What to Say Next

3.01/5 stars “They seem to understand that the world is a big, diverse place, and that different is not the same thing as scary. It's amazing to me how many people mistake the two.” whispers I don't really remember how to write reviews, as I am so out of practice, so I apologize in advance for its suckiness.So you may or may not know, I am currently in the Great Slump of 2k17™ aka the Worst Slump to Ever Exist Ever and reading hasn't really been a priority in my life right now, as much as I wish it would be. But I can see the finish line of this slump in my peripheral vision and I figured that last boost I need to cross it is to stop watching reruns of Teen Mom 2 and type up some half-assed review and hope for the best. So here we are. I miss writing reviews very much. I miss everyone who would read my reviews and lie to me telling me they are okay. Also, if any of you are caught up on Teen Mom 2, hmu and let's discuss everythingNow, my friend Scrill has somehow stuck with me through this slump pit hole and still talks to me on a somewhat daily basis I know, she's insane and told me about this book. She also bribed me with a reread of [b:Six of Crows 23437156 Six of Crows (Six of Crows, #1) Leigh Bardugo https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1500689111s/23437156.jpg 42077459] and a map of the Grishaverse that still hasn't made it's way to me... So I drugged the Slump during one of those rare moments when it wasn't tormenting me and actually sat down to read for once. And I finished it! Me! I finished a book!Me @ my slump: But enough about me. I know none of you are even here for that. Let's talk about What to Say Next shall we? The Part Where I Finally Talk About the Book Also the part of the review where I have writer's block. How does one write about a book? I don't remember.Have any of you ever read a high school contemporary before? Anyone? I mean, if you are on this website, I doubt it. Nobody here reads. Well, with high school contemporaries, there always see to be a nice recipe authors use to churn them out:• 2 cups of attractive 17-year olds. • A dash of parent death• A teaspoon of “Are we friends? Are we more?”• 3/4th tablespoon of antagonistic popular teenagers• A pinch of social outcastThere are other ingredients too, but those are some of the prominent ones found inside of this book. Now, if you are to one day cook up your very own high school contemporary, you don't want to follow the recipe too closely. Experimentation and creativity can help create something truly unique and well written. And, while this book did follow that recipe, it also strayed from the norm and create something quite beautiful. I did have my problems with it, as I do most book except SoC, hence the three stars, in the end, I truly did enjoy What to Say Next.Now, if I didn't have any self-control, I would probably end the review here. Like look! I have something written! Isn't that enough after four months? But I won't do that to you. And also, I have gifs that I have been sitting on for months and I wanna find a way to sneak them into this review.So I guess we can talk about the plot? If you haven't read this book, the plot might be useful to you I guess.The Plot.What to Say Next is about Kit and David, two teens that are on opposite sides of the social/popularity scale. Kit is the pretty girl with the supportive group of friends and an overachiever attitude. David, on the other hand, is on the Autism spectrum—he has what used to be known as Asperger's—and is very content being by himself. Things change after Kit's father dies in a car accident. Kit, in her grief, struggles to be near her friends and decides to sit at David's table during lunch. From this, a friendship forms. Wow. That summary. I know. I know. Give me a break, I'm a little rusty. This book was more than the friendship though. It was a book about grief and accepting differences. I was concerned going into it that there wouldn't be that much that would happen thoughout it, but I was quickly proven wrong. There were way to many scenes that had me like:Which I quite like in books. I want all the #ohShit moments that I can get. Is that enough summary? I hope so. Let's move on. Characters. Kit. I liked Kit. I really did. Except, I'm sitting here, trying to remember everything about her and I'm struggling. But that isn't a bad thing. The purpose of her character wasn't for us, the readers, to know everything about her, but instead to see how she navigates life after the death of her father. Her actions are more prominent to me then her personality. Like any reader, I've read many books where MC's parent died unexpectedly, but it's been awhile since I've read a book where I felt like the MC's emotional state was accurate. If my father was to die, I think I'd be acting the exact same way that Kit did in the beginning of the book. I liked that. It made this book feel real. David. #ProtectDavidDrucker. Now, I don't know a lot about autism. I have cousins who have high functioning autism similar to David's, but they live out of state and I don't know them well enough to even say I have experience with autism. So while it is a big part of David's character, I don't feel comfortable enough to state how accurate his representation was. Besides, it wasn't the only part of his character. He was sweet, funny, and passionate. He was a great friend and a great person. And all the shit he had to go through wasn't deserved at all. David is one of the best characters I've read in awhile. Hands down. So, Emi, If You Liked This Book So Much, Why Three Stars? Well, person, like I said earlier. I had my problems with the book. I think my major problem was the romance. It was in here, because it is a YA contemporary novel and that's what some people seem to want, but I don't think it was necessary. To be honest, I wish it wasn't even a factor in this book. I haven't been in a relationship, obviously, but I assume that they take a lot of time and patience and focus. Neither Kit nor David were at a place in their life where I felt like they were emotionally stable enough to be together. Made in a different book. But I just wanted them, mainly Kit but David too, to put themselves first and focus on healing themselves. Also, a more annoying problem, was the constant talk of being attractive. Sometime in this book, David got one of those magical makeovers that happen in a lot of books where everyone is suddenly like, “Woah, he was a good looking person all along!” and that really grinded my gears. I know many people probably interpreted this a different way, but I felt like this suggested that somehow people that society views as “unattractive” are lesser than those that they view as “attractive” and this isn't the case. At all. No human being is lesser than another. David is great no matter if he has a haircut or not. This book could have definitely done without this element. I'm also one of those people who knows that she should't compare books to one another, but still does it anyways. Especially when the books are by the same author. And I absolutely love [a:Julie Buxbaum 843820 Julie Buxbaum https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1438042196p2/843820.jpg]'s other book, which I usually refer to as the YA Waffle Book, but is actually called [b:Tell Me Three Things 25893582 Tell Me Three Things Julie Buxbaum https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1448596179s/25893582.jpg 43223043] and, to me, this book wasn't as good and that affected effected? the rating. I know it shouldn't. But it did. #SorryNotSorry.To Conclude...Hey look! I actually finished this review! I'm so proud of myself. Don't expect another review anytime soon. In fact, I'll see you in four months for my next review. Anyhow, this book is a great, easy read. You should pick it up if you haven't. Or not. You do you.

