The extremely fitting narrator for this story added an excellent quality to this tale.

Self-discovery about who you are and what /who you love, sexuality and growing as a person was the structure of this book, and IT WAS SO GOOD! We have a beautiful mixture of LGBTQ+ (Bi, Pan, Ace and more REP), body positivity AND a realistic portrayal of unrequited love and experiences in High School.

I had a warm moment seeing how I shared a little background with Ophelia as her Mum is of Irish descent and has a maiden name of Kennedy. I felt very protective of her after that. Seeing the mixture of her heritage and her family and friend life felt like being told a story (more defined) by a friend, which I loved.

Also, I grew to dislike Lindsay so much! I felt for her initially and how she felt like she was being pressured to choose when she was so young. HOWEVER, she showed some ugly colours when she STILL wanted both boys to want and choose her instead of going to the dance with Ophelia. Agatha was an excellent balancer, but I'm petty and wished she would have been more on Ophelia's side during the fight.
I enjoyed the platonic and healthy relationships displayed in this book, mainly between the secondary friend group. Honestly, Wesley and Ophelia were charming as friends, and I want their friendship to continue after high school.

This book is super sweet and is a must-read!

<i>I received an advanced reader's copy of this audiobook for review purposes from the publisher from netgalley. this in no way influences my review and all thoughts and opinions are my own.</i>

where do I start with this book oh my god

I used to be a huge contemporary fan when I first got back into reading at the start of high school. I still adore the genre, but a contemporary hasn't made my heart feel so full and content and <i>happy</i> and in love with life and with reading in...a while. I adored this book with all my heart.

primarily, this book is a love letter to the queer community and anyone struggling with identity or shifting friendships in general. I don't think a book has encompassed all the terrible and amazing facets of being queer for me this accurately before. it nails the initial inertia to coming out to yourself, the messy friendships, the really intricate stuff about being queer you'd only really get if you've experienced it yourself. the feeling that can't be compared to anything else when you find your first queer friend/friend groups and bond over your experiences, feeling accepted and seen for the first time. the hesitation to come out for reasons beyond the worst case scenarios, the feeling of being erased and the all too common and awful experience of having to overanalyse all your friendships and relationships in how it naturally changes your dynamic. the <i>loneliness</i> and the guilt and the jealously over not being able to let yourself be as open with your assumedly straight friends as they are with each other even when you've known them forever, and how that makes your first interactions with the queer community something that much more special and memorable. queerness aside, it also explores ethnic identity and feeling disconnected from your culture and that hit so close to home:’)

this book is also, fundamentally, about friendship, identity and growing up. it took me back to my last year of IRL school and brought back a shit ton of fond memories and nostalgia and just how messy and refreshing that experience is, although finally, it was worth all the angst. I kind of, sort of, definitely miss 2k19 now thanks to this book, but I'm also so glad it happened and it was the best year of my life.


another thing I loved about this book was the nuance and detail with which it explores different kinds of friendships. it's the most friendship-centric thing I've read in a while and the big found family at its heart is so well developed and awesome and is probably going to live rent-free in my head for years to come. how friendships fade and come back and how there are so many of them that can mean so many different things and all feel special in completely different ways.

oh my god the FOUND FAMILY. where do I start.

so...you have ophelia, our hopeless romantic cuban-irish protagonist who's somewhat ironically obsessed with shakespeare and super passionate about gardening, flowers and the people she loves. her best friend from infancy, sammy, who's annoying and sarcastic and really just an adorable little shit who she has an almost sibling-like dynamic with. he also has this huge, classically overbearing desi extended family that makes up for her lack thereof with her mom’s relatives, and they sort of seek refuge in each other’s homes. she kinda had a crush on him when they were little but it wasn't a huge deal, and they briefly grew apart because of middle school weirdness for a while and they do have their fights and rough patches even over the course of the novel but they're essentially like the relationship that's essentially a constant in your life, which makes adapting to each other changing kind of hard to get around.

then you have agatha, who’s bold and creative and who she grew close to during her rough patch with sammy in middle school and is sort of that best friend who’s special for being the first person you ever <i>chose</i>, the first friendship that didn’t seem pre-ordained but exciting and electric. they don’t exactly have that stable sibling dynamic she has with sammy, but they’re as special to each other as best friends. there’s lindsay, who <s>is the designated token straight and</s> sort of came as a package deal with agatha. they don’t have a grand, forever friendship, but they’re still close and both intrinsic to the squad!

