“We are never beholden to the person we were yesterday.”

Over the last few years I have come across several things that Haley Jakobson has written on instagram. I have saved several of them and have gone back to them several times so I was interested when I saw she was coming out with a novel.

Old Enough explored friendships, new relationships, surviving past trauma, the college experience, moving away from home and growing up. I think the storyline of childhood friendships and the expectations around those relationships and how they change in adulthood was represented so good. The flash back in story lines keep me engaged and wanting to continue to read.

Thank you Dutton for this eARC copy to read and review. Just a warning there is talk of sexual and physical abuse.

This book is so so important in themes and finding your community but overall I was left thinking so much more could have been done with this. I hate that even in the main character trying to figure her stuff out, it's rarely her taking the initiative and instead things happen to push her development along (friends overhearing the fight with Izzie, etc). Even still, I think this book will stick with me for a while.

gah!! where to even begin with this book. i loved sav and her big bisexual world so much. there’s such niceness and comfort that comes with big queer groups and i hope everyone has that.

Thanks to Dutton, Penguin Group, and Netgalley for this advanced copy.

It took me a bit of time to really get into the story of Sav, a newly out bi college student who is grappling with her childhood best friend getting married while she starts to live her life as an out queer. Sav, like so many people at that age, is a complete mess. She makes bad decisions, tries to do the right thing when she can, and genuinely doesn't seem to understand the consequences of her actions. But as the story goes on, I kinda adored her. She is living with multiple traumas stemming from her best friend and her brother and, with the wedding, is juggling the new her vs the old her in a stark way.

My only complaint about the book was that there were a LOT of characters in Sav's college world, which makes sense but was hard to remember. I feel like some editing there might have been helpful. But ultimately, this was a great story of growth and finding one's place in the world.

I appreciated Old Enough by Haley Jakobson, the struggles of sexual orientation, belonging, being true to yourself, and overcoming trauma. I slightly struggled to connect with the book, yet applaud this novel and author, nonetheless. Thank you NetGalley, the author and publisher for the review copy. All opinions are my own.

Having followed Haley Jakobson on social media for a long time, I have been excited for this release for a while. I think it will find a home with it's audience.

OLD ENOUGH is so incredibly sweet, one of those books where I wish I could give all the characters a big hug. Thank you to the publisher for my copy!

I always gravitate towards books that are marketed as “new adult” (in between YA and Adult) because the time between a person’s late teens and early 20’s is so formative yet under-explored, and the author did an incredible job of combing through all the emotions of that age. In OLD ENOUGH, Sav is a college sophomore, has recently come out as bisexual and is forming a new group of friends (her friends!! <3) but things get complicated when her childhood best friend announces she’s getting married.

This book beautifully explores the space between childhood and adulthood, the transition from the person you are expected to be and the person you want to become. It also goes deep into relationships—friends crushes family—and also Sav’s relationship with herself as she starts to understand and heal from a teenage trauma (check content warnings).

Sav is one of my favorite main characters in a while, but one of the best parts of this book are the side characters. I especially loved seeing Sav’s relationship with her high school best friend. Izzie’s character perfectly highlights the way a friend can be well-intentioned and love you but still not *get* you as your lives grow in different directions. The dynamic between her and Sav is loving and relatable while also managing to make me wince in secondhand embarrassment multiple times (and if that’s not happening in a book about 20-year-olds then I don’t want it!!).

I ended up listening to a good part of this book and I’m completely obsessed with the narrator, highly recommend the audio. I think Casey McQuiston fans will like this one, although note that it’s heavier than their books, like if Casey McQuiston wrote a campus novel.

Haley Jakobson's first novel is a captivating read that introduces us to a diverse group of characters and explores meaningful themes.

In "Old Enough", Savannah "Sav" Henry is on the cusp of becoming the person she wants to be. As a sophomore in college, she has recently come out as bisexual, forged friendships within the queer community, and begun to recover from a turbulent past relationship. However, when she learns that her childhood best friend, Izzie, is engaged, Sav's confidence is shaken, as their friendship has been strained since a traumatic incident involving Izzie's older brother when they were sixteen. As the wedding approaches, Sav must confront her unresolved trauma.

Although it took me a while to get fully into the story, I eventually became attached to the characters as their journeys unfolded. The book beautifully portrays the idea of found family and reminds us that we all make mistakes and have room to grow.

While the book does involve sexual assault, the book handles it with care, depicting its impact on the characters and exploring complex emotions.

Although there are a few small issues, like occasional annoyance with the writing style and a bit of confusion in the beginning, this debut is definitely worth recommending, especially since this unique choice serves its purpose. It touches on identity, queerness, and healing, making it a meaningful read for certain readers. It especially creates a safe space for trauma survivors and fills a gap by featuring a main character who is bisexual. Overall, this book captures your attention with its interesting characters, important messages, and heartfelt storytelling.

I loved this book!! It’s about Sav, a young twenty-something bisexual woman in college. She’s doing the college thing (classes, parties, hookups, friends) while also trying to figure out who she is in the world and dealing with trauma that resurfaces when she finds out her best friend from high school is getting married (and her brother will be there….).

