🎭 Rumi - Biracial MC, questioning aromatic asexual. Especially if that box is their close-minded idea of fucking normal.' Those labels exist for you, and not so that everyone else can try to force you into a box. You can change your mind, or not change your mind. 'Your sexuality - and how you identify - is nobody else's business.

The writing style,plot, character development made for the embodiment of Rumi’s emotions, everything was rightly curated.The writing was beautiful and lyrical, flowing from page to my heart. It's poignant, inspiring, destructive and everything you can demand from a y/a book.

It's a heavy novel, full of anger, grief and raw pain for someone like me who have dealt with such kind of loss. Watanabe, Rumi starts to find her way back to herself. With the help of her aunt’s love and support and the help of the boy next door, Kai, and an elderly neighbor, Mr. She couldn't write and play the music that once played a central role in her life. Rumi struggles to function after the loss of her sister. Summer Bird Blue is about Rumi, who goes to live with her aunt in Hawaii, in order to give her mom the space and time she needs to process the death of Rumi’s younger sister, Lea. But it's a monster that can be conquered, with time.” “Grief is a monster - not everyone gets out alive, and those who do might only survive in pieces. But it makes a far more interesting book because she doesn't! I hope more authors can follow suit in exploring the struggles faced by aro-ace people, and I hope publishers will continue to be more willing to publish books about the intricacies and struggles of lesser-understood queer identities like this. I deeply admire and respect Akemi for making this choice, because it would have been SO easy to let Rumi end up in a relationship with Kai. It didn't feel contrived at all, it felt incredibly normal and valid. She made me feel strongly seen in a way I don't think I've ever felt before in a book, and NORMAL too. Much of Rumi's journey in SUMMER BIRD BLUE explores her discovering and accepting her aro-ace identity, and she does NOT end up in a relationship by the end. The stand-out element of this book for me was the aro-ace representation in Rumi, the likes of which I have never seen before (the only ace rep I've found in contemporary YA has tended to be romantic ace, and said character always ends up in a relationship).

This book has solidly secured Akemi as one of my favourite contemporary YA authors - I will read anything Akemi Dawn Bowman writes. Raw, real, and deeply hopeful, SUMMER BIRD BLUE follows Rumi Seto on her path to healing in idyllic Hawaii with the help of a grumpy old man and a bubbly new friend.

Summer bird blue akemi dawn bowman