I so badly wanted to love this. It has all of the qualities that I love in a book: gay romance and theater! I did not like the main character, Jackson. He just came off as annoying to me. I also felt like there was a lot of drama that felt forced. Overall, it kept me interested, which was nice.

“Even though I’m the Theatre Kid, my sister’s the dramatic one.”

As a stage manager, Jackson Ghasnavi is perfectly happy staying behind the scenes for things like his school’s musical and his sister Jasmine’s love life. Usually, the only way he interacts with Jasmine’s many exes is by writing their breakup lists, a list of their real and imagined flaws to help Jasmine feel better about moving on. But when Jasmine starts falling for the musical’s leading man/the swim team captain/Jackson’s (super cute) friend Liam who Jackson may or may not also have feelings for, things get complicated quickly. Because for this relationship, Jackson doesn’t want to stay in the background. And he definitely doesn’t want to eventually write Liam’s breakup list. But what’s a boy to do?

I’m pretty sure that I’ve cried reading every one of Adib Khorram’s books—and yes, I cried reading this one. There is just some kind of magic that Khorram inserts into his stories that makes the characters fly off the page and compels me to keep turning page after page until I’ve stayed up way too late finishing his book. They are spectacular, every single one of them, and this one is no exception. As a theatre kid and stage manager myself, I absolutely loved spending time with Jackson and his theatre friends. Plus, the deaf and CODA representation was freaking phenomenal (yay for ASL inclusion!), and I just wanted to climb inside the book and give Jackson a big ol’ hug. Khorram sure knows how to play my emotions like a pipe, which is just one reason why you’ll find me reading every book he writes.

Content Warnings: Bullying, ableism, sexual references, infidelity, homophobia, racism, abandonment, divorce

(Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Any quotes are taken from an advanced copy and may be subject to change upon final publication.)

a love letter to the theatre kids, both onstage and behind the scenes!

i had a lot of fun reading jackson and liam's story! it's messy and complicated, but also super heartfelt. i also loved bowie's character, i would definitely read a book about them! even though i could see the miscommunication & conflict coming, it somehow was even more dramatic than i had anticipated. jasmine... i've got some words for you! there were also a lot of different identities represented in this story and i think that it will mean a lot to a lot of young readers!

thank you to penguin teen & netgalley for the eARC!

Jackson and Liam are acquaintances who grow close when Liam tries out and gets the lead for their high school’s fall musical. Jackson is the stage manager. Jackson has always thought Liam was cute but develops a crush on him as he spends more time with him. Unfortunately, after introducing Liam to his older sister, Jasmine (they’re a year apart), she also gets a crush on Liam.

Due to some miscommunication, Liam thinks Jackson and his best friend Bowie are on item and starts dating Jasmine. However, he’s really not that into her, and when he discovers Jackson is single, he breaks up with Jasmine. Jackson tries to stay away from Liam out of loyalty to his sister, but when Liam gets one of the leads in the spring play the two start spending a lot of time together.

“The Breakup Lists” is a sweet story between two boys awkwardly figuring out how to be in love. Once Jackson and Liam get together, they’re adorable and spend a lot of time making out. There’s also plenty of teenage drama to enjoy. In addition to charming lead charactares, the supporting characters were entertaining to read about, especially Jasmine and Bowie. Overall, I enjoyed "The Breakup Lists" and rate it four and a half stars.

Teenager hormones and love can be awkward and complicated. This book follows a teenage boy whose parents are going through divorce as he is exploring his life behind the scenes as a theatre techie and eventually a romance. Is this book pretty predictable? Yes. Will you still want to keep reading it? Also yes. I enjoyed the diverse cast of characters and the character development.

Thank you Netgalley for an Advanced Reader Copy of this book in exchange for a review.

Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for the arc of this book. all opinions are my own.

This was fantastic. I really enjoyed it! I'd recommend it.

While I really enjoyed this, especially as a former theatre kid, I do have to say that I forgot nearly everything about it after only a day or two of having finished it. Obviously, that's not a great sign, but I also can't say much bad about it, except I'm now remembering how much of a ***** the sister is.

Another brilliant read by Khorram. I was worried that I wouldn't like this as much as Darius, but I was wrong. I use Khorram's other work to teach dialogue in my college-level course. I will use this book as well.

As a college student who's getting a degree in Stage Management and survived high school theatre, this book is everything to me. I didn't get to have a crazy high school showmance like Jackson got to experience, but I truly felt this book in my bones. I could relate to so many actions, internal thoughts, and overall Jackson as a person. A bit freaky how accurate it was to be honest.

