It is my great pleasure to bring you my review for You, Me, and Our Heartstrings by Melissa See as part of the book tour hosted by Colored Pages Book Tours! This is one of the hardest reviews I’ve written, as See has not just written a beautiful book about two disabled people falling in love, she’s included themes and situations that I’ve experienced personally. I’ll tell you more about that in the review below 🙂

I also have a surprise for everyone! I had the fantastic opportunity to interview Melissa See as part of the Book Tour, and you can read the interview here!

You, Me, and Our Heartstrings by Melissa See
Published by Scholastic Inc.
Age Group: Young Adult
Format: Fiction
Genres and Categories: Contemporary Fiction, Chronic Illness, Mental Health, Contemporary Romance, Disabled and Neurodivergent Romance, Disabled and Neurodivergent Authors, LGBTQIA+ Authors, Mental Health Representation, OwnVoices Representation, Musician Characters
My Rating:
Published on: 2nd August 2022
Pages: 320
Disability Representation: Anxiety, Cerebral Palsy, Depression
Buy this Book! Amazon UK / Amazon US / Barnes & Noble / Bookshop.org US / Waterstones
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What if the whole world was watching while you fell in love for the first time?

Daisy and Noah have the same plan: use the holiday concert to land a Julliard audition. But when they're chosen to play a duet for the concert, they worry that their differences will sink their chances.

Noah, a cello prodigy from a long line of musicians, wants to stick to tradition. Daisy, a fiercely independent disabled violinist, is used to fighting for what she wants and likes to take risks. But the two surprise each other when they play. They fall perfectly in tune.

After their performance goes viral, the rest of the country falls for them just as surely as they're falling for each other. But viral fame isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. No one seems to care about their talent or their music at all. People have rewritten their love story into one where Daisy is an inspiration for overcoming her cerebral palsy and Noah is a saint for seeing past it.

Daisy is tired of her disability being the only thing people see about her, and all of the attention sends Noah’s anxiety disorder into high speed. They can see their dream coming closer than it’s ever been before. But is the cost suddenly too high?

This book was provided for free by Colored Pages Book Tours and the publishers in exchange for an honest review. Many thanks to the publisher and the author for the opportunity to read this book!

Content Warnings:

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You, Me and Our Heartstrings tells the story of two teenagers who fall in love after being placed together for a duet. Like all love stories, theirs has a rocky start; they can’t decide on what type of piece to perform for their school’s annual winter holiday concert. The holiday concert is the biggest event of the year when students get to showcase their skills to the public, music conservatory professors and principal conductors. They both know it’s their shot at Juilliard, which makes it even more stressful when they keep butting heads over what to play!

The only thing to do is compromise, and when they eventually do start to practise, they fit together perfectly. A romance begins to blossom, and while their duet had such a difficult start, their performance goes off without a hitch. It’s so good that they end up going viral, and not for all the right reasons.

Because you see, Daisy is disabled; she has cerebral palsy. Instead of focusing on the couple and their skill as musicians, their story is instantly broadcast through an ableist lens. This is just one of many disabled themes that See has expertly written about in You, Me, and Our Heartstrings. The personal experience of a disabled author writing about ableism and inspiration porn hit home hard, and I spent a good chunk of this book crying, especially as I read the social media messages being left about Daisy. For those who aren’t aware, inspiration porn is when disabled people, their lives and actions, are used to make non-disabled people feel good about themselves. Have you ever commented on a video of a disabled person doing something and called it inspiring? That would be you taking part in inspiration porn. Disabled people do not exist to be an inspiration. We’re just living our lives, and if you don’t understand what I’m saying, then I highly recommend reading You, Me, and Our Heartstrings to see the events unfold through Daisy’s eyes.

I felt a connection with Daisy from the very first page when a classmate bullies her and tries to trip her up, events that I’ve also experienced. Throughout the book, she remains determined with her eye on her goal of making it to Juilliard. Like many disabled people, she is adaptable, not necessarily taking things in her stride, but aware that sometimes you have to find another way to get where you want to go. She’s not an unfeeling statue, though, and See does a great job of showing her vulnerabilities as well as her strength. There is a sub-plot with Daisy’s parents that covers an extremely important subject, and while I can’t say more due to spoilers, it was very well handled.

You, Me, and Our Heartstrings is written with dual perspectives, showing not just Daisy’s side of their growing romance and reaction to going viral, but also Noah’s. One of the things I loved the most about this novel is that Noah is also disabled. He has generalised anxiety disorder, and See takes the reader through Noah’s journey of self-acceptance, recognising that he needs help and then to his diagnosis. This is something that is very rarely shown in pop culture outside of medical dramas (where it is heavily dramatised), and it is so important for this to be included in a young adult novel. I have a lot of personal experience with anxiety, and representations of male characters with anxiety are another thing that is in short supply.

Noah’s condition is what is referred to as a hidden or invisible disability; you don’t know someone has the disability unless you see them have an attack or flare up. To the outside world, he appeared to be healthy, while through Noah’s narrative, we can see how much he is struggling. His journey is the most authentic portrayal of mental health I have ever seen. See has clearly taken her own experiences as someone with anxiety (she talked about it in our interview here) and used them to write Noah’s story. The result is phenomenal.

One thing that pop culture always fails to get right when writing disabled characters is that we aren’t alone. Disabled people know each other, and in You, Me, and Our Heartstrings, Daisy has friends who have their own conditions. I’m not going to go into too much detail about this, but it was nice to see her friends come to Noah’s aid when he was struggling. To be able to say “I needed help too” because so many of us do need help, and we shouldn’t be afraid to ask for it.

I could probably ramble on about this book forever! I have so many pages and quotes bookmarked, as so much of You, Me, and Our Heartstrings resonated with me. If you are looking to read a book this Disability Pride month, then this is a great one to start with 🙂

About Melissa See

Melissa See is a disabled author of young adult contemporary romances. She lives in New York, where she works in children’s publishing. When not writing, she can be found reading, baking cookies, or curled up with her cat, most likely watching anime or 90 Day Fiancé. You, Me, and Our Heartstrings is her debut novel.

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Thank you for reading my book review for You, Me, and Our Heartstrings with Melissa See! If you want to learn more about the book and Melissa, then pop over to my interview with her!

I apologise for this review being a bit all over the place. The high pollen and now the heatwave hitting the UK are not great for me, and I’ve had a steady stream of migraines.

Don’t forget to check out the rest of my reviews if you’re looking for some more book recommendations 🙂 You can also now sign up for my newsletter to get an email each month with a list of my new reviews!

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