#What If It's Us

[queereads-bracket]

Queer Fiction Free-for-All Book Bracket Tournament: Round 1A

Book summaries below:

What If It's Us by Becky Albertalli and Adam Silvera

Arthur is only in New York for the summer, but if Broadway has taught him anything, it’s that the universe can deliver a showstopping romance when you least expect it.

Ben thinks the universe needs to mind its business. If the universe had his back, he wouldn’t be on his way to the post office carrying a box of his ex-boyfriend’s things.

But when Arthur and Ben meet-cute at the post office, what exactly does the universe have in store for them?

Maybe nothing. After all, they get separated.

Maybe everything. After all, they get reunited.

But what if they can’t quite nail a first date . . . or a second first date . . . or a third?

What if Arthur tries too hard to make it work . . . and Ben doesn’t try hard enough?

What if life really isn’t like a Broadway play?

But what if it is?

Contemporary, young adult

The Archive Undying by Emma Mieko Candon

WHEN AN AI DIES, ITS CITY DIES WITH IT WHEN A CITY FALLS, IT LEAVES A CORPSE BEHIND WHEN THAT CORPSE RUNS OFF, ONLY DEVOTION CAN BRING IT BACK

When the robotic god of Khuon Mo went mad, it destroyed everything it touched. It killed its priests, its city, and all its wondrous works. But in its final death throes, the god brought one thing back to its favorite child, Sunai. For the seventeen years since, Sunai has walked the land like a ghost, unable to die, unable to age, and unable to forget the horrors he's seen. He's run as far as he can from the wreckage of his faith, drowning himself in drink, drugs, and men. But when Sunai wakes up in the bed of the one man he never should have slept with, he finds himself on a path straight back into the world of gods and machines.

The Archive Undying is the first volume of Emma Mieko Candon's Downworld Sequence, a sci-fi series where AI deities and brutal police states clash, wielding giant robots steered by pilot-priests with corrupted bodies.

Come get in the robot.

Science fiction, dystopia, mecha fiction, experimental, adult

[angelsaxis]

LIKE???? HELLO

[haveyoureadthisqueerbook]

[crow-with-too-many-books]

I should do more book polls here...

More about each option below

These all stem from the looking at my bookshelf. So some may just be uhh bc interesting. Bc LISTEN I have to many books I've yet to read bc I want to read them all.

1. SOCCK do I need to say more? Favorite Series right here (I may or may not have it basically memorized) and I have a yearly reread of it (like with Ranger's Appretice) I haven't read it this year yet so it gets to be an option (unless you want to count the amazing comic adaptation by @ jccatstudios bc omg it's amazing)

2. Wings of Fire Series. Saw something abt it recently and I own up to Book 13 (tho I'll get 13 and 15 if I end up reading it) + Darkstalker and Dragonslayer. Waaayyyyy back when (like at least 8 years ago) when I last read it was up to Book 8. + Darkstalker I read that one too. So technically I'd read 8 new books if I read this (15 + slayer) Bc who doesn't enjoy rereading childhood books?

3. Ink by Alice Broadway. Skin series. Interesting concept - I almost picked it up once but ended up changing what I was going to read last minute (oops)

4. Uhhh Rick Riordan. Fun Fact I've never read Percy Jackson until 2021 (and before then I thought the movies were good ;-; so bad) So more of his work bc yeah. I own Kane Chronicles and Magus Chase but decided on Kane to be the choice. Peaked my interest more than the other right now.

5. Dark/Spark I got this a while ago at library book sale and and just...haven't read it yet? Superhero esc ans such and I mean look at the titles lol.

6. Hit and Run. Been wanting to read more mysteries.

7. I got the first book off of a 'blind date' book reading thing. (Like nothing but the genre and a sentence abt it wrapped in paper so you don't know what you chose until after. I just never got around to it (I'm horrible I know) I think bc I was in the middle of a different series at that time and it got hidden on my shelf (book overflow before I got more bookshelves lol)

8. Shadow Run. I've had this for a while. Idk feels like it's gonna be a hit or a miss book but I'm adding it anyway. (And I own the 2nd book to so)

9. What If It's Us. Gay. I've been telling myself to read this series for so long and I just NEVER did. Make me do it.

10. Leviathan series. Got this one semi recently, its steampunk and the books are weirdly heavy (bc it has pictures! (Wow so amazing)) Wouldn't of gotten it if I hadn't interested me some :)

Only the first 2 options are rereads (one is semi) then rest I've never read. And please, give me book recommendations!

[clockworkbee]

I guess I didn’t expect the breakup to suck if I did the breaking up.