lindsay is the “popular” kid who always has guys pining over her and she brings wesley, who’s kinda quiet and artsy and seems like he cares more about his other friends talia and zac, into the fold. talia’s the kind of distinguished bi every queer girl can probably relate to their first girl crush and she’s a MATH NERD who also happens to be afro-latine and a girl (as a fellow math nerd omg this made me so happy) and wants a tattoo of the quadratic formula on her forearm, which is the most iconic thing I’ve had any character declare in all of literature hands down. somewhere along the line their friend groups convene and it’s kind of like this beautiful culmination of realizing all the potential and casual friendships oph has with people at school coming together during their final year at school, which is just kdjfksjdfhdsjfh THE MOST ADORABLE THING EVER

a common theme ive noticed with these kinds of stories involving the main character realizing they’re queer is that usually, it’s seen as all worth it because they end up with the first person who made them question their identity and it makes everything neatly click in place. I loved that this DIDNT happen here; i honestly find the experience of having your big queer awakening over an unrequited crush and it STILL being worth it so much more relatable and refreshing?? especially since said crush was also a queer girl and that’s what gave ophelia the courage to acknowledge her feelings in the first place. it’s not “getting the girl” that makes ophelia’s experience so beautiful; it’s everything about her journey with queerness. this is also one of those books where you start off assuming everyone’s straight because of how almost everyone seems to take it as a given, but that ends up being wildly untrue. talia, zac and especially wesley are so, so patient and supportive throughout ophelia’s sexuality crisis and sort of welcome her into their little queer family even when she lashes out at them because of insecurity. the classic coming out chain reaction happens with her older friends, with all of them coming out as queer one after another after the first person comes out (100% accurate representation i need more of). every character has a unique and special relationship with each other and none of them are brushed to the side and it’s so beautiful. there’s a lot of authentic exploration of so many queer idenities and the microexperiences that come with them too: you have unlabeled queer characters, questioning characters, bisexual and pansexual characters that end up with girls and boys and fall across the spectrum, biromantic ace characters and aromantic characters front and centre and so many casually queer characters on the side too. pretty much all of them are characters of colour too??

oh, and the family relationships. were. everything. none of them were perfect, but the range of support and love so many of these characters shared with their more traditional parents almost made me cry. there was a fair share of dysfunctional and broken familial relationships too, but so much of this book was people not understanding but giving all they have to try for the people they love and i love that so much. special shoutout to the initially lost korean parents going all out to buy their son bi and ace pride flags after he came out to them. they are the true mvps of this book oh my god

all in all, i could ramble about this book forever and there’s just so much to love about it. it’s practically the literary manifestation of a warm, comforting hug and if you’re still here GO READ IT ASAP PLEASE TRUST ME ON THIS

(also the audiobook for this was specifically so good, im kind of in love with the narrator ksjdfhdskjfh and they impossibly made this book even better. also, it has officially confirmed me as a huge simp for girls doing guy voices i really need help)

Ophelia After All is perhaps the most unique, and DEFINITELY the best young adult novel I've ever read. A joy to read from start to finish, Racquel Marie captures a sweet, lovable and unique cast of characters that felt so realistic to me I was longing to join their group. It takes a LOT to make me feel the same way I felt while reading Red White and Royal Blue (which is my favorite novel in terms of character writing) but this novel 1000% did that.

This novel follows Ophelia, a botany-lover proclaimed "boy-crazy" girl on her journey of questioning her sexuality and navigating the world that is teenage romance during Prom season. From developing a clumsy crush on a girl to having bursts of romantic feelings for fleeting boys, Ophelia's fully confused with her identity. She builds connections with very 3 dimensional characters that become a support (or lack of support) system while hiding her secret from her parents and her long-tie friends for fear of letting their version of Ophelia be tarnished.

I loved the way the author handled Ophelia's sexuality crisis. The author shows how it's a messy, non-linear process that doesn't always have stereotypical journeys and outcomes. Ophelia spends a lot of time bonding with and learning the stories of Queer people in & associated with people in her life, which creates a support system many do not have during the questioning phase, which I loved to read.

