Dear Blake

by Alex Nonymous

Dear Blake,

Do you feel like that sometimes? Slightly to the left?

Sarah is confused. But to be fair, who wouldn't be? Right before she's about to enter high school and start the next phase of her life, her best guy friend kisses her and her best girl friend abandons her to chase after boys. She obviously can't talk to either of them about any of that, so she turns to emails instead.

Told entirely through emails, Dear Blake follows Sarah through her first few years of high school as she unpacks fitting in, making friends, growing up, defining herself, and of course, her totally straight not at all confusing rivalry with her ridiculously pretty archnemesis.

Genres: Lesbian, Queer, Young Adult, LGBT, Fiction

290 pages, Unknown Binding

Published October 12, 2022

About the author

Alex is trying to publish 22 sapphic YA books before she turns 22. The only flaw in the plan so far is that they only finished 1 before turning 20...

He uses any pronouns so its incredibly easy to talk about Alex behind her back (just please stop adding me to 'women writers' lists oh my god) and they're still trying to figure out how to present themself as a professional a full year into publishing.

If you want to join their email list for updates on book release dates, early reader copies, and to vote on genre polls to control the next book they write, email them at alexnonymouswrites@gmail.com to let her know!

Alex also writes books for queer teenagers and recognizes that a lot of the people who need those kinds of stories the most can't safely be purchasing them, fill out this form for free discrete ecopies of anything he's written! https://forms.gle/ZSAoMh59oLVjz97F8

Reviews

[Jake Callum · Rating 5 out of 5]

I want to be able to belong to myself while also fitting in.

I can not begin to describe how much I enjoyed this book. God knows I love everything Alex writes that I read so far, but jesus christ this has to be my favourite.

I kept sending my favourite quotes to my friends, I annotated so much, I swear I recommended it to anyone who was willing to listen before I even finished reading it.

I loved the main character so much, everything they felt and said felt so realistic and relatable to me, and the reveal of who Blake is- chef's kisses. That's all I have to say.

This is also me formally asking Alex if they're comfortable with fics being written about his books because I have so many ideas for fics about Nole because I just love him so much and he's so amazing and from some reason he became one of my all time favourite characters so quickly.

Unrelated to the writing itself but I fucking love this cover


Edit: I realised I forgot to mention how autistic I think the main character is, but they're so autistic

[Alex Nonymous · Rating 5 out of 5]

EARLY COPIES ARE OUT WOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOO



Update: (September 13, 2022): The MC is such a bitchhhhhhhh (they're also 14 for a lot of the parts they're busy being bitch during and I'm the one writing them so I could definitely not do that, but I still wanna complain)

Update (July 1, 2022): wayyy too early to start writing but my biggest fear is capturing 13-15 yr old writing voice for the beginning of the thing (I think most of its gonna take place when Emily's on the older end of HS because I'm comfier writing that but ik I want to story to start on the last day of eight grade). Pro-tip is not to be like "oh why don't I read my own diaries!" if you were a closeted preteen with depression. Burn them. Burn them all. (On the plus side I'm learning half-baked metaphors and faux deepness is definitely an eighth grade vibe. I have a canonical excuse to be purple-prosey as heck in those sections).

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[Eva B.]

FINALLY STOPPED PROCRASTINATING AND ORDERED ONE OF MY FRIEND'S BOOKS WHOOO!!!

[Matija · Rating 5 out of 5]

I took the test to see which book I'd like the best and I was left with "Dear Blake". The book was absolutely everything!
I never understood why it was written in email format and I'm glad it was addressed in the end, and the reason made me all giddy on the inside because holy shit that was so cute.
I'm not very good with words but I assure you I loved *every last bit* of the book and I'd read it a hundred times again. Usually there are bits I don't like in books or wished they had gone differently but I genuinely cannot complain about a singular interaction between the characters in this universe.
Nole was such a nice piece of rep i absolutely loved him.
As it was mentioned in the book identities are most often portrayed as something scary/painful/dreadful so it truly was refreshing to read something so easygoing where all the puzzle pieces just fit in so nicely, but also having Madison portray how scary it can be, I loved it. I loved it as much as Blake loved Madison.
I hope there's a sequel, and if not, I'm sure I will find another book to read that will satisfy just as much.