3.25 stars ⭐️

first of all, this book is about a girls dad that dies... ok I can relate because my father also died but I don't want to get too sad..... oh ok the main character shares the same name as my dad. So reading this I was constantly being reminded of my dad... not a good thing but it's not the books fault

I guessed the plot twist a page before it was revealed so I feel like a genius rn


The writing is amazing and I can't wait to read more from this author !

The characterization and representation of autism of all time. /s

I'm just going to get right into it- I had so many problems with this book. Way too many problems, problems that shouldn't exist in the first place. Julie Buxbaum has written a very ableist and ignorant portrayal of autism in the form of David Drucker, one of the two main protagonists in What To Say Next. If you have seen my review on Serena Kaylor's ‘Long Story Short', then you know how much I take autistic and neurodivergent portrayals in media seriously as an autistic person. What To Say Next was highly disappointing (and somewhat disturbing), to say the least.

Trigger Warnings Beyond This Point: Discussions of ableism, bullying, discrimination, stalking, racism, reverse racism, mentions of anti-semitism, death, grief, depression. It's going to be very ranty and all-over-the-place. /srs

Some Of The Problems I Had With ‘What To Say Next' As An Autistic Person:

• David tells us in the first chapter that he doesn't believe he is autistic in an ablephobic way... despite portraying multiple of the widest-known stereotypes of autism.
• David/Buxbaum uses labels such as Asperger's and high-functioning, the former of which is rooted in anti-semitism as the doctor who named Asperger's (after himself) was a Nazi and killed autistic people. The fact that it's not in the DSM anymore is acknowledged, and yet the term is still used. The latter is considered ableist and autistic people have been urging for neurotypicals to stop using functioning labels.
• David is a stalker, and he tries to blame it on his neurodivergency and that he's bad with names. He even comments on Kit and her friends' “larger than average breasts” in his notebook.

