Analysis of an LGBTQ Novel Essay Example

What If It’s Us is a coming of age/young adult novel, about two homosexual teenagers in New York City. Even though this is a romance novel, it still had more adventure than you’d expect. The two main protagonists, Arthur Seuss, and Ben Alejo meet- cute in a post-office in New York, only to be separated. This begs the question. Will they find each other? This book takes the idea of the universe as a person who judges you in some direction. Both protagonists have different perceptions about the universe which makes it interesting to see how they would react to what it does.

What was something I noticed is that each author took one of the protagonists ( Becky Albertalli with Arthur and Adam Silvera with Ben), and wrote from that character's perspective individually, and built the story up from there. For example, Chapter one is in the perspective of Arthur, and Chapter two would be about Ben’s side of the story. This really helped me understand the backstory of each character, and know who the important people in their life are.

The writing of the book was very casual and made it easier to read and understand, as the generation I live in says the same things, and was very charming with lots of humor. It does a good job showing the romance aspect of the book a bit more relaxed. My main pro of the book is that the plot really had a rollercoaster of a story throughout all points of the book. There were no parts in that book where I couldn't put it down. This book made me at the edge of my seat every time I finished a chapter, then continuing to stay up late to finish the first part. 

There were parts in the book that really helped me realize what it must be like to be a part of the LGBTQ+ spectrum in a place like New York, let alone America. There was a part in the book where the relationship of the couple was threatened by a man on the subway, and that really made me emotional because people shouldn’t be threatened because of who they love. However, I loved the fact how both of their families love and accept them for who they are, and support their relationship.

The book showed immense diversity between not only the two main characters but also the people in the background. The sexual orientations in the book can be followed as gay, ace, biromantic, bisexual. This addition really shows how diverse everyone is, and how we have moved on from hiding our true selves, but just embrace it. There were also race and religion aspects mentioned in the book such as Arthur and his family being Jewish. Along with race, while Arthur is Caucasian, Ben is Purterican. There is a mean segment about Ben’s insecurity towards him not “looking the part” when it comes to his race.

While this book has a controversial premise, colorful vocabulary, and references to many inside jokes, it would be the best 435 pages you will ever read. This book will not only show you how the universe can do great things but shows what meeting one person can do for your entire life. A quote from the book to support this is, “I barely know him. I guess that is every relationship. You start with nothing and maybe end with everything.”