“I’m used to people liking me for… what I can do for them. Not for me.”
What’s the story?
“If You’ll Have Me” is a lighthearted look at the early stages of a new relationship and how two souls can become tangled up in each other. Momo is a small person. Not just in stature, but in presentation. She is often quiet when others are loud, avoids being the center of attention, and is shamelessly used by others for academic help and random chores. She’s a people pleaser and falls into the oft-used trope of ‘never been kissed’. PG is a large person. Outside of members of her own family, she towers over other characters. But just like Momo her physical presentation is linked to her personality. She’s known to sleep around, she’s a heartbreaker who doesn’t care what others think. She uses people to get what she wants.
That’s the information we learn about our characters early on, but a lot of the book is about how people perceive you and how those perceptions might be misinformed. Once PG and Momo meet and meet again, we watch the complicated dance of each of them trying to feel out how the other one feels about them. At their core they are the same, both afraid of being hurt and afraid of putting themselves out there at the risk of discovering that the other person doesn’t feel the same way. The biggest message from the book is one that we all have to learn and usually more than once. Just say what you’re thinking. Tell people what you want. Speak up for yourself.
Who do we see?
PG is Vietnamese American and Momo is depicted with brown skin and has heterochromia. Most secondary characters seem to be white with a few background characters drawn in varying skin tones. Outside of PG’s brother men seem to almost not exist. That said, other than one prior partner of PG’s and her aforementioned brother almost no one else is significant and characters mostly exist for the purpose of giving Momo/PG someone to talk to about PG/Momo.
Now, the visuals themselves are another and delightful matter. It’s impossible to go a page without seeing some shade of pink and many scenes have funny faces or cute objects. Large eyes give the characters a Manga-inspired feel. The author/artist also had a lot of fun with the page design of this one. Two-page spreads, standard comic boxes, diagonal cut boxes, characters popping out of the panel for close-ups and so much more litter the pages of this book. I wouldn’t be surprised if the creator tried to keep themself from repeating a single-page layout.
How are the cutes?
🍑🍑🍑🍑🍑
5 out of 5 peaches*. If you approach this book wanting some sort of heart-wrenching romance then you’ll be disappointed. This story is as light, colorful, and tasty as cotton candy. There are fights and misunderstandings along the way, but mostly because there has to be some kind of plot and to get across the point about using your words. It is very clear to me that the creator wanted readers to have a fun time with cute little diversions along the way. Check out another book if you want drama, check out this one if you want to feel that all is right with the world.
*Momo is the Japanese word for peach. The name choice is very intentional and appropriate.
