Ophelia After All

Product Information

I think it’s a surefire way to guarantee you’ll be going stag,” Linds teases. Sammie and Wesley both visibly stiffen. She clears her throat and bites another carrot. Ophelia Rojas knows what she likes: her best friends, Cuban food, rose-gardening, and boys — way too many boys. Her friends and parents make fun of her endless stream of crushes, but Ophelia is a romantic at heart. She couldn't change, even if she wanted to. Not all change is bad. We may lose some things but we will always gain something better. We cannot stay the same forever. It's okay to be unsure, confused, and scared. What's important is that we will face the change with hope and with a strong attitude. Let's also not forget that there are people rooting for us. Even if we change, those who truly love us will stay by our side no matter what. A sweet and tender ode to love and self-discovery. Racquel Marie's vibrant and insightful prose, and fresh, funny, fearlessly vulnerable characters make for a beautiful debut you won't want to miss. Ophelia After All is utterly lovely."

Huge thank you to Macmillan Children's Publishing Group for providing me with an early copy of my highly anticipated 2022 release, Ophelia After All Originally, my Ophelia was named after Ophelia from Hamlet because I was studying the play in college while first drafting this book. I was going through a difficult time in my life when an anxiety-inducing—but ultimately very fun—experience arose where I had to portray Ophelia during her infamous “mad scene” in front of my whole class. That one presentation had a big impact on me realizing I was capable of doing, and even enjoying, things that terrified me, and at that moment there was nothing more terrifying than exploring the queerness I’d buried away for so long. It felt fitting then to name my character facing the same fears as me after the Shakespearean character who helped me face some of my own. i have already cleared space on my favorites shelf for ophelia. i can’t wait to visit her again. i can’t wait to see her again—to see past me. But then there’s the big fear of change, because if everyone knows her as such, what happens when she admits a part of her has changed? How does she come to terms with the change in herself? Will the people around her still find her to be the Ophelia they knew, or thought they knew?I loved Ophelia's growth throughout the novel. Her journey reminded me a lot of my own experiences, so it was heartwarming to see her embracing herself little by little. Raquel does an exceptional job making her main character reliable while at the same time keeping her realistic. Ophelia After All is perhaps the most unique, and DEFINITELY the best young adult novel I've ever read. A joy to read from start to finish, Racquel Marie captures a sweet, lovable and unique cast of characters that felt so realistic to me I was longing to join their group. It takes a LOT to make me feel the same way I felt while reading Red White and Royal Blue (which is my favorite novel in terms of character writing) but this novel 1000% did that. Sammie was my favorite next to Ophelia, he was also relatable. He's also funny, cute, and awesome. Ophelia and Sammie are platonic soulmates, I adore their friendship a lot! Ophelia has a large and loud friend group, but the relationships aren’t all equally shared. Not only did this feel very real to me, because it’s hard to imagine a homogenously friendly group that size, but it deepened each of those characters because every relationship with Ophelia was individual, and impacted the group differently. It created a lot of tension and opportunity for ripple effects in that tension, which really made the big moments in the book even bigger. It's also a love letter to those who are queer and those who are still figuring it out. That it's okay to not have it all figured out, that it's okay to simply be.

At the core, Ophelia After All centers around prom. But what leads up to it is a mix of merging friend groups, a love triangle and the conversations surrounding the different places these characters will be quite soon. The tide of change that hits these group of friends and their fallouts with Ophelia at the center never feels overdone or some event just to further the plot in a contemporary novel. A teen girl navigates friendship drama, the end of high school, and discovering her queerness in Ophelia After All, a hilarious and heartfelt contemporary YA debut by author Racquel Marie. Despite my mixed feelings, I liked Ophelia After All more than not. It has its flaws sure and the tone was a bit juvenile and moralistic at times but I could tell that the author had good intentions and the story she tells does have heart. Starting 2022 with OPHELIA AFTER ALL as one of the best decisions I have made in a long time. This is a coming of age story that follows Cuban-Irish American teenager Ophelia as she goes through her last few months of high school. As this huge chapter of her life comes to an end, she feels like everything is changing. Including herself. And she feels lost and untethered.While some of the discussions did feel a tad too American for my liking in that they simplified certain issues (i can’t explain but if you know you know), I did enjoy Ophelia reflections of Lacan and the nature of desire. Ophelia After All" was everything and more I imagined it would be. It's an irresistible contemporary YA novel about Ophelia, a teenage girl, dealing with crushes, friendships and the struggles of the last weeks of her high school journey. I loved the way the author handled Ophelia's sexuality crisis. The author shows how it's a messy, non-linear process that doesn't always have stereotypical journeys and outcomes. Ophelia spends a lot of time bonding with and learning the stories of Queer people in & associated with people in her life, which creates a support system many do not have during the questioning phase, which I loved to read. Ophelia After All is my new dearest treasure. Everything about this book is flawless and majestic and utterly beautiful. After erasing words, deleting phrases, and reconstructing sentences, I realized that no term nor name can describe the perfection of this book.

