Lover Birds by Leanne Egan

Lover Birds by Leanne Egan is both a happy book and a sad book, above love, neurodiversity and homosexuality, exploring these topics in a beautiful way for a young adult audience. It is the start of the sixth form, where things get much harder academically, and most people start preparing for University applications. This is made even harder when Isabel moves to Liverpool from London and is paired with Elouise from the first day, who is also struggling with her new ADHD diagnosis. Isabel and Lou have an incredible love-hate relationship, where they progress from being frenemies to entering a relationship, Lou having never considered she may be a lesbian. However, the story takes a turn for the worse when Lou and Imogen question whether they are compatible with each other. Will they be able to lead a happy romantic relationship? You should read this book to find out!

I absolutely loved this book; it was an incredible read! Starting with the story itself, it is a somewhat unique romance novel (if you can even call it that), which is really nice and full of drama from the start, which makes this an incredibly gripping book. I found it difficult to put this book down because of how addictive and beautiful it was! This book was also hilarious throughout, but one of the parts which had me laughing out loud was the reference to one of the characters saying, "You're a brand-new honorary Scouser". I also loved how this book explored the topics of ADHD and homosexuality in some detail, which is arguably relevant for the target market who may not only be trying to discover their own identities but particularly for those who are neurodiverse; there is very little literature out there featuring neurodiverse characters, especially for the young adult age range. It was also outstanding to see some practical advice on how to manage one's ADHD whilst studying, or just general study advice that is relevant for anyone, explored in this book. This book, therefore, was not just entertainment but of practical value for school and academia.

As a reader, I loved all the references to books and reading throughout this book, which was particularly explored through Isobel and Lou, both taking English Literature at A Level and studying Pride and Prejudice, amongst others. This theme was also explored further through the character of Isobel, who was a fan of not only Lesbian literature but also the classics. I loved all the references to the classics mentioned in this book, particularly this one spoken by Lou: 

"...the last term of the school year is shaping up to be a circle of hell that Dante ended up cutting from the final draft because it felt like a bit much."

 I was really surprised in a good way to see such a reference to Dante's Divine Comedy in a young adult book, not only by Lou, who is not portrayed as a reader but because this is a book which I feel that very few people, especially young adults, really read. It was, therefore, such a joy to see this subtle link to Dante, whose Divine Comedy I have read myself, thanks to one of my teachers at GCSE!

There is nothing I disliked about this book. Throughout the book, there were places where the plot could have gone different ways and still have been just as interesting and gripping, but ultimately, even though some of these alternative plots may have been even more gripping or, in fact, interesting, Egan does an incredible job at writing such a beautiful story.

I am now going to discuss the theme of neurodiversity presented in this book in more detail. This is because I have read some books, both fiction and non-fiction, featuring this theme, but they all seem to go on about how great it is to be neurodiverse and/or start complaining about certain aspects of it. In my opinion, Egan presented alternative opinions, which I am sure many people share, which are not usually present in literature, and this was especially powerful being through Lou. Lou, for instance, shares that "I hate that word. Neurotypical. I'm neurodivergent, apparently. Just a fancy medical way to say insufferable if you ask me". To me, this really points out how so many people are given labels but, more often than not, are treated differently because of these labels and not given the support they deserve.

 This leads many neurodiverse individuals to feel that they must mask or change to fit in, but this book addresses this issue really well when it mentions that 

"nobody's asking you to change who you are. This world just isn't built for brains like yours. That was never your fault". 

I am sure that for a neurodivergent young adult reading this book, it will be very valuable to see this because there are not many other books (or other media in general) to which they can relate. Similarly, many neurodivergent teenagers will likely question, 

"If the problem is a world that won't accommodate me, why should I have to take meds to help my brain accommodate it?". 

Through Lou's neurodivergent, young adults can feel heard and represented and be able to reflect on Lou's experiences in their own lives.

Altogether, I have found it very difficult to decide on what rating to give this book, but after much consideration, I have decided that this book can only be given 5 stars as it is an outstanding, incredibly well written and gripping book which is not only a beautiful and unique romance, but also explores many bigger themes which you usually expect to see in the classics. I really hope to see this book become one of those classics exploring themes of neurodiversity and homosexuality and the problems we have in the current society with these groups of individuals not being completely accepted and accommodated. I thoroughly recommend this book to everyone. Hopefully, you will find it a really great book and learn something new, but also have a laugh and maybe shed some tears. I must thank both NetGalley and HarperCollins UK for providing me with an Advanced Reader Copy (ARC) of this book in return for an honest book review.