If You Still Recognise Me

Author: Cynthia So

£8.99

ISBN: 9781788953443 Category:

PUBLICATION DATE: June 9 2022

BINDING: Paperback

EXTENT: 384 pages

DIMENSIONS: 129 x 198 mm

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If you loved Heartstopper and need more feel-good LGBTQ+ romance – If You Still Recognise Me is the one for you!

Elsie has a crush on Ada, the only person in the world who truly understands her. Unfortunately, they’ve never met in real life and Ada lives an ocean away. But Elsie has decided it’s now or never to tell Ada how she feels. That is, until her long-lost best friend Joan walks back into her life.

In a summer of repairing broken connections and building surprising new ones, Elsie realises that she isn’t nearly as alone as she thought. But now she has a choice to make…

A lyrical contemporary story about falling in love and finding yourself in the process, for fans of THE BLACK FLAMINGO, THE FALLING IN LOVE MONTAGE and Alice Oseman.

“Cynthia So leans into the complex fluidity of relationships over time, across generations and communities, shaded by culture and circumstances. Elsie’s story is romantic, warm, wise, and disarmingly sincere.” – Becky Albertalli, author of Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda

“An epic fandom, a scavenger hunt for a lost love and an ode to cultural inheritance – this is a wonderfully heartfelt and joyously queer romance” – Lauren James, author of The Loneliest Girl in the Universe

“If You Still Recognise Me is a poignant, perfectly formed debut about queer love, fandom and family.” – Lex Croucher, author of Reputation

“A beautiful and intricately layered tale of friendship, fandom and finding yourself – I absolutely adored it.” – Sophie Cameron, author of Out of the Blue

“Exploring the bonds of friendship, family, fandom, culture and queer community, this is a story about finding who you really are at the heart of all the things you love.” – Sera Milano, author of This Can Never Not Be Real

“A celebration of fannish glee, queer joy and family in all senses of the word. If You Still Recognise Me asks what it means to find yourself, when we are all more than a single story. I adored it.” – Kat Dunn, author of Dangerous Remedy

“Beautifully written with moments of sheer lyricism. A must-read for humans of all ages and walks of life. I loved it so much!” – Wibke Brueggemann, author of Love is for Losers

“If You Still Recognise Me by Cynthia So is just so SO perfect. Refreshing, relatable and raw in its honesty, this is the book I wish I’d had as a queer teen discovering my identity.” – Sarah Underwood, author of Lies We Sing to the Sea

“If You Still Recognise Me is a moving and heart-warming story about queer love, family, culture and fandom and So’s has a uniquely poetic style that sees beauty in the everyday and makes the familiar feel fresh and new” – Ciara Smyth, author of Not My Problem

“This wonderful book is both a tender coming-of-age romance and a tapestry of queer identity that spans oceans, generations, and stages of life … Suffused with queer wistfulness and the ache to be known, So’s debut is as intimate and revelatory as the first touch of a first crush’s hand.” – Riley Redgate, author of Seven Ways We Lie

“A lyrical, complex tale of friendship, family, and all the stories we tell ourselves – true and not – about what it means to love” – Kelly Loy Gilbert, author of When We Were Infinite

“Cynthia So deftly weaves a story that explores queerness, love, and relationships across distance, both geographical and time. An accomplished debut with shades of Nina LaCour, If You Still Recognise Me is the perfect summer-time read.” – Lizzie Huxley-Jones, author and editor

“A beautiful story of cultural identity, friendship, and the dizzying and exhilarating experience of young love. IF YOU STILL RECOGNIZE ME is a triumph.” – Ashley Herring Blake, author of Girl Made of Stars

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5 reviews for If You Still Recognise Me

  1. Teigan

    I was lucky enough to be given early access to Cynthia So’s debut novel ‘If You Still Recognise Me’, an incredible queer coming of age story, that had me so hooked I finished it in a single sitting!

    Content Warnings — Emotionally abusive relationship, homophobia and racism.

    𝙄𝙁 𝙔𝙊𝙐 𝙎𝙏𝙄𝙇𝙇 𝙍𝙀𝘾𝙊𝙂𝙉𝙄𝙎𝙀 𝙈𝙀, follows Elsie, a young bisexual girl as she learns what her sexuality means to her and her life as a whole through the way of her friends, her fandoms and most importantly, her found family.

    The novel is truly a complex love letter to those who have grown up with fandoms as a central comfort and is a refreshing display of what representation should be. The book itself is so beautifully written and the way in which culture, sexuality and relationships are intertwined throughout the book, is so heart achingly emotional to read. We aren’t only just given over five main queer and poc teenagers, we also get to read about the reconnecting of deep relationships that will almost most definitely make you want to pull the tissues out! This is definitely a novel that makes people who feel unseen and unheard, feel seen and heard without even asking.

    A truly beautifully crafted coming of age debut novel by Cynthia So and I cannot wait to see what they write next. I extremely recommend giving this book a read when it comes out the 9th of June, this year.

  2. Bex

    I am so glad that I could read the ARC of this novel . It’s diverse, it’s beautiful and it’s so much fun to read.

    The book touches on many important topics, including sexuality, racism, homophobia, controlling relationships and loneliness. It handles all of these brilliantly, and despite the difficult topics it is still a really heartwarming read.

