This book hit me a little harder than I expected. I love Daniel so much and he just completely broke my heart.

Daniel is autistic, so he processes the world a little differently than most. He doesn’t talk about it, and has never explicitly told his friends or classmates. He tries to hide some of his stimming and masks a lot. There is one friend outside of school who knows, because they also have ASD. Daniel also feels like he is in the background of everyone else’s lives and that he should be, he simply could not understand that most people could truly like him for who he is.

The story is told completely from Daniel’s POV, but I would love to read something from Mona’s POV (or even Gabe’s). The relationships that develop among the 3 of them are so special. I don’t want to give away spoilers, but Daniel is so earnest in trying to get Gabe and Mona together that he completely misses his own developing love story.

This book is full of diverse voices, Daniel is not only autistic, but also a Queer Black Latino teen. There is plenty of LGBTQIA+ rep with Pan, Ace, Gay, and Trans characters.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and I liked where everyone found themselves in the end, especially Daniel, Gabe & Mona.

Disclaimer: I received an eARC for review consideration though NetGalley, on behalf of the publisher. All thoughts and opinions are my own.