And everything listed above is all in the first chapter alone.

David forms an unlikely friendship with a semi-popular girl Kit Lowell (the other main protagonist), who is suffering from grief and depression after her dad's passing, and he agrees to help her investigate the car accident that killed him (which is barely addressed afterward). He is bullied throughout the story, notably by two neurotypical classmates named Justin and Gabriel. They call him slurs and go as far as to steal his notebook and post the contents on a site called “The [...] Guide To Mapleview,” leading to further discrimination by his community. Kit must become his neurotypical knight in shining armor to defend him and his honor multiple times, because apparently autistic people need neurotypicals to stand up for us. (How do you decide to write a book about an autistic main character and wind up using him as a plot point to glorify neurotypicals? Like c'mon.) Buxbaum begins to close out this book with revealing that David's guitar teacher is actually a social skills tutor and that his newfound “popularity” is the perfect excuse for him to start masking his autistic traits. Kit and David go to sensory hell a party, they kiss. Everything falls apart again, everything gets solved, the end.

So what is the end-goal message here? That autistic people can defend themselves physically but not verbally unless we have a neurotypical to do it for us? That the “good ending” for autistic people is to mask our autism? This book left such a sour taste in my mouth, then I look at my friends four and five-star reviews of this book and ask myself, “Did we read the same novel?

I wanted to note two quick things; First, that I was uncomfortable with Buxbaum's usage of the r-slur. As she confirms she is not autistic and is in fact an “ally” in her acknowledgments, the word is not hers to reclaim and use even if she is attempting to use it in a sensitive or educational way (which I am not even sure about). Either way, it is extremely disrespectful.

The second thing I wanted to note is Buxbaum writing Kit's Indian grandparents as “racist towards white people.” There is no such thing as reverse racism, period. However, I'm not Indian so I do not believe I am the person to speak any more on the topic.

So I ask, when will neurotypical authors stop portraying us all as Sheldon Cooper? Buxbaum even says in her author's note that “there is a famous expression that when you meet one person with autism, you meet one person with autism” (a statement that is ableist in itself, but that's a whole other topic). However, despite saying this, she proceeds to write David as the most ignorant neurotypical view of autism- highly intelligent and obsessive, seen as weird/outcasted by peers, and tends to be very blunt with his words. While these are traits some autistic people may have, they are also the most commonly-seen traits by neurotypical individuals and used in their portrayals of autism, effectively turning autistic characters into ‘weirdos', ‘creeps' and thus making these the defining characteristics of autism in society's eyes. While I understand Buxbaum trying to say that every autistic person is different, it would've helped if she had made David more than just a one-dimensional view of autism as a whole.

Then, Buxbaum clearly writes that masked autism is the “good ending” of the story. Autistic people have said it before and will say it again- unmasking our autism is the end goal. Not masking, not unmasking and re-masking, just unmasking when you're in a safe place to do so. Buxbaum, as a neurotypical, clearly wrote David's character development as from an autistic boy to a neurotypical-presenting masked autistic boy. It's such a weird way to end your book after campaigning so much for David to be accepted by his peers for who he is.

Despite how much I enjoyed Buxbaum's former novel, ‘Tell Me Three Things', I will likely not be reading any other works by her. In her acknowledgments, she states that she is “still learning [about the autism spectrum and how to be an ally],” and I can only hope that she can recognize her mistakes and decides to learn and grow from them.

TL;DR: This book is proof of why neurotypicals, or “allies” as Buxbaum calls herself, should not write fictional books about autistic or neurodivergent people without proper research and care. And maybe having an actual autistic person read your book before you send it off to publication.