Another week, another book review. This time, it’s for “You Have A Match” by Emma Lord. This YA novel was released in January of 2021, and is a New York Times best-seller as well as a pick for Reese Witherspoon’s book club. Once again, as I mentioned in my review of “Tweet Cute,” Lord is able to write modern characters and dialogue that rarely feel forced or out of touch. It’s a true gift she possesses, and I cannot wait to read what she releases next, as these are her only two novels out at the moment.
“You Have A Match” centers around a high school girl named Abby who takes a DNA test to support her friend Leo, who is adopted, and taking the test in hopes of finding a family member. What Abby doesn’t expect is to find out that she has a fully-biological Instagram-famous older sister named Savannah (affectionately known as Savvy) living in the same area. Abby, not sure what to do with this secret, decides to not ask her parents about her long-lost sister, and instead (with encouragement from her newfound older sister) signs up for the same summer camp that Savvy is going to be a junior counselor at that summer.
What Abby doesn’t realize is that Leo is also going to be at that summer camp, meaning that she needs to confront her more-than-friends feelings for him all the while trying to figure out what happened to make her parents give up Savvy for adoption.
A tale that confronts themes like low self-esteem, comparing oneself to others, skeletons in the closet, bad timing and being betrayed: Lord grounds her writing in the realities of being a young person in the 21st century.
As I did with my review of “The Unhoneymooners” I have curated a playlist that matches the themes of this wonderful novel, and I would love it if you checked it out. Below is a list of the songs but you can also find the playlist on my Spotify.
- “Family Secret” — Bad Moves
- “The Parent Trap” — Annette Funicello, Tommy Sands
- “I Like (the idea of) You” — Tessa Violet
- “Static / Habit” — ADDIE
- “So Sorry” — Feist
- “Love Is A Lonely Thing” — Kings of Convenience, Feist
- “Prom Queen” — Beach Bunny
- “Jealous” — Eyedress
- “Stay Down” — boygenius
- “Spectacular Views” — Rilo Kiley
- “Sunset Lover” — Petit Biscuit
- “Dear Friend,” — Dayglow
- “Tears in the Typing Pool” — Broadcast
- “Selfless” — The Strokes
- “Just the Two of Us” — Grover Washington Jr., Bill Withers
Happy reading and listening,
Caitlin
