Shaun David Hutchinson

"Dean and Dre, the seventeen-year-old sons of the Republican and Democratic candidates for president of the United States, fall in love on the sidelines of their parents' presidential campaigns"--

The State of Us

I finished this in under 24 hours because I just want to read some light romance and I didn’t read any reviews beforehand. I also started reading it just to get into the spirit of the upcoming election. But… here’s the thing. It screams Red, White & Royal Blue so bad. Even down to the “false alarm leads to two MCs getting closer” and “oh no, their private messages got leaked” subplot. And I love that book. The difference is this book feels rushed and the MCs connection didn’t feel organic. Conversations between Dre and Dean felt like something an adult would write and not what teenagers would say.

The thing with The State of Us is, while I can relate to some characters and their struggles, it really feels like it’s written by someone who didn’t do enough research. Dre is presumably a Mexican-American but this POC background isn’t touched upon at all. It feels like an erasure. And another thing that irked me the most is how both MCs avoided discussing 

 issues, especially about racism. The main takeaway from the book, about how love conquers all yada yada yada, also feels out of place and somewhat like an insult. I don’t know. As someone who’s not American, I don’t think it’s my place to comment about their politics as it’s not my expertise. But as someone who would be categorized as POC in American standards, this book doesn’t really sit well with me.

Sashi

I finished this in under 24 hours because I just want to read some light romance and I didn’t read any reviews beforehand. I also started reading it just to get into the spirit of the upcoming election. But… here’s the thing. It screams Red, White & Royal Blue so bad. Even down to the “false alarm leads to two MCs getting closer” and “oh no, their private messages got leaked” subplot. And I love that book. The difference is this book feels rushed and the MCs connection didn’t feel organic. Conversations between Dre and Dean felt like something an adult would write and not what teenagers would say.

The thing with The State of Us is, while I can relate to some characters and their struggles, it really feels like it’s written by someone who didn’t do enough research. Dre is presumably a Mexican-American but this POC background isn’t touched upon at all. It feels like an erasure. And another thing that irked me the most is how both MCs avoided discussing important issues, especially about racism. The main takeaway from the book, about how love conquers all yada yada yada, also feels out of place and somewhat like an insult. I don’t know. As someone who’s not American, I don’t think it’s my place to comment about their politics as it’s not my expertise. But as someone who would be categorized as POC in American standards, this book doesn’t really sit well with me.

Pretty cute teen story similar to Red, White, and Royal Blue. Definitely a good pick for middle/high school readers

Drew Crespo

"Dre and Dean have got my vote!"--Adib Khorram, award-winning author of Darius the Great Is Not Okay When Dean Arnault's mother decided to run for president, it wasn't a surprise to anyone, least of all her son. But still that doesn't mean Dean wants to be part of the public spectacle that is the race for the White House--at least not until he meets Dre. The only problem is that Dre Rosario's on the opposition; he's the son of the Democratic nominee. But as Dean and Dre's meet-ups on the campaign trail become less left to chance, their friendship quickly becomes a romantic connection unlike any either of the boys have ever known. If it wasn't hard enough falling in love across the aisle, the political scheming of a shady third-party candidate could cause Dean and Dre's world to explode around them. It's a new modern-day, star-crossed romance about what it really means to love your country--and yourself--from the acclaimed author of We Are the Ants and Brave Face, Shaun David Hutchinson.

Mijs Franssen

I updated my rating system for this year so it makes sense :))

4/5 ✨ i enjoyed it a lot

I enjoyed this book so much. It was lovely. I liked that the chapters differentiated between Dre’s and Dean’s POV. The characters were great, the plot was good, I enjoyed it lots. It is great for fans for Red White and Royal blue, but this is YA and therefore is a little different in wording, story and there are far less explicit scenes. 
 
The fact that this story is so diverse, made it even more enjoyable. There is ofcourse gay representation, but also ace spectrum, lesbian, plus size, and POC in there.

The reason why it is not getting five stars, is because it is very very YA, which is not necessarily bad, but it made me relate a little less.

Gabriel Noel 

ARC given by Edelweiss+ for Honest Review

Almost DNF, the story just didn't move me in the end. The beginning had promise but I didn't feel any connection once finished. It really took me a long time to finish, I kept picking it up and reading a few pages and getting bored. 

