Glitch Girl is such an interesting book. I am certain it's going to win awards. I've never read anything like it (the closest comparison I can think of is Louder Than Hunger), and I've never seen a young POV portray ADHD so accurately. Based loosely on the author's own experiences from 5th-7th grade, this is deeply personal and includes important representation.

J- is transgender, has intense ADHD, and feels misunderstood. By parents, whose frustrations with J-'s behavior turns abusive. With classmates and teachers, who think J- is being disruptive on purpose. By Junie (J-'s crush) and Garrison (Junie's friend), who went from being friendly to saying not so nice things. J- blames J- which is heartbreaking and difficult to read.

The only solace J- finds is in a roller coaster sims type game. J- builds park after park, different roller coasters and different guests, trying to find glitches in the game design. Sometimes the game turns deadly. J-'s mother finds this particularly disturbing, although J- doesn't mean for it to happen.

This is an extremely tough book to read. It's deeply personal and the first person POV is as close as a reader can get to J-'s thoughts. It was not an easy read, at times I had to push myself to continue, especially as there were so many scenes featuring the roller coaster computer game. There also wasn't much plot, it was deeply character driven, and all of it in J-'s point of view was intense (I think deliberately so). And despite some of the middle section being slow, the ending felt too abrupt.

Be sure to check the content warnings before reading. A bonus I really enjoyed were the interviews at the back of the book with the real people Junie and Garrison are based on. Fascinating!

Recommended for ages 10+ due to mature themes.

3.5 stars

This novel-in-verse reads like a literary fiction book for middle schoolers, which isn't bad, but I'm not the biggest fan of literary fiction. The depiction of ADHD symptoms felt very authentic, though the main character's borderline obsession with Junie would be creepy if the main character was any older than they are. I don't know if it helps to know this upfront, but the book is a fictionalization of the author's 5th to 7th grade years. The interviews with the people Junie and Garrison are based on was interesting.

Thank you to NetGalley and publisher for the opportunity to read and review.

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for the eARC copy of this book!

"Glitch Girl!" is a book that I read without trouble as I kept being lost in the pages. I cried a bit and also smiled while reading it. As a non binary person, I felt some of the difficulties the main character was feeling deep in my heart, like the uncertainty of who we really are.

The struggles this character phased with mental health, while I have not lived them, I can understand since I used to work as a skills trainer for young kids; many of them had mental health needs and didn't know how to deal with them (neither the parents) which became an issue in itself. It made me remember some of my clients and I thinks that's why it made me so sad and melancholic.

The book is the most real depiction of mental health and growing up with it that I've ever read. It shows how cruel not knowing how to deal with yourself can be if no one is there to help you along the way.

I loved it but it does have some trigger warnings and I'm glad they mentioned that at the beginning of the book.

(actual rating is 4.25)

3.5

Overall enjoyed this, but at times it was a bit difficult to read. J-'s view of their relationship with Junie was very overwhelming and uncomfortable. J- was obsessed with her and thought they were dating because Junie was nice to them and it felt like if this were adult, it could easily have been a horror novel. On the other hand, the end of J-'s crush felt very sudden and like it came out of nowhere.

J-'s parents are also both abusive. Their father beat them so hard when they were in preschool that their back still hurt sometimes when they were in fifth grade. J- would often flinch any time their father showed any type of anger. J-'s mother seemed to not really like them anymore after they got their ADHD diagnosis (at one point she straight up calls them 'annoying' to their face, it appears she force-feeds them their meds every morning, she slaps them so hard their face is scratched, she denies that they ever beat them). The dad seems to change his tune after his mother dies, but it felt unnatural that the mother ever did, or that either of them could be accepting of J-'s gender identity (especially as it seemed they were Russian immigrants and the story took place in the early-mid 2000s when people were much less accepting in general).

I wish there had been more with Sam, J-'s first actual friend who seemed to genuinely enjoy spending time with them. They were only introduced right near the end so there wasn't near enough of their friendship.

I do not believe it was ever stated in the book, but J- was probably meant to be undiagnosed autistic.

I feel like I liked this a bit more before I learned it's a fictionalized version of the author's life.

