It’s the last year of high school for Dawn, Georgia and Edie. The three girls have been best friends for years, through the good and the bad of adolescence. At the beginning of the book, Dawn is trying to finish a documentary on queer love she wants to submit to the Austin Film Festival in the hopes of getting a full scholarship to film school. Edie is the quintessential perfect student who keeps lying to her parents so she can hide her relationship with nonbinary Ben. Georgia has the coolest mom but she’s now wondering if her mom isn’t a bit too cool, as her college admission requests keep being rejected.

There’s a lot of love in this book but also lies (to others and to oneself), secrets, solidarity and hope. Be warned that there are instances of queerphobia and transphobia as part of what the characters go through but also as part of character growth, as well as sexual assault. The pacing is uneven, at times a bit slow, then rushed, but I liked that all three MCs are POC, I loved the friendship, and the ending is satisfying, especially the hope the author injects that makes all the trials worth fighting through.

Dale Walls captures the sliver of life between childhood/teenage years and adulthood with sensitivity and tenderness. The period between the end of high school and the first years of whatever comes next is delicate to navigate for most people and Walls write the ups and downs, the hardships and possibilities—especially for queer young adults—in a way that I think will feel relatable to many.

Read The Queer Girl is Going to Be Okay:

Bookshop.org

Libro.fm (audiobook narrated by Tamika Katon-Donegal)

Everand (audiobook narrated by Tamika Katon-Donegal – get 2 months for free)

Kobo

amazon

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