Hayley Kiyoko’s fans refer to her as Lesbian Jesus, and considering how down-to-earth this book of hers is, plus the simply good and proud vibes I get from her whenever I see her on screen, I might really have been missing out.
Nine years ago, Kiyoko made a song with the same name, plus a music video, and it went viral overnight. It now has 158 million views on YouTube, and I only just recently listened to it. According to that video’s credits, the characters in that video are the same as the characters in this book.
The hero is a girl named Coley. For her entire life it was just her and her mom in the city, and life was alright. Then her mother fell into such a horrible depression she took her own life, and Coley has had to move to a creek-like little town for her final high school year with her father Curtis, who hasn’t been part of her life for as long as she can remember. Curtis isn’t deadbeat, and Coley can tell. He’s not dismissive of his daughter and tries to bond with her. But Coley doesn’t care about that, holding a grudge for him just forgetting he even had a daughter after all this time.
It’s summer vacation and she has months before school starts, with no desire to find a summer job and no friends here. So one day she decides to take her bike and go fishing. She doesn’t have much hope, but she is then nearly hit by a car, and its passengers, kids her age, offer to take her down to the lake. Alex, SJ, Trenton and Sonya. The biggest dickweed of the group seems to be Trenton, who has the hots for Sonya, and Sonya seems half into-it, half checked-out. Either way, Sonya very quickly seems to take a liking to Coley, and Coley is still quite guarded up about making any real bonds…but maybe it’s time to figure out why the presence of Sonya makes her heart skip.
I mean, finishing that synopsis and hence the book title, it’s obvious Coley has feelings for Sonya. It’s no mystery. So once I saw who the love interest was going to be, I knew what kind of journey this book would have. I’ve read plenty of romance-heavy books at this point. What really mattered was if this familiar road would be enjoyable and down-to-earth, plus perhaps even…edgy in some way.
Coley’s definitely a sad character. Lonely but hesitant to start real connections because of grieving her mother and feeling no one could replicate her. It felt like Coley was in prison within herself, not having hope of a better life, so emotionally shutting down. Her new friends only gradually pick away at the cage, and it reminds us how we really should keep up connections with our own close companions (well, the ones who aren’t losers like Trenton, anyway.) The book also has that rural feel that Kiyoko is going for, of illegal drugs, rundown convenience stores, poison oak, and small community. You really get the idea without too much effort.
Then there is a notable positive in this book could also easily be a negative. And that would be the hesitancy, stubbornness, and denial of some of the people Coley takes a liking to. We see Coley get really hurt by the actions of those she finds attraction with, and they don’t find much of a reason to really apologize at first. That irritated me. But at the same time, this book takes place in 2006, when only recently did a small handful of states legalize same-sex marriage, and only two years prior did Canada fully recognize it. Being anything but heterosexual was still a pretty invisible and inconceivable notion. If Girls Like Girls took place the year it was actually published, or around the timeframe, there would’ve been well-known supports Coley or Sonya could’ve gotten, and the thought of kissing a girl wouldn’t have been as far fetched. But Kiyoko herself realized she was into girls and not boys at a very young age, and the book takes place when she herself was a teenager. It makes complete sense to write what you know. And even if we dislike how some crushes end up treating Coley, we understand there’s realism in their hesitancy to embrace different love, when the world won’t seem to love them back for it.
If anything, the book reminds us about the importance of the Pride movement and why we can’t let LGBTQ+ topics be silenced in society – because we can’t have queer people, young and old, feel like there will be no support, no hope for love, no society that accepts them. That’s what it used to be like worldwide, for far too long.
Girls Like Girls is a very quick read about a somewhat small life. Before we know it, it’s over. I do wish there could’ve been more happiness – more scenes where Coley and Sonya could’ve had some quality time together. I’m not a pervert in saying that. I just mean times where they can really feel like they have a soul connection. I also wish more time could’ve been given to Coley’s relationship with Curtis – more scenes where they manage to enjoy their company instead of being scared or indifferent towards themselves. But Girls Like Girls is still a book that will feel welcome to anyone who has ever felt like a nobody, like a freak, like their emotions don’t matter. It will reassure them that in those regards, they are wrong on all counts.
My grade: 3 stars out of 5
William J. McGinn 
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