Item: If You're Out There
Author: drizzleandhurricanebooks

If You’re Out There is one of these books I’ve been meaning to read for… well, ages. It sounded like one of these YA contemporaries with a focus on friendship I need and love and… well, I should have read it earlier because it was really, really good. Check out my review below!

Review: If You’re Out There, Katy Loutzenhiser

If You're Out There by Katy Loutzenhiser
Published by Balzer + Bray on March 5, 2019
Genres: contemporary, young adult
Format: eBook
Buy on Amazon, Book Depository, Bookshop, Blackwell's
Goodreads

After Zan’s best friend moves to California, she is baffled and crushed when Priya suddenly ghosts. Worse, Priya’s social media has turned into a stream of ungrammatical posts chronicling a sunny, vapid new life that doesn’t sound like her at all.
Everyone tells Zan not to be an idiot: Let Priya do her reinvention thing and move on. But until Zan hears Priya say it, she won’t be able to admit that their friendship is finished.
It’s only when she meets Logan, the compelling new guy in Spanish class, that Zan begins to open up about her sadness, her insecurity, her sense of total betrayal. And he’s just as willing as she is to throw himself into the investigation when everyone else thinks her suspicions are crazy.
Then a clue hidden in Priya’s latest selfie introduces a new, deeply disturbing possibility:
Maybe Priya isn’t just not answering Zan’s emails.
Maybe she can’t.

☂️ TRIGGER WARNINGS:

abandonment, divorce, grief, loss of a loved one (parent), misogyny, reference to drug abuse.

There are no spoilers in this review.

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I ENJOYED…

☂️

The first thing I really loved about If You’re Out There is how it focuses on friendships. The main story is about Zan, trying to understand why her friend would suddenly ghost her and why all of her social media posts seem… very unlike her. I just loved how deep their friendship ran, how much they knew each other and, most of it all, how much they loved each other, as well. Before anything, this is a tale with an excellent female friendship and that’s one of the main reasons I loved it.
The second thing I fell for in this book is the delicious mix of contemporary and mystery. It starts off a bit slow, with Zan heartbreakingly trying to get over her best friend’s ghosting and turns into this thrilling, fun mystery with unexpected twists and turns. I loved that!
The story’s carried by a fantastic main character, as well. I found myself caring for Zan immediately, because well, it breaks a heart to lose someone’s best friend like that. Yet, I also loved how incredibly stubborn she was, her witty exchanges with Logan (more on that later), her complex feelings towards her father. She was a flawed main character, but oh, so real.

Apparently, we need a little bit of romance or at least romantic hints in any YA contemporary -don’t ask me why, I do not know. Logan, the new guy at school, takes that potential love interest spot, yet. I LOVED that, while there are obviously a lot of feels here, it didn’t shadow the main focus of the book: friendship. I really enjoyed Zan and Logan’s chemistry, their witty banter, their detective work… overall, they made such a great pair!
I also enjoyed the place family had in this story. We get to see Zan with her mom and her partner, her little brother, but the highlight was how the story explores her complex relationship with her dad.
On a side note, I really liked how this story played with the place social media takes in our lives and in our friendships, as well. How a picture certainly isn’t telling an entire story and how lives are crafted happily online, but we never really know for sure what’s going on, for real.

OVERALL

☂️

If You’re Out There was an excellent YA contemporary read with a great focus on female friendships and an exciting mystery. Definitely recommending this book!