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by Jackie Khalilieh
Lennon has always tried to live up to her Palestinian Canadian father's exacting standards, even if her older sister hasn't, but when a crush on an older white boy develops into something more, she must find the strength to balance her own desires against her father's expectations.
I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter meets The Sun Is Also a Star in this new YA novel.
Lennon is excited and apprehensive about starting high school, where her older sister is going to be a senior. Then her sister drops a bombshell: she is pregnant. Her Palestinian Canadian parents are devastated, and Lennon finds herself under even more pressure to be a "good girl" – a role autistic Lennon has always played well. But after a chance encounter with John, a white boy in the grade above, Lennon finds herself nursing a crush on someone her parents would definitely not approve of—which only seems to intrigue her more.
As Lennon and John are drawn together and pulled apart throughout her four years of high school, Lennon wrestles with feelings of shame and yearning, obedience and rebellion through the lens of her autism, trying to both please her parents and herself. When a relationship with a different boy challenges her notions of family and happiness, her way forward becomes clear, even if it might mean losing everything and everyone she loves.
"Grounded in astute emotional insight, this intelligent work offers a memorable portrayal of first love." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"An introspective novel with flawed, authentic characters, this high-school tale is a great choice for fans of Osongco's Midnights with You." —Booklist
"Heartbreaking. Healing. Hilarious. This book is everything I want in a coming-of-age novel. Lennon is one of my favorite main characters in recent memory, and reading her journey with her own identity, and each person in her life over four years, was so touching, so entertaining, so rewarding. Taking full ownership of your own future requires courage—a reality Khalilieh masterfully presents here. A thousand stars!" —Jesmeen Kaur Deo, author of Reasons We Break
"A beautiful and achingly emotional story filled with raw yearning and perfect storytelling that deftly captures so many ways a heart can be broken and healed. I adored getting lost in Lennon's world. Jackie Khalilieh continues to write some of the most genuine, vulnerable, and incredibly loveable autistic characters I've ever read. A perfect read!" —CG Drews, New York Times bestselling author of Don't Let the Forest In
This information about Everything Comes Back to You was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Jackie Khalilieh is a Palestinian Canadian author who believes that young adult readers should have the option and freedom to read about evergreen issues facing teens in an authentic, positive way. Like many autistic women, she received her diagnosis as an adult. Something More, her debut YA novel, was shortlisted for the Ruth & Sylvia Schwartz Award, as well as the Snow Willow Award and the Amy Mathers Teen Book Award, and was selected for several Best Books of 2023 lists, including the New York Public Library and Audible Canada. You Started It received a starred review from SLJ and was a JLG Gold Standard Selection, as well as one of Indigo's Best Teen Books of 2025. She resides just outside Toronto, Canada, with her husband, two daughters, and Samoyed, Pearl.
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