gorgeous romance with an utterly fantastic motif :D the poem idae was so novel and i liked/understood the chars. thanks for the arc

1 Sentence Summary: Mitra and her best friend Bea have been writing poetry together since they were 13, back and forth in a journal they call The Book, and the rules of the never-ending poem are simple: no terminal punctuation, no rewriting, no criticizing, and always tell the truth (unless the truth is that you’re secretly in love with your best friend).

My Thoughts: I LOVE poetry, so this was right up my alley, and it did not disappoint! It’s written in a mix of poetry and prose, and the writing was lovely.

I really loved all the diversity and representation in this book. There aren’t many books with Iranian protagonists, so I loved learning more about Iranian culture, and now I really want to eat Iranian food.

My favorite aspect of this was probably Mitra’s family relationships. The development of her relationship with her sister Azar was very well written, and the complex relationship with her mother (who is a drug addict) was similarly well explored. The emotions were definitely there (I may have teared up a little near the end).

The one part that I didn’t love as much was the romance between Mitra and Bea. It felt kind of overdramatic and unrealistic at times, and when they got together it seemed abrupt and not really a natural turn of events. It was overall cute, though, I just wished the romance had been more developed or that the book had focused more on the family dynamics and coming-of-age.

Recommend to: Fans of poetry, diversity, YA romance, coming-of-age, & complicated families.

(Warnings: swearing; implied sexual content; drug addiction)

This book was really good. I know that this is an uncorrected draft, but the lack of F’s in the draft really made it hard to read in a majority of places. I would’ve really loved it if I could’ve read it completely and not been confused by omitted letters. All in all, it was a great queer love story. I loved the flawed and adorable characters. The writing was great, apart from the draft omissions.

SIMPLY STUNNING. i am in awe. rtc if i can find the words. so raw, beautifully written, evoked so many emotions.

Thank you to netgalley and PENGUIN GROUP Penguin Young Readers Group, Dial Books for allowing me to read this book. This was written to beautifully.

Just Another Epic Love Poem is a story that packs such an emotional punch. Not only is it a tale of the epic romance between best friends Mitra and Bea, but it’s also a story of family healing and struggles. Five years ago, Mitra moved from Sacramento to Washington state with her younger sister and dad, leaving her mother behind. Jaleh’s struggle with addiction had hit a point that she couldn’t be a mother, and so their family had split. But in moving, Mitra met Bea who immediately became her best friend, and together they began writing a never ending poem, a poem that grew and changed with them and their lives.

In some aspects I’m maybe too old for this story but it still gave me so many feelings. There is so much particular stress around senior year, college decisions, and how all of it is going to impact friendships. When Jaleh moves to be closer to Mitra and her sister and try repairing the damage of the past, this compounds much of the stress Mitra is under because it’s very hard to hope for anything better when so much of her childhood was colored by her mother’s relapses. Bea is a strong bright spot for her, though, especially when they both confess their love and their friendship transitions into a romance.

This is a story of messy emotions and how complex people can be. There is no perfection, and sometimes that’s hard to accept. The journey Mitra goes through and finding her own ability to accept and stand for herself has many rough spots, but in the end was so worth the tears.

A beautifully written story following Mitra, an Iranian American teen at a Catholic high school. A queer lit romance of best friends to lovers, whilst delving into her family’s life and the love we extend to those dear to us, as well as ourselves.

I’m so happy I came across this book and was able to read it. Truly an evocative experience.