I went into this book with doubts thinking it would be another sappy book about a long-distance romance after I saw it recommended under one of my favorite books “Close my Eyes” by Sophie Mckenzie. I started to read this book and I was honestly instantly hooked, the characters were instantly interesting and you slowly learn more about them through the whole book.
What we Left Behind is a novel that is based around two college-bound teenagers. The starting setting is their junior prom where the new girls, now moved to New Jersey originally from New York, show up to her new school’s prom in search of making friends. Her name is Gretchen, once described as a girl who gives off hippie granola indigo girl because of her Birkenstocks. Gretchen meets a genderqueer person named Toni or “T” at prom and they instantly crush on each other but each thinks they can’t talk to each other. Gretchen because she is with a guy making Toni think she is straight and Toni is with a girl so Gretchen thinks T is taken. But they end up dancing. They instantly click and it just goes to they’re a couple.
Toni is a genderqueer, queer. Known around the school for their protest about how the uniforms shouldn’t have to be skirts. Toni and Gretchen were supposed to both go to Mass for their colleges, Toni going to Harvard. Gretchen broke the deal and ended up going to New York making their long-distance longer but they decide to try and feel it out. While in New York Gretchen meets Carroll in an incident where a girl approaches him to flirt not realizing he’s gay. Carroll is very forward with Gretchen but they become friends.
while when Toni goes to college they finally find a sense of belonging with the transgender groups. Gretchen seems to begin to figure out how she didn’t know herself outside of her relationship with T and begins to be her own person again. This novel is really more into the characters finding themselves rather than just romance.
I will say disappointed, the queer representation may come off as a little offensive. So if that is the only reason you want to read this book, to “expand” into LGBTQ+ novels this isn’t the place to start.
Anyhow, I think I enjoyed Carroll’s character the most, even if he was kind of on the sidelines he was always honest and described well. I think the parts with him doing straight-up stuff like just going through Gretchen’s bags were very relatable for me. Robin Talley does a really good job with her character descriptions and makes you connect with the characters very well. She also did a lovely job at making an LGBT novel without screaming is was LGBT, I didn’t go into the book thinking with was a queer relationship and it was a lovely surprise.
I recommend this book for anyone who is looking for a modern realistic fiction romance book, LGBTQ+ book or is just into romance.