The end of the book has short interviews with the people Junie and Garrison were based off of, which was interesting.

It made me want to play Roller Coaster Tycoon.

CW as written in the book: trauma, physical abuse, emotional abuse, violence, self-harm, misgendering, transphobia, homophobia, and bullying. The book's content warning does not mention that the abuse is done by parents to their child.

Completely unrelated to the contents of the book, but I really do not like the face on the cover. The eyes are unsettling because of their size and level of detail.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy.

This was such a difficult read, especially because I saw so much of myself reflected in J--. Our main character is facing a complex list of challenges on top of the usual middle school difficulties. They are figuring out their gender, navigating a crush on a friend, struggling with ADHD, and dealing with abusive parents. All of this leads to some emotional, tough to read scenes. As hard as it was to read, I'm so glad middle grade books like this exist now for kids to read and relate to.

Rainie Oet did an incredible job portraying an ADHD character in a realistic way, instead of the ignorant, damaging way a lot of media does. J--'s ADHD made it even harder for them to navigate the struggles of learning and discovering themself in the already tough years of middle school. They also show the ways gender envy can manifest as an obsessive seeming crush through J--'s relationship with Junie (or, at least, that's the way I interpreted their friendship in the number of times J-- said they didn't know if they wanted to date Junie or be her more. I would've loved J-- to meet Sam a little earlier in the book and continue to explore their gender through that relationship, but honestly the obsessive Junie dialogue was realistic despite it seeming nonstop.

There main reason this wasn't a five star for me is that there wasn't much going on outside of J-- playing a rollercoaster game. That's not to say I didn't love the way the game was woven into the story. It was interesting to see how J-- used the coaster game to explore their gender, or test out social interactions, or create some sort of metaphorical version of their real world.

Overall a little heavier of a book than I anticipated, but very glad to have read it, and glad it ends on a hopeful note.

Thank you to Netgalley and Penguin for the eARC!

The MC struggled a lot with physical and mental abuse with family and teachers with having little to no support it was becoming hard for them to cope with the problems that they had along with ADHD. All the while of just trying to get the feeling of where do they fit in the world, talking with another non binary friend and their parent made it just a bit more easier.

This story reminds me of what it would be like in just today’s society of how trying to come out or just trying to have the comfort in your own home and how hard it is for them not to do so. It was kind of hard reading this because it was so many moments I just wanted to give a hug through the book. I loved the writing style because it was like it was a poem but, I feel like in this style, it was much more easier to read the emotions that the MC had towards everything they were going through.

Glitch Girl! by Rainie Oet was a really good middle-grade in verse! I don't read a lot of books in verse, but when I do, I find they're really good at focusing on emotions and expression, and I think it was the perfect format for this book. It was very easy to get into J-'s head, to really feel what she was feeling. Definitely on the heavier end of the spectrum for middle grade, but I don't think that's a bad thing. I will be forever grateful I never went to public middle school. A very strong 4/5 stars!

I had high hopes for this one as a queer, neurodivergent adult who struggled with fitting in as a kid. Unfortunately, Glitch Girl! didn’t meet my expectations. To start, it took me so. freaking. long. to get through this. It’s written in verse but is still somehow SOOOO long. There is also not really a plot for 90% of the book. The main character, J, goes to school, comes home to play a Rollercoaster Tycoon-esque, and talks about their crush. The video game part takes up waaaay too much of the book for something that doesn’t actually move the storyline along. J is also an odd, unreliable narrator, and by that I mean they are a true neurodivergent child who really doesn’t understand what’s going on socially between themself and their classmates/“friends,” and that was hard to read for me. Parts of the story with Junie were just…strange.
However, there were some good things about this! I love that J found a friend in Sam towards the end, and I am always grateful for queer, ND middle grades rep. I also really enjoyed the interviews with the real “Junie” and “Garrison” at the end.

As a fan of trans mc's, novels in verse and the power of middle grade: glitch girl was destined to make an impact. Following our mc who finds solace in a theme park building game, in its glitches and the ways it can be shaped to mirror how she feels whilst exploring youth as a trans person with everything else that middle school brings. This story was sweet and the writing simple, but my enjoyment was lowered by the lack of plot and pointed impact for most of the 'in-verse' novel - which isn't to say it's bad, just that I think I expected a little more development and emotional impact! It was still heartfelt, still full of so many glimmering reflections of truth.

