I have mixed feelings about this book. I want to love it because I really related to Mia. My friendships in high school were not great, and I always felt like a filler friend or a third wheel. I was the disposable friend, and I knew it.
However, I knew exactly where this book was going from the get-go, so it really didn't offer me much? It was fine, I liked it fine, I liked that it was more about platonic relationships/friendships than romantic, but also there are books that capture those hard friendship feelings so so well that this one just falls a little flat for me. I think this book will be someone out there's all time favorite read that they reread every year for the feelings, but it's not going to be mine.

They wouldn’t call it Drama Club if there was no drama in it, and Mia’s just about fed up with all of it. Mia is the stage director, waiting in the wings and keeping the show from falling apart; Elsie, BFF number one, is the actress on stage, and Tally, BFF number three, is in the orchestra pits. The three of them have been friends forever, and Mia has endured all of Elsie and Tally’s romance fallout; the ups, the downs, the fights, the makeups, and she’s always been there with a shoulder to cry on, arms held out with a hug, and a willing ear to listen to everything.

If only they’d do the same for her. Elsie and Tally never listen to her advice, even when she knows their lives would be better if they did. In fact, it’s also hard for her to get them to listen to her at all. Oh, they like talking to her, unloading on her, venting and whining and complaining to her … but when she has something to say, they’re often on their phones, or starting up a new conversation. And it’s even more noticeable now that Mia has a girlfriend, something that seems to really upset Elsie, who gives Sadie the cold shoulder.

So Mia decides, on a whim, to start up a ReelLife channel called HeretoHelp where — with a filter to hide her face and voice — she gives out bits of advice. Advice that people seem inclined to take! And she’s helping! People who won’t give Mia more than a minute of their time are now changing their lives for the better because of Mia, and it makes her happy.

Until one of the people asking for help turns out to be Elsie, who is willing to ask and listen to a stranger rather than her best friend; then it’s Tally asking HeretoHelp about his own problem. Along with all of this, Mia has a girlfriend who accepts that she’s ace, but is Sadie really here for Mia? Or is this just a cruel prank designed to break Mia’s heart?

Mia’s senior year of high school may be the worst yet.

Sadie is the new girl in school, transferring from a prestigious arts magnate school. Rumor has it she’s a bit of a black widow, as everyone who’s been in a relationship with her has fallen afoul of truly cursed bad luck. Sadie brushes it off with indifference and Mia is charmed; charmed enough to ask her out to the aquarium, which is totally not a date … until it is. Sadie accepts Mia’s asexuality easily, and seems quite happy with hand holding, occasional kisses, and just being with Mia.

But the romance isn’t the focus of the story. Sadie is there as a support to Mia, someone new in her life to help inspire her to try more new things; she’s a soft, warm acceptance for Mia in sharp contrast to Elsie and Tally’s self-centered disinterest. It’s more a pleasant B-plot than the main focus of the book, and for what it is, I think it works well, but with months passing between chapters, not much time is spent building up the pair of them as a couple.

Elsie and Tally and their relationship with Mia is the true focus of the book, with Mia trying so hard to be a good friend to people who, quite honestly, take her for granted at best, ignore her and bully her (in the way that friends do, dragging her along to share their interests while not always being interested in hers) at worst. But Mia loves them, even though, with high school coming to and end — and both of them heading for school in another state — their long-lasting friendship isn’t an absolute certainty.

Mia, though, chooses not to see it. They’ve been friends for so long that she’s gotten used to the treatment, she knows their quirks and knows there’s no malice in them. Just … a bit of obliviousness. And Mia isn’t exactly completely innocent in this, either, choosing not to stand up for herself because it’s easier to let things go, to accept the limits of their friendship without ever putting up her own boundaries.

This is a book about growing up, about learning to stand up for yourself and advocate for yourself. It’s also a low-angst, very feel good book showing how friend groups change over time — often for the better — and how an outside opinion can sometimes help people see the things they didn’t want to see. Honestly, it’s just a very good book with a very good message. The writing is good, the pace is brisk, and it’s overall just a pleasant read.

