I am very fortunate to have found myself in whatever the exact opposite of a reading slump is this year. In the sense that I have been obsessed with every book I have consumed so far, and spoiler alert, I’m adding another to the list: This Is Why I Need You by Alecsandra Kakon!

Readers are quickly introduced to a very chaotic group of four friends on a girls’ trip. The friend group is chaotic as a whole, but each girl comes with their own backstory they are trying to navigate while on the trip, and that they eventually need to return home.

This novel truly made me feel every emotion. When I first started, I thought the whole book was going to be light and fun. While those elements were sprinkled throughout (I haven’t laughed out loud while reading a book in a long time), This Is Why I Need You goes much deeper. What starts as a lighter read quickly turns into an eloquent four-person point-of-view story about how individuals can navigate heartbreak, emotional trauma, tough family dynamics, romance, and societal pressures differently.

Kakon’s ability to bring readers into the mind of each character is unlike anything I’ve ever experienced before; it really made me feel connected to each girl. Kakon doesn’t hold back when it comes to characters’ inner monologues. Readers get a very honest and raw look into each of the girls’ feelings and why they’re acting in the ways they do. This reality is one of the main reasons I was so drawn to this novel and so sad when I finished reading it.

I also appreciated the emotional maturity throughout. Naturally, like in real life, the characters are stubborn sometimes, but their reasons for being so are eventually revealed to be very understandable. Overall, the characters’ ability to learn from their mistakes, try to correct their errors while thinking about longterm consequences was a breath of fresh air I haven’t run into too often in literature.

From ECW Press:

“A messy, addictive story of friendship, betrayal, and the people you can’t outrun.

Zinnia, Fay, Kiara, and Valentina have one rule since high school: the annual girls’ trip is non-negotiable. No matter how much their lives change, they show up for each other.

But this year, the cracks in their friendship are threatening to break them apart.

What begins as a sun-soaked reunion quickly turns claustrophobic. Beneath the shared memories and inside jokes, something more dangerous is finally exposed: they may not actually know each other anymore.

For Zinnia and Fay, what’s been buried for years can’t stay hidden forever. For Kiara and Valentina, the pressure of holding everything together is starting to break them open in different directions. And as jealousy, secrets, and emotional fallout build, the group is forced into a question none of them want to answer:

When friendships survive on history alone… what happens when history isn’t enough?

Set against a high-tension girls’ trip that spirals out of control, This Is Why I Need You is a sharply observed, character-driven novel about long-term friendship, shifting identity, and the fragile line between love and resentment—where the people you know best might be the ones you’ve misunderstood all along.”

Thank you to ECW Press for sending me a digital copy of this novel.

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