This however is only my opinion and I would still recommend it to teens looking for lgbtq fiction.

Emily

dnf @ 51% 

I am astonished that this was written by Shaun David Hutchinson. I have absolutely adored this works in the past, but this one... where do I even begin?

I guess with the fact that I understand the message that he was trying to convey, but I think he kind of contradicts himself within the book. The heart of this story should have been that people need to look past assumptions based on others' parents, political views, race, sexuality, etc., but that became warped within these pages. 

Instead, the focus was mainly on assumptions made about Dean (the son of the Republican), and none really went the other way against Dre. This kind of defeats the entire purpose of the message because it clearly leans right. The fact that it leans right is not the problem I have with this book; the problem I have with this book is that it leans one way at all. You can't write a book about the biases that political parties hold while simultaneously holding bias against one party.

Not only was this message twisted, but the book itself was dry. The writing was so incredibly stilted and formal that at no point did I believe I was reading from the perspective of a teenager or just any normal human being...

Every single character was such a huge caricature of whatever stereotype they embodied that it was impossible to focus on the idea that we shouldn't assume things about others. 

The only redeemable qualities of this book are that certain random aspects about Dean and Dre really resonated with me. Dean was very high-strung and anxious, but adamant that that's okay. Dre was very practical most of the time, and I could appreciate that.

Overall, I would not recommend reading this book. Not one moment of it was immersive or felt like a story; it was all clearly just a mode of preaching a message. Not to mention, race was pretty much never even discussed in this book, despite the fact that Dre was Mexican-American. How could you have an entire book discussing politics and never factor in the role that race would play? That in itself should raise a red flag.

Gaby Flores

There might be spoilers ahead (not sure yet since I may keep coming back to edit if a new thought pops into my mind)

I am probably in the minority here where I actually thoroughly enjoyed this book. Does it have its faults? of course. 
Is the ace/demi representation accurate? I don't know as I don't identify as either so I will let someone who is more knowledgeable on it to talk about the representation. 
Is the Mexican American representation accurate? As someone who is Mexican American, it was meh. Dre keeps saying he is proud to be Mexican American (as is his father) but there was nothing I found overly offensive/bad/problematic. Could more research have been done and have included more of a cultural background? Yes. 
Could the author have gone the stereotypical route and made Dre's parents extremely homophobic and fallen under the spell of toxic masculinity? Of course and I appreciate that he didn't because I know from personal experience how UGLY that is to see. (and I would have liked to have seen it come from a queer Mexican American author as well pero ni modo)

Now onto the politics of this book, since this book relied HEAVILY on politics. Whatever your stance on politics, I think this book would be a great one to read in a high school English or Government class and have the students discuss it amongst themselves. I really liked how this book pushed me the reader to think about what I would do if I were in the situation they were in. Could I really be a friend with someone whose parents are so conservative? (spoiler alert I can, it's hard, but I can). Can you really give someone who so strongly disagree with value wise the benefit of the doubt sometimes? (that is a question I've been asking myself a lot lately).

All in all, I appreciate that the author doesn't push one side or the other when it comes to political side. Could the representation have been better? Absolutely. I personally didn't find anything SUPER bad or heinous that deterred me from reading this book in its entirety.

Prachi C

"Dre and Dean have got my vote!"—Adib Khorram, award-winning author of Darius the Great Is Not Okay When Dean Arnault’s mother decided to run for president, it wasn’t a surprise to anyone, least of all her son. But still that doesn’t mean Dean wants to be part of the public spectacle that is the race for the White House—at least not until he meets Dre. The only problem is that Dre Rosario's on the opposition; he’s the son of the Democratic nominee. But as Dean and Dre’s meet-ups on the campaign trail become less left to chance, their friendship quickly becomes a romantic connection unlike any either of the boys have ever known. If it wasn’t hard enough falling in love across the aisle, the political scheming of a shady third-party candidate could cause Dean and Dre’s world to explode around them. It’s a new modern-day, star-crossed romance about what it really means to love your country—and yourself—from the acclaimed author of We Are the Ants and Brave Face, Shaun David Hutchinson.

The State of Us

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