If you’re looking for a nice YA with a happy ending, a fun friend group, and a bit of high school high-jinx, give this book a try.

Mia is a senior in high school, she is out about being Ace, and is a theater kid. She loves helping people which makes her a good stage manager. But when she notices people don’t actually follow her advice or suggestions she decides to take action. With the help of her IT talented cousin, she creates an anonymous online account to give advice. And although she and the people she interacts with disguise themselves with filters. She often recognizes who at her school she is giving advice to.

She also welcomes new to their school, Sadie, a musical prodigy. I love her inadvertently asking her out on a first date without realizing it. There is a lot of fun in the theater references too. When Mia says her face drains “of all color until I look like Satine at the end of Moulin Rouge”, I laughed out loud. Her best friends are Talley and Essie but they don’t always treat her well. The story follows them through most of senior year and as they make plans for their futures.

I was a little mixed on the story and it slowed in the middle instead of building momentum to the conclusion. There are some time jumps as they progress through the year that left me wondering. It is a big leap from a first date to being girlfriends for two months. And I wish Mia explained where she was on the Ace spectrum. I appreciate the representation and Sadie’s easy acceptance, but I would have liked to understand her better. I thought Mia’s friends' treatment of her is something many people can relate to and I liked that she got to call them out on their behaviors.

I was entertained by the story and enjoyed the characters. And it is written for eighth grade and up. I would like to see what the author writes next. Thank you to HarperCollins Children’s Books for the digital copy and I am leaving an honest review. (3.5 Stars)

I love a messy YA coming of age drama that explores friendship, new relationships and features a main character on the ACE spectrum. This was even more fun set in the world of a high school drama production of A Christmas Carol with a secret online advice account run by the protagonist. Good on audio and perfect for fans of authors like Claire Kahn and Melissa See. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital and audio copy in exchange for my honest review!

If you could help all your friends anonymously,, would you?
Mia has lots of advice, but none of her friends seem to take it.
She decides to make an advice account called HereToHelp and starts telling all her friends about it.
Of course, they all go to the account and she starts to find out all her friends (and the girl she likes) secrets.
All is going well until someone finds out her secret of HereToHelp.
I would recommend.

This was really fun! I love a good aspec representation, and this delivered. The concept of an anonymous help blog will always be fun, and it was good to see the resolution of that at the end, as well.

First and foremost, I think that our main character Mia gets lost in everyone else’s drama. I read Thanks For Listening over a longer period of time and, every time I picked this back up, I couldn’t remember the details about Mia. The only fact that stuck was her asexuality.

The good thing is that I thoroughly enjoyed how asexuality and dating are depicted in this book. There are multiple candid conversations about boundaries and expectations in this romantic relationship. This is the type of asexual / allosexual relationship representation I want to see.

However, I hated the third-act plot twist. I understand that it’s typical for romance novels to have a third-act breakup, but I did not appreciate how this was done. All my happy feelings were ruined by an event that I’ll keep to myself because spoilers are no fun. The reason for my 3 star rating is entirely because of this.

Bottom line: The plot twist ruined this book for me.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for allowing me to read and review this book. I really enjoyed it and the characters. I can’t wait to read more from the author in the future!!

Is it November yet because I want to own this book NOW! I absolutely loved this book and I will definitely be recommending it to my YA patrons when it is published.

This was a fun read. I appreciated Mia’s frustration with her friends for not needing her advice, and enjoyed her solution, in the form of an anonymous social media account. Mia started out with good intentions, but it seemed as though, inevitably, her self-interests supplanted her altruism. I also read it with the cautionary idea that you aren’t necessarily as anonymous as you think you are online; Mia pretty much recognized every one of her friends who DM’d HereToHelp, in spite of the filters they used to mask their identities. I especially recommend this book for readers who enjoyed Love Letters for Joy by Melissa See and Dear Wendy by Ann Zhao.