BEDM: Girl Hearts Girl by Lucy Sutcliffe

It’s time for the first of our reviews for book two in our LGBTQ+ Book Club! If you haven’t been involved up to now, it’s super easy and there’s a long time frame. Girl Hearts Girl by Lucy Sutcliffe is our read for the months of May and June so if you want to read along with us and share your views, please do! You could comment, tweet us or even write your own blog post where you could tag us so we can see what you thought.

Title: Girl Hearts Girl

Author: Lucy Sutcliffe 

Genre: Non-fiction, LGBTQ+

Publisher: Scholastic

Publication Date: 24th June 2016

Pages: 273

Summary: Lucy always knew that her idea of Prince Charming was different to that of other girls…

And then she meets Kaelyn online – and everything starts to make sense. Could her Prince Charming be a girl?

An inspiring and uplifting memoir about falling in love and finding yourself.

Before saying anything about this book, I feel like it’s good to note that I read it in a day. I didn’t plan on this but I had a free Sunday, I was in a very bookish mood and I just kept reading and reading! I planned on taking a few days with it but as it’s so simplistic I didn’t need to take a break with it.

Girl Hearts Girl is autobiographical and is mainly about Sutcliffe’s sexuality and coming to terms with it as well as her relationship with Kaelyn. Sutcliffe is a YouTuber so many who read the book will be fans of her but I went into it knowing next to nothing about her or the book really! Her YouTube channel with Kaelyn only just comes into it at the end of the book as it is more about her sexuality than anything else so if anyone is expecting it to be about that, it isn’t! I think this makes it quite open in regards to audience as you don’t have to be a fan and know of her to read her book.

Not knowing anything about her certainly didn’t affect the way I read the book. The only times I felt a little alienated were a few parts when she mentioned videos they made as I had no idea of what they were. I watched some of their early videos and it fleshed out these parts of the book and gave me better context. It also gave a rare view of what the person is like behind the book, something we don’t often get! It was strange to read about her life then watch parts of it play out but it also made it feel very real.

It’s a very easy read in terms of writing style. The chapters are short and the style is quite informal and clearly aimed at a slightly younger audience. It’s odd because it’s a light read in terms of the fact it’s happy and easy but also there are mentions of homophobia and it is after all about Sutcliffe’s sexuality and coming to terms with that. Because of this, it could probably affect some people more who read it and identify with some of the issues she has faced so just a heads up! The positivity of her story outweighs the negativity though so you do leave feeling very happy (I know they have since split up but it is still a positive story of love and acceptance of sexuality).

Though easy to read in terms of style, I wasn’t a fan of the short chapters. I found them to be much too quick and sometimes it didn’t make sense in terms of the order. It is pretty much chronological, however certain things felt misplaced or a little redundant. The choppiness of it spoiled the flow it had in certain parts which was a bit of a let down when I got into a certain chapter or part of it.

In terms of the story, it was pretty interesting. LGBTQ+ themes lack and honestly it’s nice to read a non-fiction book including these themes. Hearing others share their stories about their identity is always interesting and brilliant because of how liberating it can be. I love reading a good LGBTQ+ fiction book but something about this being a real person’s account was very interesting and different to what I have read before.

We still have a month to read this book for our book club so join in! Or, if you have already read it, let me know your thoughts on it. Sarah’s review will be up sometime next month so we have another view on this to come.