Welcome back to Reading, Reading, Reading!

May 27 (the day this is being posted) is my birthday!!! Since I had an ARC of BIRTHDAY by Meredith Russo, I thought it would be great to post my full review of it on my real birthday! Thanks to Raincoast Books for sending me the ARC (and thanks to all of you for the birthday wishes!)!

Synopsis (Goodreads.com):

Boyhood meets The Sun Is Also a Star in this unconventional love story about two teens bonded for life when they are born on the same day at the same time by award-winning author Meredith Russo!
Two kids, Morgan and Eric, are bonded for life after being born on the same day at the same time. We meet them once a year on their shared birthday as they grow and change: as Eric figures out who he is and how he fits into the world, and as Morgan makes the difficult choice to live as her true self. Over the years, they will drift apart, come together, fight, make up, and break up—and ultimately, realize how inextricably they are a part of each other.

WOW! This book was so much deeper and more intense than I ever expected it to be. It brought up so many important messages, and things that are (unfortunatley) very relevant to society today. I usually prefer books that span over a long time period, rather than slice of life stories, so I knew I would enjoy this one right from the gecko!

I loved the story/plot in this book. I have never read a book written in the perspective of somebody yearning to transition into the opposite sex. Obviously I have read about transgender characters, but I have never read from a main perspective of someone who is hoping to transition. It was so crazy (and so sad) to see how many ups and downs the character went through throughout the novel. It was really easy to immerse myself in both perspectives (this is a dual POV story), and I felt a lot of emotion for both characters throughout the story.

One of my favourite aspects of the story was reading birthday letters that Morgan’s mom had left for Morgan to read after she passed away from cancer. They were so emotional, and somehow related to different aspects of Morgan’s life that were taking place at the time of reading the letter. And while we never got to meet Morgan’s mom, I felt like I understand their relationship and how much they loved each other.

This book was a really fast read. It’s less than 300 pages, and the font was quite big. The writing style is also very quick and effortless, and it made the story very easy to read. I found that at some points the writing was a bit choppy, and that got better as the book progressed.

Even though the ending made me cry, I still thought that it was a bit rushed. I would have loved to have read more about the last birthday that is featured in the story.

Overall, I really enjoyed this story and rated it 4.25/5 stars! Thanks again to Raincoast Books for the ARC!

Good Night Book Owls!