Title: Meg & Linus
Author: Hanna Nowinski
Published by: Swoon Reads
Publication date: April 18th 2017
Genres: Contemporary, LGBTQ+, Young Adult
Rating: 4 / 5 stars
Summary:
Can friendship, Star Trek, drama club, and a whole lot of coffee get two nerdy best friends through the beginning of their senior year of high school?
Meg and Linus are best friends bound by a shared love of school, a coffee obsession, and being queer. It’s not always easy to be the nerdy lesbian or gay kid in a suburban town. But they have each other. And a few Star Trek boxed sets. They’re pretty happy.
But then Sophia, Meg’s longtime girlfriend, breaks up with Meg. Linus starts tutoring the totally dreamy new kid, Danny—and Meg thinks setting them up is the perfect project to distract herself from her own heartbreak. But Linus isn’t so sure Danny even likes guys, and maybe Sophia isn’t quite as out of the picture as Meg thought she was. . . .
From crowdsourced young adult imprint Swoon Reads comes Meg & Linus by Hanna Nowinski, a fun friendship story about two quirky teens who must learn to get out of their comfort zones and take risks—even if that means joining the drama club, making new friends, and learning how to stand on your own.
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First of all, I’d like to say that I may have unconsciously set up a high standard when it comes to books written in 1st person POVs. Fortunately, this book made the cut. For some reason, it really puts me off if the book is in 1st POVs, and the two characters’ POV is written in the same chapter. It just seems so messy to me, and that really put me off.
I guess it’s kind of like how HR managers decide if we’ll make it to the shortlisted candidates—by looking at our resumes. Messy resumes gets cut, nice ones will be put under consideration.
Okay, back on track now. What made me want to read this book at first is because 1) it’s an LGBTQ book. I love reading books with LGBTQ elements in it, and this year, I’m trying to read as much LGBTQ books as I can. 2) Star Trek. Yup, I’m a Trekkie, so seeing that Meg and Linus are Trekkies too make me so excited to read this. And I wasn’t disappointed. There were so much references that I get. And there’s even one Buffy the Vampire Slayer reference. I love that so much because I love BtVS. I grew up with it. And bonus points because they mentioned fan fictions. I am so happy that lately, there are a lot of YA books mentioning fan fictions.
Plot wise, I think this book has managed successfully in capturing the whole high school experience thing and portraying in a way that didn’t make it come across as stereotypical. In fact, I could really empathize with Meg. She used Linus, trying her hands in matchmaking to get Linus and Danny together to distract herself from her sadness. And by doing so, she kinds of shut herself not only from her best friend, but also from the new friends in drama club. She avoided talking about her problems, and just isolate herself, and that is where I empathized with Meg.
Overall, I really enjoyed this book. It made me laugh, and there are parts where I cried. I told you I empathized with Meg, and seeing her not making an effort to befriend the people in drama club while Linus is making new friends, and when she felt like she was no long necessary, I once felt that way too. So, yeah, I empathized with her. Meg’s and Linus’s voices were interesting, and while there are times when I was like “Oh God, you’re making the wrong choices,” I never once felt that they were annoying.
I rate this book 4 out of 5 stars.
Author Bio:
Hanna Nowinski is a language enthusiast and trained translator for German and English who lives in the middle of nowhere, Germany. She has wanted to be a writer since she learned that books were made by real people. As a kid, she made up her own bedtime stories, mostly sending her stuffed animals on adventures around the world. She loves books, music, coffee, and getting way too emotionally invested in TV shows. Meg & Linus is her debut novel.
GIVEAWAY! — (US/ Can) a printed copy of Meg and Linus
Erucchii's Books and Recs 
This book sounds so awesome! I’ve been wanting to read more LGBTQ books lately too and this one sounds amazing! (and geeky, which is always fun!)
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Great review! This sounds like an emotional, yet fun read. I like the diverse aspect to it too!
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