Hayley Kiyoko—well-known singer, Lemonade Mouth actress, and “Lesbian Jesus,” as her fans call her—has written her first novel! The novel, Girls Like Girls, is inspired by her 2015 song of the same name and the song’s music video. I rated it four stars out of five.
Kiyoko’s novel, which will be published May 30, 2023, is a young adult romance set in the early 2000s. In the wake of her mother’s suicide, Coley has just moved to rural Oregon to live with her previously absent father. Soon Coley meets a group of popular teens, including Sonya, who takes a liking to Coley. As the summer stretches on, Coley and Sonya grow close and soon fall for one another, but their burgeoning relationship is met with constant turmoil. Meanwhile, Coley struggles to grieve her mother and reconnect with her father, who she resents for not being there when she was growing up.
It’s always a little nerve-wracking reading a book by a celebrity, as you never know what the quality will be. Writing a book is very different from writing a song, and I feared I’d be disappointed in Kiyoko’s debut. I’m very happy to say that Girls Like Girls did not disappoint! This was a great debut and shows that Kiyoko is a genuinely skilled writer who won’t need to rely on her celebrity status for her book to succeed.
While the whole book is well-crafted, I greatly appreciated when Kiyoko’s lyrical abilities shined through in the text. I have a number of quotes highlighted because of how beautiful and relatable they were, from both the romantic and the intensely sad parts of the book. Kiyoko knows how to make you feel!
One of Girls Like Girls’ biggest strengths is its pacing (the aspect that is often hardest for new novel writers to grasp, in my opinion). The novel takes place over the course of the summer, which I felt was both an appropriate amount of time to show a developing relationship and its struggles, as well as the healing process after a tragedy. Coley’s bond with her father slowly strengthens, and her ability to cope with her mother’s death progresses at a believable pace. I also liked that those plotlines were of equal importance to the romantic plot. Within the romance, there was a realistic progression, obstacles that made sense for both the time period and for any relationship, and enough weight was given to the aftermath of the conflicts that arose. All this made for a really solid book!
My primary criticism is, unfortunately, the ending. Without spoiling anything, I think the book took a very conventional route. I just don’t think it actually made the most sense given the characters’ emotional journeys. I’m sure many people will be satisfied by it, but it didn’t resonate as much for me as I think a different conclusion would have.
As the book was inspired by a music video, I’ll address the similarities and differences. First, the atmosphere and setting are very similar. The house, pool party, and bike scenes exist in both versions of the story. There are some specific details from the video that show up in the book, too, such as the main character’s choker. Both the music video and the book feature a more reserved main character and her outgoing, popular love interest, as well as an abrasive, pushy boy antagonist. The explosive conflict at the end of the music video happens in the book as well, about equally far into the plot, which is perhaps the one aspect I don’t think was given sufficient time and space to explore its consequences. That, in addition to the part of the ending I alluded to earlier, are the reasons I dropped the book from five stars to four.
The primary difference is that the book fleshes the characters’ worlds—both the literal world of their town and their inner world—out much more. It introduces new characters such as the love interest/Sonya’s other friends, the protagonist/Coley’s father, a handful of girls Sonya goes to dance camp with, and various people from around the town that Coley meets, including coworkers. Overall the book is populated with characters who feel real, and who could easily be main characters of their own stories. Another difference is that Coley is Asian while Sonya is white, which is inverted from their actresses in the music video. As Coley is the main character, this allowed Kiyoko to center and go more in-depth on her and her protagonist’s identity.
I really enjoyed Kiyoko’s debut and I will absolutely read anything else she may write. Potential readers should be aware that homophobia plays a large part in the plot, which makes sense for the setting, but I understand not everyone wants to read about that. Girls Like Girls has other heavy topics as well, including but not limited to mental health and grief, which readers should be aware of before going into it. You do not need to be familiar with Kiyoko’s music to appreciate the book, though I must say I highly recommend her as an artist!
I’d recommend Girls Like Girls to anyone looking for a complex and bittersweet sapphic YA novel. Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press, and Wednesday Books for sending me a free eARC in exchange for an honest review (and for sending it on Valentine’s Day, no less!).