem unrealistic. Again, the book overall, was decent and worth reading.

List, that what Quinn is made of. List that help to keep her anxiety down and to pour all her fears, desires and emotions into. But when the journal housing those list goes missing, she finds out she is more than those lists. Excuse Me while I Ugly Cry is a fast paced romance novel about loving who you are. Readers will automatically click with Quinn and the pressures she has placed on her to excel as well as expectations that she feels she need to meet due to socioeconomic status and race. The discomfort associated with these conversations was extremely well done and the notion of fitting in was greater than self worth or image. Where the story felt a little forced was the relationship between Quinn and Carter. Often their relationship feels forced and interactions feel awkward, this can also be said in some parts of the book that feel fractured.

I absolutely loved this book! I was so engrossed by the characters right off the bat. Joya Goffney's writing is out of this world, if you've been in a reading slump this is a great place to start, it absolutely blew me away!

This book is so stressful! I was often having physical symptoms of anxiety while reading this. The characters were spot on

Will be posted on Forever Young Adult, originally posted on Instagram.

Cover Story: Montell Jordan
BFF Charm: Eventually
Talky Talk: Baring It All
Bonus Factors: Grief, Journaling, Family
Relationship Status: Friend Date

Cover Story: Montell Jordan

GIF from Montell Jordan's music video "This Is How We Do It"
These cartoon covers don’t seem to be going anywhere, are they? I can’t help but love this one, though, and it’s mainly because I love good attention to detail that shows the artist was actually told pertinent details (or read the book). The clothing, the character looks, even the red journal cover—it’s all spot-on. Also, kudos on the title choice because the silliness of it is what made me pause long enough to read the synopsis.

The Deal:

Quinn is a list person. Purging her deepest, darkest thoughts and fears in her journal in the form of lists about the days she ugly cried, the boys she’d want to kiss, and the scary life things she should be doing is her form of therapy.

Quinn is also a liar. So when her journal falls into the wrong hands, blackmailer’s hands, she’s forced to do their bidding otherwise her embarrassing lists will come out, like the ones that detail why she didn’t get into Columbia and lied about it to her parents, or the one that reveals she had a hand in vandalizing another girl’s artwork.

Reluctantly, she accepts help from the last person who had her journal (in a mix-up gone wrong), Carter, who is hot but kind of an ass, but also feels guilty enough about losing her journal to help her find it.

BFF Charm: Eventually

PIC

As I mentioned, Quinn is a liar, and she’s lying to herself most of all. She convinces herself she’s not brave or smart and that she isn’t as privileged as she actually is. And while I can get behind a good list, she purges her thoughts and emotions into her journal so she doesn’t have to actually process them. This book is very much about her exposing herself (emotionally), so I have to give credit where credit is due by the end.

Swoonworthy Scale: 5

When Carter first looks at Quinn, he sees nothing more than a pretty face hiding a rotten interior. Quinn thinks Carter is completely hot but, quite frankly, a judgmental asshole. They’re both mostly wrong, and it was sweet to see them open up to one another. Carter does something later in the book that is quite reprehensible, but I think Goffney does a great job at treating his transgression with the gravity it deserves while also allowing both characters space to feel remorse, grow, and reflect on their actions.

Talky Talk: Baring It All

Within the first few chapters, you’ll have this book’s plot all figured out. But did that lessen my enjoyment? Nah! I found Goffney’s voice quite fresh and amusing; even when Quinn was being kind of annoying, I understood her and her motivations. I enjoyed the little moments of reflection when Quinn got real and delved into her grief and remembered the things that really mattered to her. Goffney inserted discussions on family relationships, consent, friendship, race, and honesty and never made any part feel preachy or overwrought, but at the same time I felt like important lessons were being handed out left and right. I’m excited to see what comes next from this new author!

Bonus Factor: Grief


Quinn’s formidable grandmother, Hattie, has Alzheimer’s and has been living in a home over the last year, and while she isn’t dead, Quinn is still experiencing an overwhelming grief that the person she loved is not…the same. Quinn can’t even bring herself to visit Hattie for fear that she will not remember Quinn. This part was particularly poignant for me, because I am going through a similar kind of experience with my own grandmother, whom I grew up very close to. It is quite heartbreaking to see someone so feisty’s spirit diminished in that way, and I could relate to Quinn’s desire to avoid it, but, hon, you need to woman the fuck up and be a good granddaughter.

Bonus Factor: Journaling


While Quinn’s over-dependence on her journal isn’t healthy, I am a proponent of writing down your messy thoughts to sort them, or to keep a chronicle of your life. I used to be really diligent about it, though the last few years I…definitely have not, but this made me want to ease back into it.

The only part that constantly made me cringe was Quinn just toting her super-private journal that exposes ALL her secrets everywhere. Carter accidentally took it from her when he was at her house studying because it looked like his notebook, but she talked about taking it to school and such. GIRL, NO. Something as private as that stays tucked under your mattress or gets password-protected! This whole situation was amateur hour.

Bonus Factor: Family

7 family members of all ages in a group hug
Quinn’s parents have a complicated relationship, and she’s constantly worried that once she goes away to college they will have nothing left in common and divorce. It’s a lot of pressure put on one’s self. Some of my favorite moments in the story came from Quinn working through her issues with her parents and exploring the bonds of what it means to be a family.

