AS LONG AS YOU LOATHE ME

Seventeen-year-old Meera Rao-George has loved her neighbor Sushant for years.

Red-haired head cheerleader Lucy Hughson, Meera’s former best friend, is fully aware of this crush—still, she abruptly ended their friendship and started dating Sushant, leaving Meera heartbroken and confused. But Lucy has her own secret reason for ending their friendship and reinventing herself as the school’s queen bee. Now, with graduation approaching and Sushant planning to leave California to follow Lucy to New York, Meera hatches a Mean Girls–inspired plan to break them up. Meera’s scheme pulls Lucy back into her orbit via a teen book club at Café Kismat, the family business run by her fathers, Appa and Dad. Their renewed contact reopens old wounds and ignites long-buried feelings. Meera, who has dark brown skin and wavy black hair, begins questioning whether her obsession with Sushant was ever really about him. The dual-perspective narration alternates between Meera’s sarcastic voice and Lucy’s vulnerable one, skillfully peeling back layers of resentment, attraction, and regret. The writing is crisp and emotionally immediate, capturing the exhilaration and fear of wanting what you’ve sworn to hate. The cultural representation feels lived-in, from Appa’s South Indian roots (Dad is cued white) to Sushant’s home with its the North Indian influences, enriching the story’s cultural texture. Though the opening chapters rely heavily on interior monologue, the tender, unapologetically queer payoff lands with sincerity and warmth.

Earnest, swoony, and deeply romantic.