    I loved the coming of age feel of the book, and I also enjoyed that all of the relationships in the book felt realistic and thought out. I was immediately able to connect with all of the characters and was invested in their stories.

    I honestly feel like this is the book I needed 10 years ago, and I am so glad that it exists now.

  3. grace

    Thank You Net Galley for an early access copy of this book!

    I was so excited for this book and it did not disappoint!

    I loved that we got to visit different cities around England through Elsie’s eyes during her adventures.

    I also enjoyed how this book portrayed the experience of coming out and the stigma of doing so, especially because of homophobia and the issues in society because of this. As readers we get to experience her coming out story through our own eyes and how the people around her reacted, supported her and told her she wasn’t alone.

    I can tell that this book will help anyone struggling with their identity and let them know that they’re not alone. No one is alone.

  4. Molly

    I read this in one sitting and was absolutely enthralled, this has got to be the standout YA debut of the year.

    ‘If you still recognise me’ is a joyous, queer coming-of-age story with predominantly Asian MCs. Elsie is bisexual, a comic book nerd and grappling with growing feelings for her online best friend – an issue made only more complex when said best friend lives thousands of miles away.

    This book honestly felt like what I’ve been waiting for my whole life. Though YA, a genre I often hesitate to dip into, this was a masterfully constructed story and I cannot wait to see what else the author writes.

    Each relationship – familial, platonic or romantic is written with such attention to detail and precision that you get a real insight into the dynamics of each. As an own voices reviewer; the family dynamics of an East Asian family were so unashamedly raw, this – not tokenism and harmful stereotypes – is the type of representation we need. It was a book about relationships – romance is what is highlighted on the synopsis but you soon discover it is about far more; about generational trauma, uncovering family history, coming to terms with abuse and so many other key themes.

    I cant not touch on what else really stood out to me – the portrayal of fandom culture. Often authors get this *so* wrong, having their teenage MCs speak in a way that sounds like they’ve logged onto urbandictionary, typed in youth slang and not bothered to look at the definitions – but Cynthia was spot on. It felt like a love letter to all of us readers who grew up immersed in those spaces, it almost me nostalgic for a time where waiting for the newest update was my primary issue.

    Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC. Release date is June 8th (!!), and this should be the next ‘big’ book of the year.

  5. emily

    Elsie has just finished her A-Level exams, and the long summer ahead of her promises to be one filled with excitement. There’s travelling with her best friend, finding a job she loves, meeting new people, keeping up with her favourite comic, chatting to her internet friend-turned-crush. But then there’s also her grandmother from Hong Kong – a woman she hasn’t seen since childhood – staying in her house, the loss of a grandfather she barely knew, her childhood best friend returning after years of radio silence, and family secrets no one will share.

    All of this and more is happening, and I never thought it was too much.

    This is a coming of age story following a bisexual, Chinese-British girl in a summer of discovery. I am not the biggest fan of first person narration usually, but I found it worked perfectly here. Elsie is a self-proclaimed romantic and the prose is so in-keeping with that. This is a big time and her feelings are bigger and we hear how they physically fill her, expanding in her chest and filling gaps between her ribs. And there are such quiet, introspective and tender moments amongst these Big Feelings and formative experiences. The morning routine of breakfast in the garden with the grandmother you’re trying to understand, looking at a wardrobe filled with clothes bought less for your tastes than to appease others, the gravity of calling someone ‘Uncle’ for the first time.

    I loved the exploration of and relationship with identity throughout. Though personally confident in her sexuality, it is all too familiar a feeling to mostly have that confidence internally, and to withdraw from those less accepting. The scene with the family’s quiet reaction to the gay kiss on TV really struck me. I felt the air leave the room, the tension palpable, and knew from early on just how much this author understands these moments. There is also such an interesting balance of having a strong attachment to culture and heritage as well as feeling something of a disconnect from it sometimes. We get to see this explored through memories, food, language, clothes, the ways we may seek approval and who we seek it from. Elsie hasn’t been back to Hong Kong in years, whereas Joan, her childhood best friend, has been there that whole time. She knows things Elsie has forgotten or never knew to begin with, and I was very grateful to learn things along with her, particularly about the kinds of labels used by queer people there. This book tackles eurocentric beauty standards, the fetishisation of Asian women, and wondering if you are ‘enough’ of something. There are so many identities wonderfully represented in this book, and it handles those questions: Am I feminine enough? Am I queer enough? Am I enough?

    And this book is as much about identity as it is about loss – the loss of contact, loss of time, and sometimes feeling the loss of a person less so than the loss of what they could have been to you.

    If You Still Recognise Me is unapologetically and delightfully queer, with the most affirming queer elders and a found family of wonderful side characters that I just want to be friends with. It celebrates LGBT+ identities and queer art, particularly the comic Elsie and her internet friends love (that I would honestly like to read myself!).

    With a mystery to solve, a trail to follow, comics to read, family secrets to uncover, holidays by the sea and a heartwarming sapphic romance, this book is a celebration of friendship, fandom and identity. Thank you for the ARC of this perfect summer read that is now one of my new favourites ever!

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Meet the author

Cynthia So

Cynthia So was born in Hong Kong and lives in London. They graduated from the University of Oxford with a BA in Classics in 2016. Their work has appeared in Uncanny, Strange Horizons and Cast of Wonde…

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