Not Here To Be Liked
As seen:
By Michelle Quach, and and, Kevin Wada
avg rating
2 reviews
""Will leave a mark on your heart."" Stephanie Garber, author of the Caraval series
""A smart romance with heart and guts and all the intoxicating feelings in between."" Maureen Johnson, author of 13 Little Blue Envelopes
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…
Irresistible enemies-to-lovers story, Not Here to be Liked by Michelle Quach, is taking TikTok by storm.
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Eliza and Len run for the chief editor position at their school paper, Eliza being well experienced and skilled while Len has only just joined. When Len gives a more entertaining speech, he wins the position making Eliza believe that he only won because he is likeable and a boy. I would recommend this story as it makes an inspiring intersectional introduction to feminism for young girls. However because Len's speech was good, Eliza's argument against him didn't seem entirely fair - perhaps the problem was partly in using speeches to award the position, rather than interviews? The novel lacks LGBT+ representation and I felt that the main couple's relationship was a little cliché. Overall though, it's an entertaining read!
This book has a lot going for it. It questions institutional sexism and misogyny in a realistic way. Can you be a feminist and still want a boyfriend? Can you be a feminist but still care about your appearance and want to look ‘nice’? I would have liked a bit more from this book, but maybe that’s just because it’s my kind of topic. All of the characters are a bit too likeable, and I wanted someone to kind of stir the pot a bit more.