But I will definitely be looking out for more from this author, there's so much room to grow!

Oet does a fantastic job painting a youthful experience with gender identity, expertly using prose to make a complex topic feel simple and understandable. This combined with a few asides the main character makes creates a book that will very successfully teach young kids about what it means to feel as though your body is not your own, and your gender does not match your heart. Sometimes I wonder if it feels too pedantic at times, but knowing that the audience is a young, middle grade audience, I think that's something for people more familiar with that genre to decide. It has a really important opening that spells out exactly what this book is about, what the characters pronouns are, and how to respect the main character. I think this book does a great job and I hope that kids read this and feel not only seen, but see others. I also hope it introduces kids to the beauty of prose poetry, which Oet uses expertly throughout.

An important, impactful novel with the power to envelop people within prose poetry and exemplify the unique and charming inner life of its main character.

I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review

Glitch Girl! by Rainie Oet is a first person-POV Middle Grade Queer contemporary novel in verse. Following J—, a transgirl (she/they) with ADHD and Russian Jewish immigrant parents, from fourth to seventh grade, in a series of non-rhyming poetic vignettes, we see her daily life and how she grows into herself. From love, gender, being neurodivergent, and more, we get a deep look into J—’s mind and how isolated they often feel from the people around them.

This was my first novel in verse in a very long time if not my very first. I appreciate sonnets and some shorter poetry but have struggled to get into more modern poetry over the years. I requested this ARC specifically so I could see if I could develop an appreciation for the art form through a longer narrative and I’m so glad I did. If you’re like me and are unfamiliar with how non-rhyming poetry is structured, the line breaks make a lot more sense if you pause at the end of each line and take in why Rainie Oet picked that particular word to end on and that emphasis it creates. Taking your time is really key to taking in the poetic cadence and I highly recommend doing so instead of speed reading.

We don’t have another name for J—-, which is the shortened version of their dead name, a name that they already know they don’t want because it doesn’t feel right, but they don’t know what a dead name is until much later. That plus not telling others about how they are feeling in regards to their gender helps show the journey of someone still figuring things out but knows when something is not working. It’s so important to show that period of time so many baby Queers experience because it sometimes feels like everyone else just knew who they were while you were struggling to put a name to why something feels off. I think a lot of young trans people will feel very seen and heard by Glitch Girl!

J— is, without a doubt, struggling to connect to their parents, their peers, and the other adults in their life but it’s also made quite clear that other people don’t know how to connect to them so those peers, those teachers, and the parents just don’t even try. They do make a friend in Junie which later develops into a full blown crush complete with the all-consuming fantasies that is so common when someone is experiencing their first crush. But no matter how hard the two try to understand each other, there is a barrier there. Junie makes more of an effort that their classmates, who often ridicule the lead, but it’s still not quite enough.

Content warning for mentions of child abuse and anti-Semitism and for depictions of transphobia and ableism

I would recommend this to fans of novels in verse looking for a novel exploring transness, readers looking for a MG contemporary inspired by the author’s life, and those looking for kidlit that is honest about the treatment of kids who are neurodivergent

This book is intense and rough, but I’m glad it has a happy, hopeful ending. I don’t know how much I believe in the positivity of the ending based on the experiences prior, but also limited perspective is also going to shape my feelings of the earlier experiences J— had with her parents. The relationship she has with Junie also made me uncomfortable in ways because of the almost obsessive nature of it, but also I can see that being extremely relatable to others because of the feelings of “do I like her or do I want to be her?” that I think is at the root of J—‘s feelings for Junie. I like that it’s a story that covers three years and it gives a lot of space for J—‘s growth and self-discovery. I found this hard to put down and ended up reading it in one sitting when I should have gone to sleep (whoops), and think this does a lot of good things regarding gender feelings and understanding, as well as dealing with ADHD brain and the way society and those in power will punish you for being yourself, even as you’re doing your best to be “good.” Overall a really intense book that I’ll be thinking about for a while.