[Leah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful

I have no words other than to say this is a beautiful, beautiful novel and that when I finished it I cried a little (a good cry).

[Alaina Kelley · Rating 5 out of 5]

The most heartbreaking AND heartwarming coming of age tale. I loved it the whole way through, but THAT PLOT TWIST!! I need approximately one million more pages of these characters, please and thank you.

[❁Zeynep❁ · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.25/5
Thanks to the author Alex Nonymous for providing me with an early reader copy of this book.

This truly felt like watching a 2010s Disney Channel movie. All the topics of trying to fit in, friend groups, friendship dynamics, growing apart, trying to adapt to new social situations, second chances, trying to find yourself, and bullying were very well told in the story.

The whole story being told through emails was so fun and exciting. I've been waiting for this choice for some time.

I wish there were more moments with Blake and Madison as a couple

Additionally, I would like it to have more clues along the way about Blake's identity. Especially at the beginning, I was confused about who is this person we are sharing our lives with in great detail. I know trying to find it's not the main focus of the book but I think some more clues (or perhaps misleading tips) would be kind of fun.

Overall it was a very good read, definitely would recommend 💯💯

[Ellery · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book resonated with my own experiences super well. It is a beautiful coming of age and self exploration story. The characters felt realistic, but managed to avoid being frustrating teenagers. The writing story (told as emails) helps the story instead of hinders it. I haven’t cried this much over a book in a while. Not because it was sad, but because I felt seen.

[nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you, Alex, for giving me an early copy for free to read!!

I will say I was a little disappointed only because I felt this was so short!! I definitely wanted there to be a bit more, but I'm greedy when it comes to Alex's storylines and characters anyway

Dear Blake is told through email correspondence from Sarah to, obviously, Blake but who isn’t immediately introduced. So at first, I was confused and it bothered me at the beginning because I was itching to know who Blake was because I’m also incredibly impatient to see what kind of plot twists Alex will take us through with each book. But in the end, I really liked how it was played out, how we get to meet Blake

Non-traditional formats and the use of (social) media in telling a story is one of my guilty-pleasure, so I was really excited to see how this one would turn out when the genre was announced and the synopsis finally posted. I think it worked really well for Sarah’s story, I just really wish Dear Blake was a bit longer because it did feel a bit rushed in the end, and I also wanted to see some more of Sarah’s friends fleshed out a bit more

I also really liked Sarah. Sarah feels like a realistic character with realistic flaws and thoughts and desires and concerns. She’s young and obviously flawed, but we get to see her growth over the course of her email correspondence with Blake, which I really enjoyed seeing unfold. I also loved seeing her relationships change and flourish. I also related to Sarah quite a bit when she got truly introspective, not just about her friendships but in regards to mental health too. It honestly hurt me a little bit only because the thought process and feelings were so familiar to me, but that’s how realistic and natural the elements of Dear Blake was for me

My personal rating is a 3.75 rounded up to a 4 on Goodreads' scale — it's such a good read, I just wish there was more!

[Ollie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really love this book. It captures the feeling of being a teenager and figuring out who you are and the giddy first crush/relationship feeling, and as a teenager who is in that part of my life right now, i feel really seen. In all of Alex's books that ive read, i have been able to find a piece of myself in their characters that i dont really see in most media (one of the many many reasons i love his books) Most of the time thats been some part of my experience as a queer, autistic person, but with dear blake some of those moments felt... bigger? I really relate to the feeling of doubting yourself for not feeling queer in the way you think youre supposed to, especially with gender stuff (for me at least) that Blake describes. I also really connected to the kind of disconnect from people and feeling like the way you are is somehow just fundamentally wrong (or "slightly to the left"). And of course the giddiness of first relationships and stuff like that. The way that Alex describes and captures all of these feelings is so amazing and this book is just incredible. Im so glad that i get to see myself represented like this. Sorry this is so rambly, i just finished the book and really wanted to say how much i like it.

