Didn't See That Coming by Jesse Q Sutanto

 Pages: 320 

Publisher: Electric Monkey 

Released:  7th of December 2023 

Seventeen-year-old Kiki Siregar is a fabulous gamer girl with confidence to boot. She can’t help but be totally herself… except when she’s online.

Her secret? She plays anonymously as a guy to avoid harassment from other male players. Even her online best friend―a cinnamon roll of a teen boy who plays under the username Sourdawg―doesn’t know her true identity. Which is fine, because Kiki doesn’t know his real name either, and it’s not like they’re ever going to cross paths IRL.

Until she transfers to an elite private school for her senior year and discovers that Sourdawg goes there, too.

But who is he? How will he react when he finds out Kiki’s secret? And what happens when Kiki realizes she’s falling for her online BFF?

What I Have to Say 

Okay first off I want to say I think this is a really great book. It had great characters, a strong plot and a good message of feminism and standing up to bullies. The only reason I'm rating it so low is because it hit really really close to home with me and I found that I didn't enjoy it as much as I wanted to. 

The main bulk of this book is about school trauma and misogyny. It showed a very real situation in a school that had a really toxic environment. It really sheds light on the situation that exists in many Asian schools, where standing out or making waves is punished harshly. I really respect the author for taking a stance on this. 

The friendships in this book were my favourite part. Not only the main friendship between Kiki and Sourdawg, but the female friendships she has before the novel. It really shows a feeling of girls banding together and sticking up for one another. 

I'm really sad that I couldn't enjoy this book because of my own trauma, but I want to emphasise that this is a really good book that everyone should read. 

3.5 stars 

My thanks goes to Electric Monkey and Netgalley for providing me with this gifted copy for review.