Erin's Reviews > Middletown

Thank you to Netgalley and Dreamscape Media for the audio arc.

Middletown is a complex book that deals with a lot of topics, including alcoholism, sexual harassment, sibling relationships, queerness, gender identity, and navigating life with a lot of odds stacked against you. The main character, Eli, is gay, maybe not quite a girl, and in love with her best friend. Her sister, Anna, has had to raise Eli for a lot of her life, as their fathers are absent and their mom is an alcoholic. When their mother gets sent to rehab, the sisters try everything to stay out of foster care, and stay together.

It’s not the main focus of the book, but I thought the romance was really cute, and surprisingly realistic, which I thought was a nice touch. Eli is a really interesting character, with all the melodrama and sass one would expect from a middle school student. Her relationship with Anna, which is one of the main focuses of the book, is incredibly done, and made me quite emotional.

I didn’t love how much of a stereotype Javi is, as the flamboyant gay best friend to the popular girl, and I also thought Anna made a lot of jokes and comments about Eli being gay that were out of place coming from a cishet character, so I didn’t love those aspects of the book. I also didn’t really like how the book deals with the issue of sexual harassment, as it gets kinda brushed aside. Obviously this is a middle grade book and thus won’t go super deep into issues like sexual assault and sexual harassment, but I still think it warranted more attention. Additionally, Eli starts the book by shaming Anna for having visible boobs? What was the purpose?

Overall, while I didn’t love the book, I flew through it, it’s interesting, I liked most of the characters, the relationships between Eli and her family members were really well written, and I hope this book can become a favorite of some young readers.

TWs: alcoholism, homophobia, sexual harassment, minor warning for death of a parent.