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Biographical Note:
JACKIE KHALILIEH is a Palestinian Canadian author who believes that young adult readers should have the option and freedom to read about evergreen issues facing teens in an authentic, positive way. Like many autistic women, she received her diagnosis as an adult.
Something More, her debut YA novel, was shortlisted for the Ruth & Sylvia Schwartz Award, as well as the Snow Willow Award and the Amy Mathers Teen Book Award, and was selected for several Best Books of 2023 lists, including the New York Public Library and Audible Canada.
You Started It received a starred review from
SLJ and was a JLG Gold Standard Selection, as well as one of Indigo's Best Teen Books of 2025. She resides just outside Toronto, Canada, with her husband, two daughters, and Samoyed, Pearl.
Review Quotes:
PRAISE FOR Everything Comes Back To You
"Grounded in astute emotional insight, this intelligent work offers a memorable portrayal of first love."
--Publishers Weekly
"Heartbreaking. Healing. Hilarious. This book is everything I want in a coming-of-age novel. Lennon is one of my favorite main characters in recent memory, and reading her journey with her own identity, and each person in her life over four years, was so touching, so entertaining, so rewarding. Taking full ownership of your own future requires courage--a reality Khalilieh masterfully presents here. A thousand stars!"
--JESMEEN KAUR DEO, author of Reasons We Break
"A beautiful and achingly emotional story filled with raw yearning and perfect storytelling that deftly captures so many ways a heart can be broken and healed. I adored getting lost in Lennon's world. Jackie Khalilieh continues to write some of the most genuine, vulnerable, and incredibly loveable autistic characters I've ever read. A perfect read!"
--CG DREWS, NYT bestselling author of Don't Let the Forest In
"A sweet coming-of-age story of falling in love but also falling in love with yourself. The world can feel too big and demanding when you're a teenager and Khalilieh's depiction of what it feels like as an autistic teenager navigating family, love, and dreams is raw and unapologetic."
--ZOULFA KATOUH, bestselling author of As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow
"An exceptionally honest unfolding of teenage girlhood over the course of four years. The particularly nuanced depictions of intimacy and romance that don't shy away from the realities of shame, pressure, and judgment facing young women are standout elements, only elevating the ways in which readers might relate to Lennon's highs and lows with love. Khalilieh has crafted a timeless narrative through this authentic exploration of all the ecstasy, embarrassment, introspection, and messiness that comes with growing up and into oneself."
--RACQUEL MARIE, award-winning author of
Ophelia After All
"With deft prose and a sensitive touch, Khalilieh delves into the weight of parental and cultural expectations, autism, and identity. Lennon's emotional world is beautifully rendered, and it's profoundly rewarding when Lennon finds her truest self. A gorgeous bildungsroman."
--ALENA BRUZAS, award-winning author of Ever Since and To the Bone
Publisher Marketing:
Lennon has always tried to live up to her Palestinian Canadian father's exacting standards, even if her older sister hasn't, but when a crush on an older white boy develops into something more, she must find the strength to balance her own desires against her father's expectations.
I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter meets The Sun Is Also a Star in this new YA novel.
Lennon is excited and apprehensive about starting high school, where her older sister is going to be a senior. Then her sister drops a bombshell: she is pregnant. Her Palestinian Canadian parents are devastated, and Lennon finds herself under even more pressure to be a "good girl" - a role autistic Lennon has always played well. But after a chance encounter with John, a white boy in the grade above, Lennon finds herself nursing a crush on someone her parents would definitely not approve of--which only seems to intrigue her more.
As Lennon and John are drawn together and pulled apart throughout her four years of high school, Lennon wrestles with feelings of shame and yearning, obedience and rebellion through the lens of her autism, trying to both please her parents and herself. When a relationship with a different boy challenges her notions of family and happiness, her way forward becomes clear, even if it might mean losing everything and everyone she loves.
Review Citations:
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Publishers Weekly 06/29/2026 (EAN 9781774884782, Hardcover) - *Starred Review
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