**I borrowed an ARC from a friend. These are my honest opinions, and in no way was I compensated for this review.**
Tell Me How You Really Feel by Aminah Mae Safi
Release Date: June 11, 2019
My Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Sana Khan is a cheerleader and a straight A student. She's the classic (somewhat obnoxious) overachiever determined to win.
Rachel Recht is a wannabe director who's obsesssed with movies and ready to make her own masterpiece. As she's casting her senior film project, she knows she's found the perfect lead - Sana.
There's only one problem. Rachel hates Sana. Rachel was the first girl Sana ever asked out, but Rachel thought it was a cruel prank and has detested Sana ever since.
Told in alternative viewpoints and inspired by classic romantic comedies, this engaging and edgy YA novel follows two strongwilled young women falling for each other despite themselves.
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As soon as I read the summary for Tell Me How You Really Feel, I knew it was the book for me. I mean, that cover! This book definitely delivered; Tell Me How You Really Feel is a wonderfully adorable novel, intense from start to finish.
The two main characters, Sana and Rachel (Persian/Bengali-American and Mexican Jewish, respectively), have hated each other since freshman year. Well, Rachel's hated Sana but Sana's had a crush on her all this time – it's a little complicated. Their dynamic is so great; the hate-to-love is strong in this book and comes complete with forced-to-be-partners, which is always a great combination. They're also on their own separate character arcs that are so wonderfully fleshed out.
Sana applied for a medical fellowship in India, which is amazing for her resume but also means that she'd have to defer her dream school (and the future her family so very much wants her to have). Apparently her story line is similar to Gilmore Girls, but I've never seen the show. I did love her struggle to stand up to her mother and her grandparents, while also acting as the buffer between them and pushing away her absent father. It's a very basic second/third generation Asian immigrant plot line that nonetheless always makes me tear up.
Rachel is a scholarship student at their elite private school for her directing talent. However, she's been struggling to finish her movie, which focuses on the women of the Trojan War, and her teacher threatens to write to NYU to pull any potential scholarships there. After a string of events, Rachel's forced to cast Sana as Helen of Troy, but she still has trouble with the depiction of events and accepting help from anyone.
Her film is the connecting factor between the two's character arcs: Sana is beautiful and compared to her role as Helen, a metaphor that I adore, and Rachel comes to terms with incorrect first and film story arcs. With Sana, we also get a subversion of the cheerleader trope, which goes hand-in-hand with the Helen comparison. I love how the movie culminates as their arcs do; I would honestly watch Rachel's movie too!
Perfect Sana. Just like every perfect girl that she was supposed to be. That everyone was also meant to hate. Just like Perfect Helen of Troy. An ideal and a villain all at once.Technically, the book never uses labels although both girls say they don't like guys. This isn't a book that centers coming out or handling your sexuality, though, so I wasn't too bothered by it, but it would have been nice to have the on-page rep.
This book was overall just so fucking adorable. The soft, muted LA backdrop completes the rom-com vibe this book has, in the indie film light Rachel uses in her films. Tell Me How You Really Feel was a cute, soft read with a hate-to-love f/f ship. Pick this amazing book up on June 11!
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About the Author: Aminah Mae Safi is a writer who explores art, fiction, feminism, and film. She loves Sofia Coppola movies, Bollywood endings, and has seen all of the Fast and Furious franchise. She lives in Los Angeles, CA with her partner and a cat bent on world domination (and another cat that is just here for the snacks). Her 2016 We Need Diverse Books winning story will appear in their forthcoming anthology FRESH INK (Crown Books for Young Readers, 2018). Not the Girls You're Looking For is her first novel.
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