As for the specific characters AHH I loved so many of them but in particular: Wesley, Sammie, Talia, Agatha and Ophelia's parents (so, pretty much every character). They all had distinct characterizations and backstories lending to a more fully fleshed and realistic world than many books provide, which was *so* good. Ophelia's parents have complicated lives which sometimes make Ophelia's life harder, especially when she holds blame in those complications. Her best friend Sammie and Wesley are competing in a love triangle for a girl who may hold less feelings than either of them.

The friendship dynamics behind this group were also SO much more realistic than the typical YA book. Their friend group deals with the merging of two smaller groups, a love triangle, a bid for prom queen, the structure of popularity, and the knowledge that when they graduate in the Spring, some of them will likely cease to be friends. As somebody who just graduated high school last year, I've never read a book that deals with the complicated, fraught nature that is a senior year friend group. My personal experience of knowing that in a few short months I likely was going to fade from the lives of some of those who I was closest to was hard to grapple with, but also a sort of peaceful acceptance feeling of "thank god." Ophelia and her group definitely see some of these issues, especially after the growing pains of being such lifelong friends.

Ophelia After All also provides a lot of cultural depth, from her Cuban-American background to the diversity of her friend group offering many fresh perspectives that are generally underrepresented in literature. As a white person I'm not going to speak on if the different racial and ethnic representations were good or bad, since I lack that perspective: I will say if you're looking for a book with lots of diverse character backgrounds, this one has it!

I also really enjoyed the audiobook--the narrator is great and read in conjunction with the physical book (thank you to Storygram for that one!!) my experience was overall fantastic.

Overall, there is so much I could say about this book that I can't even put into words, and I'll be coming back to this review probably daily to edit it.. BUT I just want to say this is my new favorite YA book ever. Perhaps it's because the author is so young, and so many YA authors are a bit older (no shade) and are. bit out of touch with what being a teenager is like now... but this book is so golden. SO f*cking golden and I'm not going to shut up about it Ever.

This had so many elements I ordinarily love and all together it should have been a perfect book, but I found it lacking. The reliance on the way overdone idea of American teen prom was a bit tired, even with the much appreciated queer spin. I enjoyed the botanical aspect and Ophelia's journey of coming to terms with herself and her sexuality but something was missing for me and I can't put my finger on it.

4.6/5

I loved this book!
Right from the start, it had me so hooked that I finished it in less than 2 days! I literally could not put it down. Also, the audiobook is incredible - I think the narrator’s voice perfectly fits Ophelia :)

It is fast paced, and follows Ophelia during the last 3 weeks before prom as she explores friendship and starts to questioning her sexuality. I really like the fact that she remains questioning and identifies as queer throughout the book, because it’s so relatable! Figuring your sexuality is hard (speaking from my own experience here), and it’s very nice that this book shows that. There’s also great LGBTQ+ rep (bi, pan, aro, biromantic ace, queer, questioning), and most of the cast are POC! Most of the characters (including Ophelia) are very nice and lovable.

The atmosphere of Ophelia After All is very nice and cozy, and it is a very good candidate to become your next comfort read :) I definitely recommend to check it out!

What a wonderful read!
I was hooked from the beginning and couldn’t put it down. This book talks about the struggles of high school, friendships, families, discovering your sexuality and many other topics. I think the author did and amazing job. I love how this book had so much diversity!! I really think everyone should read this and Is definitely a new comfort read.

This was overall a very good book and I was ready to give it 5 stars when it pulled a trope I hate in the second half and now I'm upset that it ruined the experience. I was so ready to be "5 stars and new fave" and then Ophelia apologizes for needing some space to Talia when she has no reason to actually apologize. Let people breathe and process omg.

Ophelia After All is a book about a girl who's used to crushing all the time on boys having a crush on a girl. This book is a coming out and exploration of queerness at the end of high school right before prom. This is about expectations and how everything can change and it's not always bad.

I loved the friendships in the book and how Ophelia shared some scenes with all of them and how she had a different relationship with all of them.

I listened to the audiobook and I really loved the audiobook narrator, she really helped the story come to life.

