ARC kindly provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

This book was fantastic. I genuinely believe I've found my favourite book of 2023.

The writing? It was so gorgeous and lush and I'm in awe of the fact that this was Cynthia So's debut novel. It feels like they've been writing for years because If You Still Recognise Me was so descriptive and covered so many complex themes such as identity, family, and online relationships. I loved the way in which fandom and online culture was discussed and brought to life in a way that didn't feel stale or cheesy but rather realistic and nuanced - it gave me nostalgia for old school Tumblr and fandom blogs the entire time I was reading it.

I absolutely loved this book with my entire heart. Honestly, my review isn't doing this book justice. If You Still Recognise Me is so unique to read, so warm and thoughtful that words are too little to perfectly articulate how heart-warming the story is. Absolutely brilliant and flawless. Highly recommend.

It was such a cute book. I really enjoyed the whole thing. Would totally recommend it to anyone. Love to read more from this author.

Cute! I really do not enjoy when fictional characters go in depth into their favorite fictional characters it all gets too meta for me but yes I otherwise enjoyed 🫶

"There's nothing like meeting someone and feeling comfortable with them instantly. That to me is the closest thing we have to magic in the world. The inexplicable connection that we just feel, right away, to some people, when with the vast sea of humans, we have to work so hard to get anywhere at all."

This is one of the best coming-of-age stories I've read. This is a story of connection. Of reconnecting with estranged family, with a friend who used to feel like family. It's about connecting with others through art, through identity, through love. It's about staying true to yourself while also allowing yourself to change.

What I love deeply about this book is the relationships Elsie has: with her mother, her grandmother, with her old friend, best friend, and internet friend. For the relationships that develop with her coworker, her uncle, and the queer women who came before her that she comes into contact with. All of these relationships are handled with so much care; relationships that support and help the main character grow while still feeling like real people.

Overall, this is just such a brilliant book and it deserves way more readers. If you like YA contemporary, I highly recommend checking this out.

More please. Cynthia hits the mark with this sapphic YA romance. Coming of age and navigating your first love. Introverted Elsie is so sweet and appreciate that we can validate online friendships! I don't know what I'd do without mine that's for sure!

I cannot wait for another story from Cynthia!

A moving LGBTQ YA realistic fiction novel about identity, friendship, and dealing with past traumas. Would recommend.

This was a really sweet coming of age sapphic romance, with some nice themes of family, fandoms, and friendship! I like the way the romance panned out, and the side characters were all lovely.

🌈Queer rep: main FF relationship, bi/pan female main character. Secondary lesbian character, bi/pan female character, bi & ace male character. Brief mentions of a nonbinary character.

I tried multiple times to pick up and get into this book and ultimately DNF'd it at around 30%. The book is incredibly character driven and has very little plot, so I found the pacing to be quite slow, and unfortunately I did click with Elise's character. (I will note I am not into fandom and I'm not Asian, so I'm probably not the target audience here.) I found her to be self centered and immature, and I really didn't enjoy her avoidant personality. I did feel like this gave a pretty genuine portrayal of fandom lovers and those parts were cute. Ultimately I did not find Elsie engaging enough as a character to read through a full character driven book about her.

I loved that grandmothers were a large part of this book. I am also close with my grandma and could definitely relate to many parts of this book. I love seeing any queer relationships in books, especially books for teens. So this was a fun and heartfelt time.

This is the homoerotic childhood friendship turned lovers book we all deserve! IF YOU STILL RECOGNIZE ME is such a beautiful, atmospheric, and overall incredible story with so much love packed into it. I'm a big fan!

I enjoyed reading this book and I flew through it. It was hard to put down and the characters were well-written. I found the plot enjoyable and not slow. The characters and their journeys were what the plot centered on and I like that. I cannot wait to read more from this author.

A wonderful and evocative sapphic book that delves into family, friendships, identity, and so much more. Tender and full of heart.

- thank you to netgalley and the publisher for an arc to review!

- a gorgeously written and heartfelt story of self discovery and love all in one summer. Cynthia So narrates a loving and struggling protagonist with nuance and care, and you end up rooting for Elsie as she navigates her feelings and identities, and what they mean to her. the other characters were amazing as well, adding onto to the believability and the nuance the story had to offer.

