Book Review: And She Was by Jessica Verdi

Book Title & Author: And She Was by Jessica Verdi
Published by: Scholastic on March 27th, 2018
Genre: Contemporary
Pages: 361
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
Goodreads
🌟🌟🌟🌟1/2
Synopsis: Dara’s lived a sheltered life with her single mom, Mellie. Now, at eighteen, she’s dreaming of more. When Dara digs up her never-before-seen birth certificate, her world implodes. Why are two strangers listed as her parents? 

Dara confronts her mother, and is stunned by what she learns: Mellie is transgender. The unfamiliar name listed under “father”? That’s Mellie. She transitioned when Dara was a baby, shortly after Dara’s birth mother died.

But Dara still has more questions than answers. Reeling, she sets off on a road trip with her best guy friend, Sam. She's determined to find the extended family she’s never met. What she discovers—and what her mother reveals, piece by piece over emails—will challenge and change Dara more than she can imagine. 

From rising star Jessica Verdi, this is a gorgeous, timely, and essential novel about the importance of being our true selves.

Review:
I just love Jessica Verdi's books. I've been a fan of hers since I started blogging and have read the last 3 of her books, including this one, in ARC form. She just has this ability to write diverse stories with diverse settings & interesting characters and this book was no different.

June was the perfect month to read this book because of course it's Pride Month. I was excited to dive into this book and really see what happened with Mellie & her eventual transition and what happened with Dara's biological mother. I wanted to see how Dara found out and how she would react to the news.

Dara frustrated me a lot of the time. She took it so personally that Mellie never told her about her past. She was so angry with her mother and that really bothered me. I know Dara was only eighteen, but compassion and empathy go a long way. Dara frequently stated that her mother was selfish for never disclosing this earth-shattering secret, but Dara herself was being selfish with her insistence that her mother lied to her about her whole life, never even thinking about what the past eighteen plus years had been like for Mellie. She was just so angry with Mellie for "lying" to her, but like Mellie told her, it's not a crime to not come out as trans. It's not Dara who gets to decide who knows about Mellie's transition. It's Mellie.

I had issues with the budding romance between Dara & Sam. I liked them so much better as just friends. Their romance seemed forced to me, and I didn't see a whole lot of chemistry between them. I do think the book would have been stronger without the romance subplot. I did like how Sam called her out on her attitude and then later corrected people who misgendered her mother. Sam seemed to understand the trans issues a lot better than Dara did, and he seemed more willing to learn about than than Dara was.

I loved the emails about Mellie's past that she sent to Dara while Dara & Sam were on the quest to find Dara's biological maternal grandparents. I felt like that gave an extra something to the book rather than just having Mellie explain everything at the kitchen table or something as equally cliche. 

After awhile, the reasons Mellie distanced herself & Dara from both sides of the family became abundantly clear and even Dara couldn't argue with them. There were parts that I was horrified over, sickened over and downright angry about. But, to Mellie's credit, she let Dara figure it out on her own and that allowed her to form her own opinions.

Final thoughts: A book about a trans parent is so rare in the world, and I really wish there were more of them, but this is a start. Pick up this book if you are looking for a book about a trans parent or if you just want a really good book that tackles important issues head on.