I need to get into spoilers to explain what made me angry so SPOILERS from here to the end:

I was looking for some sapphic unrequited love the other day and I was glad to get it but also upset it always hits too close to home. I'm also upset at how the characters and narrative handle Ophelia's heartbreak.
Talia immediately does what she shouldn't do and try to force Ophelia to talk to her several times after rejecting her. She keeps trying and it's bad for Ophelia and it doesn't help her to move on. Ophelia is allowed to be upset and needs space which is why the fact that the author made her apologise for that made me so angry. "I apologize for shutting you out after you rejected me"?? girl you have nothing to apologize for. prioritize yourself. Talia became so annoying during the second half, she kept putting her need to be accepted by Ophelia again over Ophelia's heartbreak. Like I couldn't understand that selfishness.
To everyone, having this kind of post heartbreak conversation when you're not ready is just not good and very bad for you and the fact that her friends forced into it at the end to distract her from their surprise just filled me with rage. at no point, did she discuss with them that she was ready to have a conversation with Talia and they just forced it upon her (and yes I didn't like how they resolve it because Ophelia was clearly super emotional and crying about it and then goes "well I'm good" in the next scene)

This is a genre I usually don’t read nor enjoy, but I was so intrigued by the description that I decided to give it a shot. And I’m so glad I did, this is by far the best YA contemporary I’ve read.

This felt like such a true depiction not only of high school, friendships, and romance but also delved into the struggles of feeling other in these situations.

The author’s handling of multiple queer characters, their identities and their struggles made me feel seen in a way I never did when I was reading these books in high school. The cast is also diverse in other ways, from body size to race and more. The diversity of the cast really warms my heart, thinking about how many queer and BIPOC readers will get to see themselves in Ophelia After All.

Overall, I would say this is a must read and blew my expectations out of the water.

TW: mentions of racism, mentions of homophobia

I'm fairly obsessed with this book, it's characters, it's messy chaotic nature, and of course, the stunning cover.

This book is just, I don't even really know how to explain it. It hit me in my freaking soul and I wish that I had this book as a teenager. It's one of those that while teenage me probably wouldn't have had the opportunity to read an openly queer book like this, I can just imagine what would have gone through my brain had I read it at that age. Had I found this 10 years ago and seen all of the explicit on page labeled queer rep. Labeled queer rep with definitions and explanations that are not preachy. They're just there and lovely. Seeing both an openly asexual character and an openly aromantic character filled my happiness meter. Yes they're both secondary characters but the queer rep in this is messy and it's perfect. So often we get caught up on finding the perfect label and finding the perfect box we fit into when sometimes that box is just not straight. It isn't a specific label or a specific micro label, a lot of the times are feelings are confusing and complicated and this book portrays that experience insanely well.

I love that this book is focused more on Ophelia's coming of age and less on romance. It seems kind of silly to write that this isn't a romance focused story when there is a lot of romance in it and a lot of romance talk, but there isn't a single-minded romantic relationship at the core of this book. This book isn't about being in a relationship. This book is about recognizing that queerness isn't about who your partnered with. It is about your own feelings and your own sexual and romantic and gender orientations.

Holy queer rep! Actually this whole book is just full of wonderful representation. I'm going to attempt to list them below but because I only have this as an audio I took notes as I went and I definitely could have missed something.

Actually, on second thought I am not going to list all of the queer rep in super detail. I'm just going to vaguely mention that there is bisexual, pansexual, biromantic asexual, aromantic, questioning, and queer representation. There is also multiple racial identities and body types. I've listen them by character below under a spoiler warning.

SPOILERS!!!!
SPOILERS!!!
SPOILERS!!!






Cuban Irish American Queer MC
Sam: Pakistani SC, questioning
Talia: Black Latinx bisexual SC
Agatha: POC aromantic fat
Wesley: Korean American biromantic Asexual!
Zack: pansexual

I cannot wait for this sweet story to be in the hands of teens across the world.

OPHELIA AFTER ALL is a wonderful YA contemporary debut starring Ophelia Rojas: a Cuban-American rose gardener who stumbles upon an identity crisis within the days leading up to her senior prom. I would recommend OAA to all readers interested in the following:

🌹 A diverse cast of queer teens
🌹 Strong and three-dimensional relationships between a teenager and both her parents
🌹 QUESTIONING queer rep!!! Sometimes we don’t have it all figured out (especially as teens) and that’s important to explore
🌹 A true YA contemporary novel (not a YA romance). There are of course romantic elements to the story, but the key character arc is for Ophelia and Ophelia alone
🌹 A great balance between humorous and poignant scenes
🌹 High school nostalgia???? (I never thought I’d be nostalgic for being 17/18, which is a feat in itself)

I look forward to reading whatever Racquel Marie writes next. Today’s queer and questioning teens are truly lucky to have her stories.