I absolutely despise Jackson's sister (Jasmine) for an abundance of reasons. She filled me with so much frustration whenever she inserted herself into the plot, which moved the story along and was necessary, but I can still say grrrr. However, I think Liam deserves the world and needs to be protected at all costs. He's everything to me.

Before I go into my last comment, I was to note that I am not deaf or HoH. I really do like the way Jackson's deafness was portrayed in the book, although the "somethingsomething" in conversations with other characters was a bit confusing. I haven't read any other books with a deaf main character before this one, so I could be having a difficult time in itself when it comes to expressing hearing between characters in the book, or this truly was a bit difficult. Either way, I enjoyed reading about his internal thoughts and feelings towards being deaf and his fluency in ASL. I'd love to learn ASL eventually and books like these get me more excited to learn one day.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the free review copy! I loved this next YA by Adib, one of my favorite writers of queer YA today. Super fun, entertaining and heartfelt.

ARC (Belated) Review: The Breakup Lists by Adib Khorram
Released: April 2, 2024
Rating: 4/5
Format: eBook via #netgalley
The Low-Down: Rom-com. Drama. Young Adult, with heavy makeout scenes. M/M. BIPOC rep. Falling for your sister's ex. Hard of hearing rep. Cuteness overload.

I really enjoyed Kiss & Tell, so I knew Adib's latest release was going to be at the top of my TBR list. This book was very much My Fair Brady meets Mean Girls meets High School Musical.

The Breakup Lists follows the main character, Jackson, through his high school journey and the school's theater production, so naturally, there's going to be drama. What happens when that drama is falling for his sister's boyfriend? Or its his own version of a "burn book" in the form of "breakup lists" being exposed to the entire school?

What set this book apart for me was Jackson's POV as a hard of hearing person and the sign language rep. I loved that the challenges of communication with his peers and family were often brought up. He was expected to adapt to others rather than them attempting to adapt to him. Cue curtains on the cute swim captain in the form of Liam, who takes sign language lessons to communicate better with Jackson. Swoon. What a keeper. We really don't see media rep for hard of hearing often, let alone in a Queer story, and it was truly chef's kiss.

My biggest hurdle in this book and probably the main reason I did not give it a 5 was the overuse of the phrase, "scratch that." I nearly DNFed this book a million times because of it. However, I reminded myself to have faith in Adib and trekked on.

For fans of: My Fair Brady, High School Musical, Mean Girls, Broadway musicals, Glee

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#adibkhorram

This skillfully captures the essence of teenage drama and nostalgia, reminiscent of classic teen rom-coms. The protagonist, Jackson, despite being a little annoying, authentically portrays the struggles of a teenager navigating love and self-discovery. I am such a fan of Adib's writing (big fan of Darius) and he just captures you with his storytelling in such a way that makes you want to keep reading. Overall, a compelling read that resonates with the tumultuous emotions of young love and self-growth.

A queer young adult romance story. My first read by this author. I do not typically enjoy misunderstandings the way this story is told--love triangle.

Actual rating: 3.5 stars

The Breakup Lists is more of a romance book than a coming-of-age novel, but it was a cute and fun read. The plot itself isn't very action-packed, but the characters make it easy to get engrossed in the story. The major conflict/plot twist is rather predictable but it works with the plotline, and I enjoyed the ending and how things were resolved. I really appreciated how Adib Khorram introduced the characters and their identities in ways that don't make it a big deal while also not diminishing it like Jackson being hard of hearing. I also liked the way the underlying theme of the book was tied into the plot and characters with the idea of standing up for your needs/accommodations and asserting boundaries/acknowledging when people aren't putting in effort where they should be. I thought his friend, Bowie, also portrayed a good message of not letting fear get in the way of achieving goals.

I enjoyed reading this book through Jackson's perspective and his characterization in the story. I loved the different types of diverse representation offered by the book with queer, aroace, nonbinary, and disabled characters featured. The main character seems to be multidimensional and well-developed; the way the character's personality is portrayed allows the reader to quickly form connections with the character. Being able to strongly identify with the main character also makes it easy to dislike some of the other characters who weren't very accommodating. I think this issue was addressed well and how it worked to help support the theme of the book. The love interest, Liam, is a very sweet and considerate character and this does make his action near the end of the novel feel arguably a bit out of character, but it can be justified by circumstances in his personal life and for major plot point purposes. I greatly enjoyed the writing style of this book and the way Adib Khorram crafted the characters through his writing. It felt like the book had a strong narrative voice, and it made it easy to relate to the characters. The writing style felt realistic for the teen age range, and I also thought it had a good balance of dialogue, narration, and description. I like how Khorram utilized strikethroughs as a clever part of the main character's internal dialogue and how he incorporated sign language.

