Filed under: books I cannot stop thinking about. Or grinning over. Or attempting to shove down people's throats. (Er, okay, I wouldn't do that to a book. I AM, HOWEVER, BUYING COPIES TO PUT IN SOME LITTLE FREE LIBRARIES BECAUSE I HAVE NO CONTROL. All caps.



The Voting Booth 
by Brandy Colbert

From Stonewall Award-winning author Brandy Colbert comes an all-in-one-day love story perfect for fans of The Sun is Also A Star. 
 
Marva Sheridan was born ready for this day. She's always been driven to make a difference in the world, and what better way than to vote in her first election? 

Duke Crenshaw is do done with this election. He just wants to get voting over with so he can prepare for his band's first paying gig tonight. 

Only problem? Duke can't vote. 

When Marva sees Duke turned away from their polling place, she takes it upon herself to make sure his vote is counted. She hasn't spent months doorbelling and registering voters just to see someone denied their right. And that's how their whirlwind day begins, rushing from precinct to precinct, cutting school, waiting in endless lines, turned away time and again, trying to do one simple thing: vote. They may have started out as strangers, but as Duke and Marva team up to beat a rigged system (and find Marva's missing cat), it's clear that there's more to their connection than a shared mission for democracy. 

Romantic and triumphant, The Voting Booth is proof that you can't sit around waiting for the world to change but some things are just meant to be.


Brandy Colbert, I bow down to you. This year has been a wonderful year in young adult fantasy, but I have seemed to hit a bit of a slump with young adult contemporary releases. The Voting Booth is the first that I've really, and truly, enjoyed in months. (And I am definitely making grabby hands at the rest of Colbert's backlist.)

When it comes to contemporaries, I adore books that make me feel something genuine. The Voting Booth consistently hit the marks on so many levels: from its honest exploration of serious topics to its outright fun pacing and striking laugh-out-loud moments, you cannot go wrong with this one. This book basically kicked me in the shins to remind me that I definitely feel a lot of things.

The Voting Booth is one of those reads that is already fairly short, but the engrossing way in which Colbert writes makes it feel even shorter. This was one of the most compulsively readable, breezy, contemporaries of the year for me. Perhaps, even, of all time. I honestly cannot remember the last time I read a contemporary this quickly. (Dear Haiti, Love Alaine? Anna and the French Kiss? Everything Leads to You?)  

Colbert really weaves the story together in a way that feels hypnotic and real. Her characters are complex, important and incredibly relatable. You don't see them on page and think, "Oh, yeah. They don't sound like teenagers." You hear them and think, oh, yes, they are. Together, they represent a good portion of teenagers out there and The Voting Booth is a safe place for them to feel heard/be represented.

For any generation, but especially its target audience. Because of this, I think that The Voting Booth is going to be one of the more important releases of 2020.

Not every novel reaches the right heights, but The Voting Booth soars just beyond it and goes higher by the minute. I absolutely adored getting to know Marva and Duke, who both felt incredibly real to me, and very much so fell in love with the story as a whole.