I thought the various representations were great – there’s a particular scene where Laila talks about being uncomfortable with the way her body looks in a tank top, and as a fat girl, I FELT HER SO HARD. I loved the slight fandom element of the book, as well as the inclusion of various scenes from Laila’s work in progress for her creative writing class. She writes, watches a hit TV show called The Rest, and generally eats, drinks and sleeps sci-fi. Laila is a fat, pansexual, Ecuadorian-American girl who is obsessed with science fiction. Trigger warnings: underage drinking, masturbation, drug use, death, sex, major depressive episode Nazarenko has led Laila to believe that she must choose between perfection and sanity-but rejecting her all-powerful mentor may be the only way for Laila to thrive. Soon Laila is pushing herself far from her comfort zone, discovering the psychedelic highs and perilous lows of nightlife, temporary flings, and instability. But before long, Laila grows obsessed with gaining the woman’s approval. But three months before her graduation, he’s suddenly replaced-by Nadiya Nazarenko, a Pulitzer Prize–winning novelist who is sadistically critical and perpetually unimpressed.Īt first, Nazarenko’s eccentric assignments seem absurd. Her creative writing teacher has always told her she has a special talent. The only sort of risk 18-year-old Laila Piedra enjoys is the peril she writes for the characters in her stories: epic sci-fi worlds full of quests, forbidden love, and robots. I received Final Draft by Riley Redgate via Netgalley from the publisher.