Yes No Maybe So is a YA novel about two seventeen-year-olds who meet when they're both canvassing for their local state special election. Jamie Goldberg is interested in politics and volunteers for his local Democrat candidate, but feels like he is terrible at talking to anyone. Maya Rehman is dealing with her parents separating, her best friend having no time for her, and her mum deciding she should try political canvassing to fill her now empty summer. When Jamie and Maya start going door-to-door to engage with people, it isn't quite what either of them expected.

This political activism tinged teenage romance is split between the two main characters' points of view, and this is used to show their differing perspectives, religions, and cultural contexts, as well as their similarities and shared interests. It works well for the premise, allowing things like Jamie's cluelessness about how Ramadan works to be balanced with Maya's perspective on how her family mark Muslim traditions. The book is heavy on both the awkward teen romance and the teenage political idealism, but that's the point, and it's a fun book that does try and raise a few issues whilst mostly being about the two main characters' growing relationship.

I want to thank Netgalley for providing me with this book in exchange for my honest review.

I have to say I honestly really couldn’t get enough of this book!
The characters were really interesting and drew me into the story right away!
Jamie and Maya were amazing main characters I was rooting for them from the start.
The writing was amazing it flowed really well I was never bored and just wanted to keep reading to see what happened.
I read it all in one sitting but was a little disappointed with the ending.
4 stars

This was an extremely entertaining and educational book for me. Growing up I never really paid much attention to politics or who the prime minster was at the time. I couldn’t vote so didn’t see the point in finding out what was happening. Then I was 18 and still had no idea what I was really doing.
Then trump got in in the US and I found myself thinking just what the hell was going on. Here was a man who to me seemed terrible and people had voted him in. This sexist, racist, discriminatory man had somehow become president of the US.
Then Brexit started over here and has been such a huge mess and I realised that maybe I do need to start paying more attention to politics.
Just like this book showed me. Even when you can’t vote you can still spark change. You can try to make the world a better place. You need to fight for the things that matter to you and use your vote wisely.
The characters were extremely well written and relatable and I loved how they opened my eyes to issues I sometimes brush over.
I think this book is incredibly important and one teens everywhere should read. It shows them that it’s never to early to start thinking about the change you want to see in the world and every little action you do can help.
You need to think about these things and consider the type of world you want to live in.

This is another classically adorable contemporary YA novel from Becky Albertalli, this time co-writing with Aisha Saeed. However, Yes No Maybe So worked a lot better for me than Albertalli's last collaboration, What If It's Us, perhaps because I simply prefer Saeed's prose to that of the previous collaborator, Adam Silvera (I don't like his stand-alone novels either). Yes No Maybe So stars Jamie and Maya, two teenagers who aren't old enough to vote but who become passionately involved with a local campaign in their home state of Georgia to get a Democrat candidate, Rossum, elected to the Senate after the Republican incumbent steps down. But will Jamie and Maya get together as well as getting Rossum elected?

The story is told in alternating chapters from Maya and Jamie, and Albertalli and Saeed handle this collaboration well. At first I was worried that this was going to be a bit simplistically lefty, with both characters info-dumping about how bad racism and Republicans are (I think both these things are bad, but I don't think it makes very good fiction when the authors simply tell readers what they want them to know). However, as Maya and Jamie get more involved in the campaign, the issues raised become more complex, and both Albertalli and Saeed are good at writing arguments where neither character is totally in the right - a confrontation between Maya and her former best friend Sara is particularly well done. Both authors share Albertalli's tendency to make sure that characters admit everything wrong they've ever done by the end of the story, so there's no room for ambiguity, but this suits the tone of this sweet novel. Not quite as good as Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda or Leah on the Offbeat, but definitely worth reading, and it's inspired me to seek out more by Saeed as well.

I will cross-post this review to Amazon after the publication date.