Review: Not Here To Be Liked, Michelle Quach

Not Here To Be Liked was one of my most anticipated reads of 2021 and… I’m happy to say, it lived up to my own expectations. Read my full review below!

Not Here to Be Liked by Michelle Quach
Published by Usborne Publishing Genres: contemporary, young adult
Format: ARC
Source: NetGalley, Publisher
Buy on Amazon, Book Depository, Bookshop, Blackwell's
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Falling in love wasn't part of the plan. Eliza Quan fully expects to be voted the next editor-in-chief of her school paper. She works hard, she respects the facts, and she has the most experience. Len DiMartile is an injured star baseball player who seems to have joined the paper just to have something to do. Naturally, the staff picks Len to be their next leader. Because while they may respect Eliza, they don't particularly like her ­- but right now, Eliza is not here to be liked. She's here to win. But someone does like Eliza. A lot. Shame it's the boy standing in the way of her becoming editor-in-chief....

I received this book for free from NetGalley, Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

☂️ TRIGGER WARNINGS:

sexism (challenged), racism (challenged)..

☂️ DIVERSITY:Chinese-Vietnamese-American main character, Black side character, Korean side character, half-Japanese love interest.

There are no spoilers in this review.

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I ENJOYED…

☂️

• When Eliza Quan loses the spot of next editor-in-chief of her school paper, to a new, unexperienced boy, she accidentally starts a whole feminist movement at her high school…which turns really messy when she falls for that same very unexperienced boy at her coveted spot.
• Honestly, Not Here To Be Liked is so excellent I don’t know where to start. Let’s take our main character, Eliza. She’s unapologetically herself. She doesn’t care about being the best dressed, all she cares about is doing a great job with the school paper. All she cares about is what is fair. She might seem a bit selfish and hard to fall for, at first, but damn, I really did. I loved how sharp she was, I loved how complicated she was, too. Her growth through the story was spectacular and while she makes so many mistakes, she learns so much from them, too. I loved Eliza!
• This story tackles feminism and sexism with nuance and I appreciated it so much. It’s messy, complicated at times, but it’s just so real and that’s what we need to read about, too. All of the messiness of trying to do the right thing.
• Obviously, there’s a bit of an enemies to lovers romance here, but I found it so well developed. From strangers to animosity, to a little more respect to a tentative friendship and more, I really liked how Len and Eliza’s relationship grew through the story. It didn’t feel like a forced chemistry, at all, it was at just the right pace to be believable and lovely, too.

• There’s such a great place for friendships in this story, I appreciated it so much. I loved how some unlikely friendships grew and how some others were challenged, too.
• I liked that the family was present and accounted for in Not Here To Be Liked, too. From Eliza’s parents’ struggles with their job and their lives overall to her relationship with her older sister, I really liked this included in the story, too.

OVERALL

☂️

Not Here To Be Liked is, if you ask me, a must-read contemporary. I loved the characters, the nuanced discussion on feminism and just, everything. A great book I 200% recommend.

FINAL RATING : 4,5 stars!

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📚 Books similar to Not Here to be Liked that I’d recommend:

• To smash the patriarchy in a dystopian world, check out the excellent We Set The Dark On Fire.
• For an even more terrifying world, you need to read Only Never Yours.
• In the contemporary genre, try The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks.

Did you read Not Here To Be Liked or do you want to? Do you have any recommendations of great stories talking about feminism? Let me know in comments!

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