Linds, Zaq, Talia, and Wes. I love all of them!! Especially Wes, his character was such a solace to me. I am so happy to say that, I FOUND MY COMFORT CHARACTERS! Ophelia After All" is a stunningly gorgeous book about discovering who you are, finding your support systems, and learning to be okay with where you are on your own journey. Ophelia's struggle with finding her identity and coming in terms with her newly discovered sexual felt very genuine. All her life, Ophelia has always ‘fallen in love just a little bit every day with someone new’. To all her family and friends, Ophelia has always been ‘boy crazy Ophelia’, but when Ophelia realizes that she has a crush on one of the girls at school, this calls everything she knows about herself into question. Anybody would get frustrated in such situations. So, Ophelia's tantums and burst offs were understandable. The storytelling is so organic and just so real. I loved Ophelia so much; so many of her thoughts will resonate with readers and the emotional journey that we go on with her is truly splendid and satisfying. I love Ophelia so much. She is such a well-written character and I relate to her somehow. At this point, she is my new favorite comfort character.Staying true to its namesake, Ophelia’s story isn’t perfect or linear. There’s anger, vulnerability and its messy but ultimately its about hoping that the foundation she’s built for herself is strong enough to withstand the changes and hardships, its about believing in the relationships she has to guide her through such moments. Ophelia’s interest in botany and gardening forms beautiful imageries for the stages in her story. OPHELIA AFTER ALL is Racquel Marie's debut contemporary novel that follows the perspective of high-school senior, Ophelia Rojas, as she's going through her final years of high school. Ophelia has grown up to be known as the boy-crazy, rose obsessed, Latine girl but things start to change when she finds herself increasingly intrigued by Talia. Suddenly, Ophelia is unsure about herself and what these thoughts mean. What happens if she's no longer the boy-crazy Ophelia that everyone has come to know? What if the changes within her change how others view her? How does she figure out what exactly these feelings mean and accept them for herself? I don't know if I have all of the proper words to describe my feelings. Throughout the book, I was emotional. There were chapters when I was crying, laughing, smiling, cheering, and yelling as I read about the characters. I couldn't help but connect to the characters and good for the best for them. It was like I was reading bits of myself in the characters personality's and my own self/queer discovery. There were moments when I was like "oh I've definitely done that" or "oof." This book had me in tears with the last 25% after watching Ophelia go through the difficult process of discovering who she is and who she can be, watching the characters respond to her, and offer their advice and support. It was difficult at times due to the vulnerability of the story and Ophelia realizing that it will not be an easy journey. She discovers that we are not defined by some parts of ourselves, we can change and others may or may not be okay with that change, the most important part of that is being okay with ourselves changing. Racquel carefully demonstrated Ophelia discovering her queerness in a way that feels unique in comparison to other stories, memorable to readers, and important to those that would need it. I really enjoyed that the Ophelia and Talia didn't get together. in the end. In many other queer romance books, the main character discovers themselves and ends up in a relationship with the love interest at the end. It showed that not all people going through their queer journey immediately falls in love or ends up in a relationship by the end. I also enjoyed the addition of the various races and sexualities. They didn't feel like they were added just to have them there. Instead, it felt like they were supposed to be there. Ophelia and her friends are in their senior year and preoccupied with their futures, but are also consumed by their school’s upcoming prom. Is there any reason why you chose prom to be such a crucial part of the story? everything will be different in a few months. the. what’ll i have, who will i be? this is the one thing that i can control, the one thing that doesn’t have to change.” But the course of love--and sexuality--never did run smooth. As her secrets begin to unravel, Ophelia must make a choice between clinging to the fantasy version of herself she's always imagined or upending everyone's expectations to rediscover who she really is, after all.