I thought this was such an important (and fun!) queer/LGBTQ+ story that’s also so much more than that. It’s a survivor story. It’s a coming of age story. It’s a story about becoming your own person and shedding the parts of your life that are no longer serving you. It’s a story about loving yourself first.

The writing was sharp, the characters were the perfect balance of lovable and real, and it was overall such an enjoyable read. I recommend!

This book!!!!

I finished Old Enough in one night because I just could not put it down.

Sav finally feels like she’s starting to become who she’s meant to be: she’s openly bi, found an amazing community of friends, and working towards her goals in her sophomore year of college. However, she faces a set back when her best friend from her childhood, Izzie, gets engaged and invites her to the wedding. Things haven’t been the same between her and Izzie since they were 16, after what happened between Sav and Izzie’s brother. Past trauma is brought to the surface, and Sav has to decide how to move forward.

This story was heartbreaking and hopeful, telling a story of true friendships and when it’s time to let go of those that are hurting you.

Thank you NetGalley and Dutton for this arc.

Actual rating 3.5.

As a story with gender and sexuality representation, this absolutely did the work. Unfortunately the character development was lacking, and everything felt very paper thin and at times unbelievable. I wanted to be grabbed and enveloped, but instead I felt more like an outsider never invited in. The main feeling I got from this was that it was more of a draft than a finished product, and would've been improved with a little editorial nudging towards depth. Jakobson has the skill to create a good story, this just missed the mark.

My thanks to Penguin Group/Dutton, the author, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and Dutton for the eARC! I was so excited to read this book, literary fiction that’s “coming of age” is typically right up my alley. I was especially excited to read a book about a bisexual woman and a best friend breakup. Not every book is for everyone, and even though the premise was highly intriguing I wasn’t a huge fan of this due to the YA-ish writing and dialogue. I was hoping for more maturity and nuance and this just wasn’t for me. This book is so important for representation and I love seeing queer books celebrated, this one just wasn’t my cup of tea.

Just not for me, though I think the premise is sweet. Very much reads as YA-- would reccomend to my teen patrons, but not to my adult queer readers unless they are looking for something on the kind of cheesy side.

I really really loved this debut. Sav was such a relatable main character and her college found family filled me with such joy. I love the insight into evolving friendships as you grow up and how that can be more devastating that a relationship break up. This novel dealt with some heavy topics but it was approached it a delicate yet serious way. I definitely recommend this read. A bisexual must read.

I had softly dnf'd this ebook a while ago since I kept getting distracted while reading since the writing was a bit off. Not super sure why; when she would talk about her friend Izzie in the past tense, she would use 'you' like she was writing a letter. Why not just say her name in that context since it was mostly present tense?
The audiobook was really what kept me interested so much, and I played it all day to finish it basically in one sitting. The reason WHY is because Haley wrote the side characters SO WELL. Also, I will always prefer a college or adult setting for learning the queer normative world since the story starts with Sav being new to it since she didn't come out as Pan until college. This story had so many good things to add to our brains, normalizing therapy, friendships than relationships, consent, triggers, safe talk before sex rather than just jumping in there, and great explorations of critiquing rape culture and justice/injustice. You get a perspective in nearly all the people in the story, and that was amazing because I ended up liking everyone, even the annoying girl from their class that had a 180 in self-reflection at the end of it. Once you read the book, you can even tell the relevancy of the hair; love it.

DNF @ 41%. This book is trying to be a heartfelt exploration of sexual assault and finding your queer identity. It frankly fails at both. Izzie and Lara are both insufferable, the portrayals of polyamory are unrealistic (at best), and the young-military-marriage-for-benefits storyline fails to explore the harm of that trope. Overall, could not force myself to finish it. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the free advance copy.

This book was amazing. It did so much while being entertaining to read. I loved all of the characters, and they felt like real people. They felt like people I knew or could have known. I think the book tackles heavy things in a way that educates and entertains, and also gives the reader space to feel all of their feelings. I appreciated the use of different pronouns, and I thought it was helpful for the characters to explain pronouns without taking the reader out of the book. Thank you to Dutton and NetGalley for this ARC!

4.0

Many thanks to Dutton and Netgalley for providing me with this eARC! Old Enough is a new adult debut novel by Haley Jakobson that explores important topics like identity, gender, sexuality, friendships, relationships, sexual assault, and knowing when to let go. The story follows Sav, a college sophomore who has recently come out as bisexual and come into her own, as she struggles with coming to terms with a past sexual assault and her relationship with her childhood best friend, Izzie. I found the author’s voice in this novel particularly powerful and important with how they address that sexual assault is a not always black and white. All the supporting characters were incredibly fun and fleshed out and I would always smile when they would appear. Even Lara, who actually turned out to be one of my favorites! All in all, I give this book 4 out of 5 stars and am looking forward to reading more of Jakobson’s works in the future!

A beautiful, heartbreaking debut from Haley. This story is difficult to read at times and falls into cliche at others, but it’s always honest and emotionally raw. I enjoyed reading it and hope others do as well!

A coming of age story that is very inclusive and diverse, with characters of all different sexualities and genders.
Unfortunately, the story and the characters were just surface level, I needed more depth; a lot of it! Even their interactions with each other seemed petty and unrealistic.