Bianca Torre is Afraid of Everything Review

 TW: Mentioning of murder

Whoa! Where do I begin?

Bianca Torre is Afraid of Everything by Justine Pucella Winans is about Bianca, a nonbinary lesbian teenager who has a long list of fears. They spend a lot of their free time either secretly observing and making up stories about their neighbors, watching anime with their best friend Anderson, and birdwatching. But one day, Bianca witnesses something terrible happen to one of their neighbors: a guy they call Mr. Conspiracy. He gets murdered by a mysterious person wearing a bird mask. Bianca, Anderson, and later a girl Bianca has a crush on named Elaine all work together to solve the murder mystery. 

This book got me hooked from page 1! And it might seem a bit odd, because I don't usually vibe with murder mysteries, but this author and this story made it work for me! The mystery part of it was cool. I think what I liked the most was the characters. They were all so likable and so relatable (well, the good guys, definitely not the bad guys!) and I loved their dynamics. I also liked how it handled mental health issues, and how coming out as queer is a continuous process. I also loved all the pop culture references! Bianca and Anderson are huge otakus, and one of their favorite anime series is One Piece, just like me! That's why I put One Piece magnets around the picture of the book above. 

The queer rep is great, too! There's plenty of it in this book. For example, Bianca is nonbinary and lesbian, Anderson's brother named Ronan is a trans man, Elaine is pansexual, and a new friend named Layla is also nonbinary. 

Yeah, it's a pure 5 star book. It's a new favorite of mine. I think this book is very underrated and needs more love.