Name: We Got the Beat
Rating: 2.5 (2 reviews)
ISBN: 9780063243385

Jenna Miller

We Got the Beat

Ellie M.

“I wanted to preserve the sound of her laugh in a music box. I wanted to make a drink that gave me the feeling of her lips on mine. I wanted a blanket that secured me like her arms. I wanted her.” 

Thanks to Jenna Miller and HarperCollins for sending me an advanced copy of Mack and Jordan’s story through Netgalley in exchange for my honest review. 

Sixteen-year-old Jordan Elliott is your fat, nerdy lesbian that just wants to survive the rest of her junior year. And that means spending time writing as a journalist for the school paper. But life takes a sudden turn when she doesn’t get the spot for editor-in-chief and becomes entangled with writing an article for the volleyball team instead. And as if life couldn’t be funnier, the new team captain is Mackenzie West, Jordan’s former friend now turned enemy when she humiliated him two years ago. This sapphic romcom is such an unapologetically queer and fat positive coming-of-age story. 

I had fun reading this as I saw myself in both Jordan and Mack because of their interests in volleyball, love for writing, and journalism. I definitely was able to relate to those aspects of their personalities and in their passions. The rep here was nicely executed as well. Jordan is your typical nerd who loves Doctor Who, comics, and reading books and frankly, has a very fun personality and is definitely someone who you’d share your interests with. However, I just feel that Mack herself wasn’t given much attention by the writer and didn’t have much of a personality besides volleyball, so she fell flat, and this book didn’t really focus on the romantic aspects. I genuinely felt that the other two side characters had more romantic scenes than the main ones. I wish we could’ve gotten more tension given that they had a falling out, but it wasn’t really there. Nevertheless, there’s a lot of gay panic in this book with a cute little thing at the end, so for all my girlies out there who love sapphic books, kindly put this on your TBR because it is an adorable and hilarious treat. It also really made me want to watch Dash & Lily.

For fans of Becky Albertalli and Kelly Quindlen, We Got the Beat is the perfect queer friends-to-enemies-to-lovers tale. With romance, fat representation, and a meaningful exploration on how past hurts can affect our future, Jenna Miller’s novel is sure to deliver all the feels. Jordan Elliott is a fat, nerdy lesbian, and the first junior to be named editor in chief of the school newspaper. Okay, that last part hasn’t happened yet, but it will. It’s positive thinking that has gotten Jordan this far. Ever since Mackenzie West, her friend-turned-enemy, humiliated her at the start of freshman year, Jordan has thrown herself into journalism and kept her eyes trained on the future. So it’s a total blow when Jordan discovers that she not only didn’t get the editor in chief spot, but she’s been assigned the volleyball beat instead. And who is the star and newly crowned captain of the volleyball team? Mackenzie West. But words are Jordan’s weapon, and she has some ideas about how to exact a long-awaited revenge on her nemesis. Then things get murky when forced time together has Mack and Jordan falling back into their friendship, and into something more. And when Mack confesses the real reason she turned on Jordan freshman year, it has Jordan questioning everything—past, present, and future. If Jordan lets her guard down and Mack in, will she get everything she wants, or will she be humiliated all over again?

We Got the Beat

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