[libby🧣 · Rating 4 out of 5]

**4.5 This book looked inside of my brain and scraped the thoughts from my meninge like a pumpkin. It was PAINFULLY relatable. The narrative style was so unique, and I think it was perfect for this story and how we find out who Blake is at the end because it gives what could have been a plot-lacking book a sense of direction. You can see from the get-go that the MC is EXTREMELY flawed but somehow, we still like them anyway. The addition of the MC 'floating away' and 'being blurry' made this book extremely relatable for me and the comp het was a little TOO accurate. My one criticism is that I think the end felt a little rushed and the MC's coming out was very quick. I think the book could have been a little longer and this could have been fleshed out more. Overall, well done Alex I think this is your best one yet imo!!

[Blue · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wasn't super into this book for some reason. I do think that the plot concept was really interesting and not something I've personally read before.
~
I don't know if it's because I received a free ebook copy of the book, or because it's been self published, but there were a few occurrences of spelling and grammar issues throughout this book. I'm not saying that to make this book out to be bad, or to say that self publishing is bad either, things like that get missed easily. I'm simply mentioning it because it was something I noticed.
~
Aside from the spelling and grammatical issues I came across, it was a good book, but not something that'll stand out to me unfortunately. I don't regret reading it, I had a good time, but yeah.
•
Thank you to author Alex Nonymous for sending me an ebook copy of this book.

[ana grace]

Thanks to the author for providing me with an early copy of this book!

I was in an inescapable reading slump when I started Dear Blake, but I ended up flying through the story. Told in a series of emails documenting protagonist Sarah's journey through high school, it was an engaging and uniquely formatted novel. While I sometimes became frustrated reading from the perspective of a younger teen, I also deeply related to the main character, which made the story even more powerful. If you're looking for a fast-paced, emotional story with an unconventional format, I would highly recommend Dear Blake!

[Mars · Rating 4 out of 5]

When reading this novel, I put it down about halfway through and thought I would never pick it up again. However, I gave it another chance recently, and I am glad that I did. I was originally very confused as to why there were no email responses until I got to the end of the novel. The ending was not one I would have expected, but I loved it. Everything was really pulled together at that last moment. I would definitely read more novels from this author. It seems like they have great stories to tell.

[Martina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Now that, simply put, was a wonderful read. I haven't read many books that use the same narrative style as this one but I absolutely loved how the author made use of it and how it even played its own important role in the story itself. It makes me happy to get to read a coming of age story that includes lgbt representation. The writing is great and really immerses you in the story.

[Lara H · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book! The narration being in emails made it so easy to read and it was different that what I'm used to so it was nice. I related so much to the emotions in this book and its kind of helped me understand my thoughts as I am questioning my identity. I highly recommend this book, its amazing!!

[Tina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh my gosh first of all the email format had me hooked I love that format, second of all I kept thinking when am I going to get Blake’s replies? BLAKE IS SARAH!! Ahhh that end revelation is crazy. And I love the way Sarah/Blake and Madison’s relationship changed throughout the story. Amazing read!

[★ Elle ★ · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 ★
I LOVED THIS BOOK !!
It was so good and so so so cute and the end was incredible, I fully recommend !!

[Alise · Rating 5 out of 5]

i loved it so much!!! i loved the characters and seeing them grow and change and i really loved the way it was written, will definitely be recommending it!!

[Connor · Rating 5 out of 5]

amazing

This was such a good book! I didn’t expect the twist at all but it makes sense and was done so well

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Chelsea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you so much to the author for providing me with an early readers copy! I once again enjoyed Alex’s book. I loved the format of this one, it was so unique and helped to engage me right away. I think the main character was well-developed and learned from their mistakes nicely. Also that ending was my favourite! Was not expecting it at all and everything wrapped up beautifully

[Nat Burgess · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was so good and highly relatable! i love the rep of a person who didn’t realize they were queer until high school