Rising Out

Thanks to the publisher for providing an eARC of Rising Out in exchange for an honest review.

This was so short, but so good! Rising Out follows an overachieving high school who's only ever lived for her mum and her goals as she and her trans best friend (and secret crush) go on a roadtrip together. It's written to be high interest, love difficulty and told in verse so the whole thing can be read in less than half an hour.

This was so well done. It's short but each word definitely counts and it accomplishes this very stream of consciousness feel that makes the protagonist and her love for her best friend (and her conflicting feelings about that love) feel incredibly real. I'd love to read more from this author.

.I am in such awe with how much I adored this book. I love books written in verse and this is one of the best I’ve ever read. I loved how the plot was easily comprehensible, and how beautiful the characters were. I recommend this book to everyone, go read it now

Thank you to NetGalley, West 44 Books, and M. Azmitia for the opportunity to read Rising Out in exchange for an honest review.

This book is a narrative told in a poetic format, and I love books told in this way. They are often quick and fun to read, and this novel certainly fit my expectation.

Told from Anaya's first person point of view, this novel explores the expectations parents have for their children and how people fall into seeking fulfillment of those expectations. But as people grow, they begin to know themselves and may come to learn that what their parents expected from them is not quite how life rolls out for each individual.

Anaya has always know she would follow The Plan (a list of basic standards that her mother held upon her and that she held upon herself). She always cared about her best friend, Maurice, and even expected they might get married one day. When Anaya is in her teens, Maurice comes out as trans and wants her best friend to call her Eri. Anaya is the only one who knows. Not only is being trans looked down on, but for someone who comes from a Black family where being a man is a big deal? Well that makes things even more complicated.

Anaya is going to college in California, so she and Eri road trip from New York across the U.S. It is Eri's chance to explore who she is and be who she is without the reprimand of people she knows looking down upon her and judging her. The road trip does offer some issues of hate, but also allows for both Eri and Anaya to explore who they are and what they mean to each other.

This is a great poetic novel that says so much by saying so little. The social issues addressed are tackled in a full-frontal way that highlights contemporary issues with hate and discrimination in society today. This book is brilliant and really sends a number of messages by the end. Highly recommend.

Anaya’s mother wants better a better future for her. Her mother has worked hard to give her more opportunities, so Anaya has also worked hard for the plan – the plan to get good grades, the plan get into a good college with scholarships, the plan to be independent. It’s a good plan that serves her well, until she reaches a point where she begins wondering if the plan isn’t all there is to life, and the new plan is intricately linked to her best friend.

Eri has grown up hiding the fact that she is Eri from all except Anaya. She doesn’t feel safe being herself and knows that her parents wouldn’t accept what they would consider the loss of their son, Maurice. A cross-country road trip to take Anaya to her new college before Eri flies home to be the dutiful son changes things for them both.

M. Azmitia’s Rising Out isn’t a long novel. In fact, the book is extremely short and written in prose. There isn’t a lot of story development. However, the depth of emotion and representation in this book more than makes up for that. We aren’t seeing all of Anaya’s and Eri’s lives. We are glimpsing their discovery and embracing of who they are and how they want to live their lives.

This is a lovely quick YA queer read with fantastic representation.

I absolutely loved this book! It was super diverse, and the writing style flowed so beautifully that I felt it just fit the mood of the story really well.
Five stars!

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC

This was gorgeous. I usually struggle with books written in verse but this worked amazingly for me. It was immersive, beautifully written, and easy to follow.

It was very short but said everything it had to say. It was hard-hitting and accomplishes everything I think it set out to. It's wonderfully diverse and engaging and you really connect to the two characters. I was so pleasantly surprised by this and I love it.

I received an arc of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Hi-lo novel in verse aimed at reluctant readers. Beautifully written poems that give the reader a clear sense of the main character's emotional struggle as she navigates her feelings and works to support her friend. Recommended for teens who are searching for diverse stories and relatable characters. A quick, powerful read about self-acceptance and love!

I have read this type of Hi Lo book before and really enjoyed them. Hi Lo stands for High Interest, Lower reading age. I think it is great that there are books to encourage those who perhaps don’t read as much or didn’t get the love of reading whilst younger. These books are also quite short, so you are not committing to reading a really long, involved, meandering read. I think the book cover is attractive and would certainly catch your eye on a book store book shelf. The genres listed for this book are Teen & YA, but I am definitely not in either of those age brackets and still enjoyed reading the book. Hi Lo books are also told in verse, so categorised as poetry, which in my reading years I have dipped in and out of reading but would never say I loved reading a lot of poetry on a regular basis. These books have re-introduced my to the poetry genre and made me feel like reading more of these books too.

In this book the main characters are Anaya and Maurice or Eri as Anaya calls him. The two teens live in a fairly small town with its type of straightlaced thoughts and ways of life. Both Anaya and Maurice know only too well what is expected of them. For Anaya she must first go to college, get good grades, find a man to settle down & have a family with. Most importantly she must make her mother proud, and repay her for all the sacrifices she has made to make sure that Anaya has these choices available to her.

For Maurice life is more complicated as Maurice is trans. Maurice desperately want to be Eri, but his family would not accept this, these see only Maurice who is training to be a mechanic like his father before him. Anaya and Eri plan a road trip, where they can both be themselves, Anaya can forget college for a while and Maurice can be Eri, wear dresses, and make up.

The book is how the teens feel, and reactions of the strangers they meet, how they act when they can truly be who they want to be. It’s kind of a coming-of- age tale about dealing with accepting who you are but taking on board and having to deal with the expectations of parents and people around you.

I found the book a deeply emotive read. Having had a relative who had to come to term with being gay himself then reveal it to our large family and deal with the fall out and at time small mindedness of certain relatives this book made me look back and admire his courage even more so than I already did.

This book written in verse was about two characters who found love where they least expected it. All Maurice wanted was to be accepted as who they really were. When the two main characters friendship bonded they went on a life journey that they both had been longing for. I loved the writing in this book and I can't wait to see what everyone else thinks about it!