If You Still Recognize Me is a wonderful and sweet YA story about friendship, love, and family that really impressed as a debut. It follows Elsie, a girl who has recently finished high school and is determined to make her feelings for her online crush known over the summer. Just as she embarks on this journey, her former best friend, Joan, comes back into her life, complicating all of her plans. She's also facing her estranged Chinese staying with her for the summer after her grandfather's passing, getting her first job, and her first real fight with her best friend. This may seem like a lot, but Cynthia covers it all so well and reminds us that this is how life truly is. It is truly a story about Elsie finding herself in many ways, including her sexuality, her cultural identity, and her passions in life.

This book does a lot well, including small details. Elsie and her crush are deep into online fandom, and this isn't done in any sort of cringy way. It feels real and honest, and it was nice to see this character transfer that passion into her real life. I liked that her friends never judged or questioned her for crushing on someone she knew from the internet, or questioned the validity of the connection. Another thing that's done well is the slow burn of the actual romance. It's so sweet. I also think the familial relationships are truly excellent.

Ultimately, I liked this so much. It's perfect for fans of Alice Oseman's Radio Silence or I Was Born for This. I'm super excited to see what Cynthia So does next.

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher HarperCollins Children's Books, and the author Cythnia So for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. This book is for you if you enjoy the genre of YA, coming of age, queerness, fandoms, and lesbians. This book takes an intersectional approach to those themes and explores the space of them well. This book is a good light breeze after you read something heavy.

4.5 Stars!

It took me a minute to get into this book but then I could not put it down. This is a beautiful YA book filled with sapphics, lost loves, past friendships, and a queer summer!

Elsie has found herself online, reading comics and making friends within the comic fandoms she's interested in, including fanfic writer Ada. Ada lives in NY, and Elsie, in London, pines after her. She has a huge crush on Ada and wants to figure out how to tell her, but just cannot figure out the right way. Ada tells Elsie about these letters her grandmother exchanged with another woman and the sapphic undertones. The woman lives in the town that Elsie is traveling to with friends this summer, so she thinks this is the perfect way to woo Ada!

But in comes Joan, Elsie's best friend who had moved to Hong Kong 8 years ago, when they promptly lost contact, even after promising to write letters. They've both changed, almost swapping styles, but they still have that same connection they've always had. She joins on the trip and is along for the plan to reunite these women and see if true love might exist between them still, if it ever did!

This book was so beautiful and handled so many topics without feeling overwhelming. So often a book will try to handle a lot and it'll feel unfinished, but I felt like it all existed in harmony and nothing felt forgotten. It was a beautiful story with a lot of queerness, including an ace-spec side character. The queer elders were wonderful to read about and to see Elsie seeing happy queer adults felt like something she truly needed.

I definitely recommend this - it's such a beautiful summer sapphic read, including lots of letters, a lot of fandom/comic talk, and some of the best friends a girl could ask for! Though there are definitely some tougher aspects, like previous toxic relationships, homophobia in family dynamics, and a death of a grandparent, it all felt balanced and complete.

If You Still Recognize Me is about Elise, a bisexual British-Hong Kong teen, just trying to make it through the summer between secondary school and university. There is a lot going on in her life as her grandma is visiting for the first time in eight years, she’s trying to find a job, crushing on her fandom friend, and her childhood friend reappears after years of radio silence.

I really enjoyed this book! I felt it was able to juggle all of the aforementioned plot points really well and all contributed to Elise’s character development. I did want more between Elise and her friend, Ritika, because I feel some things weren’t fully hashed out.

I loved how queer so many of the main characters were and how they all are queer in different ways. Each character is at a different stage in their queer journey; there are old and young queer characters and some are completely out to family, some aren’t at all.

I enjoyed this book and rated this book 3.5 stars!

This book was so freaking good. I teared up and squealed at so many parts. To have had something like this growing up would’ve been a game changer for my self discovery but that it exists now is an incredible thing. Absolutely adored our MC and she was so relatable and I just felt instantly connected to her and her experiences. Truly a masterpiece. One of the best coming of age stories I’ve read in a while. The pacing was great too and the dialogue between characters was so realistic and I felt like I was experiencing my teen years again.

If You Still Recognize Me is a sweet, coming of age story about a bisexual 18 year old girl who is just beginning to come to terms with her sexuality. This book hits on so many topics - the issues of being a LGBTQIA Asian girl growing up in London, Chinese culture and its attitude toward toward the LGBTQIA community, an old lost love, fan fiction, a new relationship - this book is packed full of it all. I am not the target audience, but found myself caring about the characters and really enjoying this novel.

Oh my gosh there was so much happening in this book. And after finishing I can recognize that this book almost needs this many moving parts but in the moment it was a lot borderline too much. There's so many characters to follow and so many plot points that things get muddled and confusing and I feel like we lose a little bit of time with our main character.