So the plot starts off by talking about Amanda - Mads - who has had a pretty meh experience with kissing so far and it shows her and her pals talking about boys and blah blah blah. So I went into the book thinking it was going to be quite a fluffy rom com type affair about a girl who does the society default and kisses boys until she figures out she likes kissing girls.
What I actually got was something a bit darker. Yes, the book is about Mads and her discovery of who she is, but it's also about family secrets, religion, intolerance, hypocrisy, gender politics and transphobia. The plot gets heavier as it progresses until it's pretty far removed from the candy floss kiss-fest shown in the first few pages.
The art is really light and I really liked it. It almost didn't match the book's heavy themes, but I thought that was actually ok, it was a nice juxtaposition to the themes the book deals with. I tried to imagine the book done in an art style more like (to pick a random example) Maus and I think the whole feel would have been totally different, and not in a good way.
I've seen criticism for the characters in this book being transphobic and/or homophobic, and yes, a lot of the characters are like that. It's really hard to remember sometimes, but 2004 was still not a great place if you were LGBT - Section 28 had literally only just been repealed (for fun times, Google which MPs voted against repealing this spiteful piece of trash-legislation. There are some familiar names in there), the Civil Partnership Act was introduced (because LGBT people couldn't yet be trusted with marriage equality) and the Gender Recognition Act was passed in 2004, although gender reassignment wasn't a protected characteristic in law until the Equality Act in 2010. 2004 wasn't great. It was better than 1987, but it was nothing like 2020 (and god knows, 2020 is by no means perfect).
So would I recommend this book? Yes, totally. But I would give the disclaimer that it's not a fluffy, rom com beach book. It has problematic characters and a difficult plot and is more like a history lesson but ultimately it's a rewarding read.
4.5 stars