Not Here To Be Liked by Michelle Quach- BOOK REVIEW

Not here to be liked follows the story of Eliza Quan, a Chinese- Vietnamese girl who’s been part of her school magazine’s team for a long time but ends up losing the position of editor-in-chief to a very new, less than qualified boy, Len DiMartile just because he’s more easy- going and ‘likeable’. For obvious reasons, she’s appalled by this and after an essay of hers talking about this goes viral, she surprisingly ends up inspiring a feminist movement in her school. But, as she starts working together with Len and getting to know him, she realises she’s also starting to fall for him. 

⭐️ 5 stars ⭐️ 

This was such a fantastic and remarkable read! 

Not here to be liked has your classic enemies-to-lovers romance with a high school setting but with a huge sub plot of feminism and all it entails.
This book really made me think about how embedded sexism is in all our minds. I LOVED the author’s writing style and how easily she managed to discuss SO many prejudices against women that are happening everyday but aren’t given much of a thought by us.

Though, according to the title, Eliza is ‘not here to be liked’ but she is in fact, a very likeable character. I loved how brave she was to stand up for what she felt was wrong. I could really understand Eliza’s frustration and struggle with misogyny and sexism existing in the society and I was also able to relate to her when she had conflicting thoughts about what is it to be a good or a bad feminist.

I also loved Eliza’s friends Winnona and Serena. Unlikely friendship is one of my favourite things to witness in a book and seeing these three together, who’re actually so different from one another was amazing!

The romance was utterly adorable! Len was such a sweetheart *heart eyes* and he definitely charmed me from the beginning!

We also got a good variety of Asian rep: Korean, Japanese, Cantonese and Chinese-Vietnamese. It was nice to know more about Asian ways of things like their culture, their beliefs, what things are like in an Asian household, the family dynamics, etc.

I not only loved that we got to know more about an Asian family, it also felt like a realistic portrayal because no family is actually perfect. We usually get dead parents trope (no offence meant here) to show a dysfunctional family in YA but a complete family also has it’s fair share of arguments and fights.

There were also so many discussions on very important things like:-

- How women are held upto certain beauty standards. They’re told what is beautiful and what’s not and how they’re taught from the beginning that beauty is what matters the most, which is extremely sexist so I appreciated that being discussed.

- Slut-shaming and how misogyny is internalized and so deeply embedded in everyone’s minds that automatically everyone assumes the worst of a woman.

- How misogyny exists in the most mundane of things, like song lyrics that barely anyone pays attention to but when you think about it, actually shows what some people still think about women.

It also focused on showing what feminism actually is compared to what people think it is. If you’re a feminist, it doesn’t mean you can’t be with a boy. Seeing Eliza’s struggles with having feelings for a boy AND being a feminist but then slowly coming to understand that both can exist was a nice addition to the story.

I’d say this book was definitely one of my favourite reads of the year. It was such an important read while also having light moments and a cute romance! I’ll 100% recommend it to everyone!

Not here to be liked comes out on 14th September’2021

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A huge thanks to Usborne and Netgalley for the e-arc!