Overall, this isn't my favorite book by Khorram, but it was very cute!

Thank you NetGalley and PENGUIN GROUP Penguin Young Readers Group | Dial Books for the chance to read this ARC.

This book was simply amazing! The main character is a teen struggling with feelings of liking a boy and family struggles. This book has amazing representation from queer to disability. I am excited to read this authors other works.

A very cute YA romance. I loved Jackson and Liam's relationship. They had chemistry and cared so much about each other. The only thing that bothered me was how annoying Jasmine was. Also, Jackson's disability rep was amazing and I was angry with his family for not putting enough effort into understanding him.

The breakup lists

This is a cute queer novel with adorable characters.
I liked the deaf rep / CODA representation
Positive things about the book are the short chapters, its simple story makes reading very easy.
I loved Liam and Jackson's character but I hated Jasimine, I hated her too much, I think she is the character I hated the most in this story, she was so annoying.
I liked the queer rep, however I didn't love this book, it doesn't feel like a very complete story, it's easy and relatively quick to read but I lacked more character development.

I wanted to love this one a lot but it just wasn't for me. The idea of ​​the story was very interesting, however the development not so much.
Extra points for its audiobook since I listened to and read the book, the actor's voice and his dramatization are very good.
3 stars for the representation.

Thanks to netgally and the publisher for this advance copy.

The Breakup Lists is a lovely coming of age romcom with beautifully flawed characters. There is a great satisfaction that comes from watching Jackson and Liam pine for each other for so long and then finally make a move towards their own happiness, even knowing that their mistakes will hurt others. Khorram skillfully writes a main character I want to root for despite his flaws which are slowly revealed along with the injustices he endures. As more breakup lists are revealed, we see that the lists are not just written for Jacks’s sister Jasmine about her exes, but also show longtime grudges held by Jackson. Meanwhile the actions of Jackson’s best friends Liam and Bowie provide a stark contrast to the worst (ableist) and the well meaning characters who don't provide adequate accommodations for Jackson. The journey is messy like real life, but there is hope that Jackson will start standing up for what he wants and needs and become a better person in the process.

this book was truly such a blast! my previous experience with adib khorram was with their short story included in an anthology collection, which i had adored. instantly, i knew i wanted to read more from him and especially a full length novel. so when i saw that he was publishing the breakup lists, a book about a theater-loving, queer teen i had to get my hands on it!

and i’m so so glad that i did. not only was the theater nerd out in full force in this book, but there was competitive swimming AND disability representation (which i truly had no idea what present in this book). i wish there was more people shouting about how khorram portrayed our deaf main character (who is wearing hearing aids on the cover i just totally didn’t realize!). while i can not speak personally on the representation as i’m not deaf/hard of hearing, khorram’s depiction of jackson’s disability felt quite accurate. he doesn’t hear everything which is representative has jackson physically missing the words and attempting to fill in the black. his assumptions aren’t always correct. people will get frustrated with him. he communicates with his friends through ASL. it was so incredible to see and was truly the highlight of this books.

as for the writing structure, while i didn’t personally love jackson’s internal monologue crossing things out on page, it does get toned down as we progress through the story. and did sometime’s lead to a laugh. so while it took a while to get used to that stylistic choice, it did become quite workable.

okay, moving onto liam. i love liam. i think he is the sweetest soul, and while he think’s he is a people pleasure, i just know he has the best intentions, even if it does end in disaster. i was so curious to see how his story would play out and i loved how it was executed. while jackson can be very strong with his lists, and his worries, i loved seeing liam’s calm demeanor. i think they were such a great pairing and while they took a while to get where they were, it was worth the trouble.

The Breakup Lists is a fun, fast-paced YA romance perfect for all the theatre kids and under-appreciated techies.

I found the plot engaging. “High school romance but make it queer” holds a special place in my heart. There were a few parts that dragged a little bit for me, but overall I had a really good reading experience. Khorram writes teens in a believable way and doesn’t shy away from having flawed main characters.

Speaking of MCs, Jackson was great. I thought it was interesting reading a book from a deaf youth’s perspective and since the story was first person single POV, it felt like the experiences became so much more vivid. At first I was completely thrown when the dialogues suddenly said “somethingsomethingsomething” but when I caught on, it definitely hit home how often people forgot that even with a hearing aid, Jackson could really struggle with picking up what was being said. This book definitely made me more aware of the everyday challenges those who are deaf/hard of hearing can face.

This was my first book by this author and I’m definitely interested in picking up more.

Thanks Netgalley and Penguin Young Readers Group for giving me a chance to read an eARC of this book. The Breakup Lists is available now.