—What If It's Us (2018)

[charlikesboba]

i just finished 'what if it's us?" by Adam Silvera and Becky Albertalli, and i realised that THE ENTIRE BOOK IS A REFERENCE TO DEAR EVAN HANSEN AND THE SONG 'ONLY US'

like, Part One: What if

Part Two: It's us

Part Three: And Only Us

Epilogue: What if it's you and What if it's me?

i know i'm not the only one who's noticed this, but as a complete musical theatre nerd, this book got me SO EXCITED by the references and mentions of musicals throughout, and i'm pretty sure it now holds a special place in my heart

[bornitereads]

What If It's Us - Becky Albertalli & Adam Silvera

Read: May 2023

I tore through this book. Once I started I could not stop, I had to know what happened next. I don't even think it took me a whole week to read this one. This is a super cute gay teen romance. It is a ridiculous story. Truly this is the gay equivalent to all the too extra to be real hetero romance films. The gays in question meet at a post office in Manhattan, where they are separated by a flash mob proposal. Cue the hunt to find the other. If that doesn't give you the taste of how silly this book is, you will be surprised. I really enjoyed it. Gay romance is always gets me. I guess because there's not an abundance of it I really just soak it right up when I do get it. But honestly if this sounds up your alley I cannot recommend it enough. It's so cute and so fun and so ridiculous, but also touching. I just love it.

Info: Balzer + Bray & Quill Tree Books; 2018

[doyouknowthisjewishcharacter]

Do you know this Jewish character?

[azurecanary]

I may just be the tiniest bit in love with Adam Silvera.

[guiiay]

jinx and isha visit a walmart

[lapdogchase]

(so mad i can’t see straight) Yeah i just don’t think chat gpt is a good classroom tool

[leejungjaes]

president zelenskyy is a stronger man than me because if two ignorant and deluded men like trump and vance started demanding i say please and thank you and calling me disrespectful like im a naughty child instead of a very traumatised and frustrated man trying to save his country from putin id have put them both in the ground with a single fucking punch

[never-quite-buried]

Nope now it’s at the point that i’m shocked that people off tt don’t know what’s going down. I have no reach but i’ll sum it up anyway.

SCOTUS is hearing on the constitutionality of the ban as tiktok and creators are arguing that it is a violation of our first amendment rights to free speech, freedom of the press and freedom to assemble.

SCOTUS: tiktok bad, big security concern because china bad!

Tiktok lawyers: if china is such a concern why are you singling us out? Why not SHEIN or temu which collect far more information and are less transparent with their users?

SCOTUS (out loud): well you see we don’t like how users are communicating with each other, it’s making them more anti-american and china could disseminate pro china propaganda (get it? They literally said they do not like how we Speak or how we Assemble. Independent journalists reach their audience on tt meaning they have Press they want to suppress)

Tiktok users: this is fucking bullshit i don’t want to lose this community what should we do? We don’t want to go to meta or x because they both lobbied congress to ban tiktok (free market capitalism amirite? Paying off your local congressmen to suppress the competition is totally what the free market is about) but nothing else is like TikTok

A few users: what about xiaohongshu? It’s the Chinese version of tiktok (not quite, douyin is the chinese tiktok but it’s primarily for younger users so xiaohongshu was chosen)

16 hours later:

Tiktok as a community has chosen to collectively migrate TO a chinese owned app that is purely in Chinese out of utter spite and contempt for meta/x and the gov that is backing them.

My fyp is a mix of “i would rather mail memes to my friends than ever return to instagram reels” and “i will xerox my data to xi jinping myself i do not care i share my ss# with 5 other people anyway” and “im just getting ready for my day with my chinese made coffee maker and my Chinese made blowdryer and my chinese made clothing and listening to a podcast on my chinese made phone and get in my car running on chinese manufactured microchips but logging into a chinese social media? Too much for our gov!” etc.

So the government was scared that tiktok was creating a sense of class consciousness and tried to kill it but by doing so they sent us all to xiaohongshu. And now? Oh it’s adorable seeing this gov-manufactured divide be crossed in such a way.

This is adorable and so not what they were expecting. Im sure they were expecting a reluctant return to reels and shorts to fill the void but tiktokers said fuck that, we will forge connections across the world. Who you tell me is my enemy i will make my friend. That’s pretty damn cool.

[pears-palette]

An important PSA to remember!

[ID in Alt]

[blorboresidue]

one time I used the ben affleck smoking reaction image in the family group chat and my mom replied with the funniest possible response which was: "mommy doesn't know who the guy is???" and that phrase has not left my brain since. I'll see blorbos on my dash that I don't recognize and I'll be like well it seems mommy doesn't know who the guy is.