Relationship Status: Friend Date

We bonded over our love of journaling in the lunchroom, Book, and though graduation is drawing closer, I think there might be a friendship forming. Let’s catch a movie sometime and see where this could lead!

I'm sorry I didn't get around to reading EXCUSE ME WHILE I UGLY CRY sooner, because it's a gem! I absolutely devoured it. It was sweet and thoughtful, and I appreciated how the main character had to work through her feelings re: a friend's betrayal, her parents' marriage, and her crush's betrayal. I thought the last dilemma in particular was handled really well.

I would like to thank NetGalley & HarperTeen for an eARC of this book. The main character Quinn likes to write lists in her journal that are her secrets. One day she looses her journal and starts to get blackmailed into doing one of her lists. She teams up with classmate named Carter to help her find the journal and try to find out who is blackmailing her. Excuse Me While I Ugly Cry was a good read. I give it a 3 out of 5 stars. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

3.5

I enjoyed this book! The writing style was amazing and the storylines were intriguing. However, I feel as though the lead’s friendship/crush on Matt was rushed and I wish it was more developed. I also wish that we got to see more of Olivia’s life. Overall, cute read and I am excited to read more from Joya Goffney!

Excuse Me While I Ugly Cry by Joya Goffney is a young adult romance that I enjoyed. Quinn is a list maker and she keeps all of them in her journal, very private lists. Quinn's parents are a wealthy black couple who live around mostly white people, and the school is also mostly white. When Carter starts attending her school, he is a lower income black boy, Quinn finds her eyes opening. Along with all the culture awareness, there is the problem that Quinn's journal is stolen, and she is being blackmailed to complete her lists. I enjoyed this book, and highly recommend it.
I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Excuse Me While I Ugly Cry is a tender and moving romance that explores the fear of taking risks, the subtleties and complexities of race and racism, and what it means to be part of a family. I really loved this book so much for its swoony and slow burn romance and well-crafted and dynamic protagonist.

Read my full review and interview with the author for Culturess at the links below.

A love story unlike many others!

I was thrilled to receive approval for this audiobook; the premise was that of a great YA novel, and I couldn't wait to read it. Sometimes, the love story of YA novel overshadows every other part; that wasn't the case in this story.

The main character, Quinn, is dealing with a lot of things: her rejection from Columbia, a secret crush on her neighbor, a rift with her best friend, the constant arguing between her parents, and her grandmother's recent health decline. On top of that, her personal journal (in which she keeps many lists that have confidential and potentially embarrassing information) goes missing. It's... a lot. On her journey to find the journal, she finds more than a spiral-bound notebook: things like self-acceptance, love, and genuine friendship.

My favorite element of this story was probably the character development of Quinn herself. At the beginning, I found it hard to root for her. She didn't fight for herself, and she wasn't dealing with any of the issues mentioned above. She had a serious case of indecisiveness and preferred to ignore her problems. By the end, though, she took ownership of her situation; she communicated clearly and fiercely, and she had created new bonds built on things that matter instead of popularity and clout.

She struggles with feeling as though she doesn't belong in any social group, and she voices particular concerns about her own identity as a Black woman, as well as the fact that she believes her father doesn't like or feel proud of his identity as a successful Black man; this is a journey she embarks on toward self-acceptance and confidence that was inspiring to witness on the page. She cultivates friendships and romantic bonds by the end of the story with those who will support her and help her take pride in who she is.

This is a great story, and I hope that readers enjoy it as much as I did!

Quinn keeps her whole life organized in a journal of lists, but when that journal gets lost, Quinn has to reckon with a LOT of tough choices – including confronting Carter, the cute but frustrating boy she’s working on a group project with.

If you know me at all, you know I really love teenagers – I teach middle school and I love every second of it (okay, *almost* every second). Author Joya Goffney has captured Quinn and her friends in all their beautiful, fraught complexity, and that’s what made this novel sing for me. There are a lot of layers to this story, but they all worked. It’s a thoughtful, sweet rendering of a young girl having to come to terms with herself – even the parts she’s not so fond of – and I adored it.

High School is hard. Now imagine you're are a teenage girl whos journal full of her most intimate thoughts and secrets goes missing and is slowly being published for the whole school to read. High School is really hard.

This was a really cute young adult book and I am sad that I waited until now to read it. At first I disliked the main character Quinn and I thought she was being really dramatic. Then as I slowly read on, I remembered what it felt like to be that young. When your biggest issue is the whole school finding out your dirty laundry the only sane response is to be completely dramatic.

While reading this book, it kind of reminded me of a mix of The Hate U Give and Ten Things I Hate About You. This book tackles some issues of bullying, race, and privilege as the main characters learn how to deal with the big issues in their lives.

Even though some of the topics are heavy, this book felt really light and I found myself smiling and rooting for the main character. I believe this was the author's first book and I was so impressed by the writing. I feel like I have been reading a lot of debut's lately where it's easy to tell it's their first book. The writing in this book felt seasoned and sentences never felt forced.