ARC Review: Ophelia After All by Racquel Marie

Ophelia Rojas knows what she likes: her best friends, Cuban food, rose-gardening, and boys – way too many boys. Her friends and parents make fun of her endless stream of crushes, but Ophelia is a romantic at heart. She couldn’t change, even if she wanted to.

So when she finds herself thinking more about cute, quiet Talia Sanchez than the loss of a perfect prom with her ex-boyfriend, seeds of doubt take root in Ophelia’s firm image of herself. Add to that the impending end of high school and the fracturing of her once-solid friend group, and things are spiraling a little out of control. But the course of love–and sexuality–never did run smooth. As her secrets begin to unravel, Ophelia must make a choice between clinging to the fantasy version of herself she’s always imagined or upending everyone’s expectations to rediscover who she really is, after all. 

• Title: Ophelia After All
• Author:  Racquel Marie
• Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
• Publication Date: February 8th, 2022 
• Genre: Contemporary, Coming of Age  
• Source: Digital ARC provided by publisher in exchange for an honest review
• Targeted Age Range: Young Adult 
• Content Warnings: mentions of underage drinking and vaping, topical mentions of sex, cut-off use of a homophobic slur (challenged), condemned homophobia, discussion of anti-Blackness within a mixed race Latine family (challenged) 
• Rating: ★★★★★

Every now and then, I’ll pick up an ARC that I’ve had sitting on my “ARCs on Hand” shelf for a while, and wonder why it took me so long. This is a blanket apology to everyone I promised I’d buddy read Ophelia After All with, and then completely failed to buddy read (Most notably: Amanda, Taylor, Bella, and Anshu, but I’m sure I promised more people I’d buddy read it with and never got around to it). I’ve been excited for Ophelia After All for what feels like forever. After joining Twitter a little over a year ago, Ophelia After All was one of the first books I heard of. I immediately added it to my TBR, and waited until I could get my hands on an ARC. Despite all my excitement for the book, however, I didn’t get around to reading Ophelia until this week. 

Ophelia After All is a story that warms my very heart, and one that spoke to my soul. It’s the definition of a comfort read, and a book that feels like a very warm hug; like your best friend coming over and telling you that it’s all going to be okay. It’s a bit odd, I know, to call a book comforting, when my first text to Taylor after reading it was “oh i Sobbed Sobbed”, but it is. Trust me on this. Ophelia After All is for sure a book that will stay with me for a while. Ophelia After All is many things; it’s comforting, it’s messy, it’s a reminder of what high school was like, it’s a tale of friendship, of self-discovery, and of growth. 

Racquel Marie has crafted the perfect main character in Ophelia. You can’t help but love her. Ophelia is a fully-fleshed out character, who has flaws, and quirks and hobbies. At no point is her entire personality the fact that she likes to garden, or that she has a lot of crushes. Just like all of us in high school, Ophelia is trying to figure out who she is in relation to everyone’s perception of her. When so much of her identity is that she’s “boy-crazy” among her friends and family, (despite being a sweet romantic with a huge heart), it makes it almost impossible to explore her own sexuality. After all, how do you tell the people who know you best that actually, they don’t know this huge part of you? More importantly, how do you tell them, when you don’t know how you identify, or what to make of these feelings? One of my favorite things about Ophelia is that it follows the process of Ophelia trying to figure out what fits right for her, and how she realizes that it’s also okay not to choose a label, whether that’s right now, or ever. I loved the way Ophelia’s sexuality was explored, and how Racquel Marie demonstrates that there isn’t one perfect process. More so, I love that Ophelia doesn’t immediately jump to “I’m bisexual!” or “I’m pansexual”, the minute she realizes that she has a crush on Talia. Sometimes, the process is non-linear, sometimes it’s messy, and you can’t tie it up neatly with a bow.

Ophelia’s close relationship with her parents is something that is so special. It’s rare to read a YA novel where the main character has such an endearing, close relationship with her parents, and it warmed my heart so much. Ophelia’s parents unequivocally support her and love her, and I think that made the story all the more stronger. While they’re not perfect parents, and Ophelia and her parents do get into an argument here and there, they genuinely take the time to understand Ophelia’s point of view. I particularly appreciated that they weren’t used as a plot twist, or villainized at any point. 

Every character in Ophelia After All, whether Ophelia herself, her parents, or her friends, were all so dynamic, and described in such a way that I felt like I knew them myself. Reading about Ophelia’s friend group and support system was really heartwarming. Her friend group was absolutely wonderful. The friendship dynamics were so realistic, and all the problems that occurred within the friend group reminded me eerily of my own high school experiences. In addition to merging friend groups, there’s also prom drama, popularity, love triangles, and knowing that things will change after graduation. All of that obviously culminated in some tension and watching Ophelia and her friends resolve it and move on was so lovely.

Racquel Marie’s writing style is so easy to read. The groundwork for each plot point has already been laid out for you, and I simply flew through the entire book. If you’re looking for a book about self-discovery, questioning identity, and friendship, I can’t recommend Ophelia After All highly enough. I know I’ll be rereading this one again in the near future!

Links for Ophelia After All: Goodreads | TheStoryGraph | Bookshop | IndieBound