Release Date: May 24th, 2022

Genre(s): Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance, LGBT

Publisher: Feiwel & Friends

Pages: 352

Rating:⭐️⭐️⭐️.25

Thank you to Fierce Reads and Netgalley for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Synopsis

In this voice-driven young adult debut by Andrea Mosqueda, Maggie Gonzalez needs a date to her sister’s quinceañera – and fast.

Growing up in Texas’s Rio Grande Valley, Maggie Gonzalez has always been a little messy, but she’s okay with that. After all, she has a great family, a goofy group of friends, a rocky romantic history, and dreams of being a music photographer. Tasked with picking an escort for her little sister’s quinceañera, Maggie has to face the truth: that her feelings about her friends—and her future—aren’t as simple as she’d once believed.

As Maggie’s search for the perfect escort continues, she’s forced to confront new (and old) feelings for three of her friends: Amanda, her best friend and first-ever crush; Matthew, her ex-boyfriend twice-over who refuses to stop flirting with her, and Dani, the new girl who has romantic baggage of her own. On top of this romantic disaster, she can’t stop thinking about the uncertainty of her own plans for the future and what that means for the people she loves.

As the weeks wind down and the boundaries between friendship and love become hazy, Maggie finds herself more and more confused with each photo. When her tried-and-true medium causes more chaos than calm, Maggie needs to figure out how to avoid certain disaster—or be brave enough to dive right into it, in Just Your Local Bisexual Disaster.

Review

Admittedly, Just Your Local Bisexual Disaster had a slow start for me. The story, essentially about Maggie turning her school art project into a way to work through her feelings and decide who to take to her sister’s quince, felt a bit flat for me at first.

But as the book continues, we get to know Maggie and each of her friends more, and it was then that I got more invested in the story. And this became not so much about who she would choose as her date but about seeing all of the characters grow and figure out their own identities based on their own experiences. Plus, there were a lot of good conversations around respect and boundaries which I think are common and relatable experiences for young adults.

My favorite aspect of Just Your Local Bisexual Disaster was the representation. While it does not reflect my identity, I love the way it was integrated into the story and recommend it for this reason. Plus, I absolutely loved the family dynamic in this book and the positive impact that Maggie’s family had on her life through thick and thin.

Just Your Local Bisexual Disaster might take a bit to get into, but once you do it’s a good read about navigating relationships (both romantic and platonic) and finding yourself.

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