What If It's Us

What If It's Us

Authors	Becky Albertalli and Adam Silvera
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre	Young adult Romantic comedy
Publisher	HarperTeen, Simon and Schuster
Publication date	October 18, 2018
Media type	Print (hardcover and paperback), e-book, audiobook
Pages	448
ISBN	978-1471176395

What If It's Us is a young adult romantic comedy novel series written by Becky Albertalli and Adam Silvera, published by Simon and Schuster. The series consists of two books: What If It's Us (2019) and Here's To Us (2021).

What If It's Us focuses on Arthur and Ben, two teenage boys who meet each other by chance at a post office and fall for each other. The novel is told in alternating chapters from the point of view of each protagonist. Here's To Us follows Arthur and Ben's chance reunion in New York several years after the ending of the first book.^[1]

What If It's Us marked the first time Albertalli and Silveri collaborated after being friends for many years.

The audiobook is read by American actors Noah Galvin (Arthur) and Froy Gutierrez (Ben).^[2]

Plot summary[]

What If It's Us[]

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Arthur was sent on a coffee run in NYC, when he noticed a cute boy. He follows him into a nearby Post Office and gets to know that he is gay too; and he's mailing back a box of his ex-boyfriend's stuff after their recent breakup. Arthur's heart soars but before they can really talk, they are separated by a flash mob. Upset that he did not get the guy's name, Arthur starts to leave but suddenly finds a ripped piece of the mailing label on the ground and decides to track him down (believing his name to be Hudson). Ben, who was unable to mail the break-up box because it would be too expensive (and maybe because he still hadn't moved on), heads to his best friend Dylan's house to hang out, where Dylan reveals that he has met a barista, that he really likes, named Samantha.

Arthur video chats his friends Ethan and Jessie who are back in Georgia and tells them about the post office incident and they encourage him to post on Craigslist's "missed connections" as a way to find Hudson. When this is unsuccessful, Arthur accepts that he is probably never going to find that boy. But while grabbing lunch with his co-workers Juliet and Namrata, Arthur hears the server call the name Hudson Robinson and his heart skips a beat. He is disappointed when he does not recognize the boy but later guesses that Hudson might be the name of the ex-boyfriend. He looks up Hudson's Instagram and manages to find one picture of the cute boy where he was wearing a shirt with a ‘Dream N Bean’ Coffee logo on it. But unfortunately, he was untagged. In one last-ditch effort, Arthur hangs a poster for a missing person in ‘Dream N Bean’ Coffee.

Meanwhile, Ben struggles with attending summer school because his ex, Hudson, is there. He is also frantically searching for Arthur and asks Dylan and Samantha to help try and track him down. Hoping to see him, Ben drags Dylan along to a Yale meetup group in Central Park but does not find him. Ben's Dad suggests looking on Craigslist but finds nothing as Arthur had deleted the post. Dylan then takes Ben to ‘Dream N Bean’, Samantha's workplace, to cheer him up and Ben finds the poster with his face on it and contacts Arthur via email.

After they finally find each other, Ben and Arthur start dating but keep having "do-over first dates” because they want their official first date to live up to the story of how they found each other. On their third “first date”, they almost kiss but then Arthur asks about Hudson and after finding out that Ben still has the break-up box, he questions whether Ben is as invested in making it work as he is. After a few days of not talking, Ben invites Arthur to karaoke with him, Dylan and Samantha and the date goes really well. Soon, they meet each other's parents at a dinner at Ben's house. Arthur has his first kiss with Ben and the two almost have sex but stop when they realize that Arthur isn't ready. As their relationship progresses, Arthur finds out that Ben is in summer school and Ben admits that he hid it from him because he was scared that future Yale student Arthur would think he was stupid. One day, Arthur attempts to surprise Ben at summer school, but when he finds out that Hudson is there too and that Ben lied about it, he breaks up with him immediately.

Arthur's parents head out of the city on his birthday, which he initially wanted to spend with Ben. After days of radio silence, Arthur receives a panicked call from Ben saying that Dylan was in hospital after having a panic attack and Arthur rushes to the hospital. Ben apologizes for everything and they agree to get back together. Ben forwards Arthur a few chapters of the fantasy novel he is working on, where he has written Arthur into the plot, as a present. Once they find out that Dylan is going to be ok, they return to Arthur's house where he finds Jessie and Ethan, who had flown up to surprise him. They reveal that they have been in a secret relationship for a while and were scared to tell Arthur, who admits to finding it strange but accepts it. Following a late night birthday party, Jessie and Ethan leave and Arthur and Ben have sex for the first time.

When the end of summer arrives, the day that Arthur has to head back to Georgia falls on the same day that Ben has an important exam that will determine whether he needs to repeat his junior year of high school. Early in the morning, Ben leads Arthur on a treasure hunt assisted by his friends, which takes them to all of the significant places that helped form their relationship. At the school, Arthur and Ben decide it is best that they part as friends rather than trying to force a long-distance relationship that will eventually fizzle out and they say a tearful goodbye.^[3]

Characters[]

• Arthur Seuss - A sixteen-year-old boy who is interning at him mom's law firm in New York City over the summer. He is obsessed with Broadway. Arthur was written by Becky Albertalli.
• Benjamin "Ben" Alejo - A half Puerto Rican high schooler who lives in New York and has to go to summer school in order to avoid being held back. He is a writer. Ben was written by Adam Silvera.
• Hudson Robinson - Ben's ex-boyfriend.
• Dylan - Ben's best friend. He is obsessed with coffee and enjoys playing video games with Ben, though Ben describes him as a hopeless romantic who often gets consumed when he is dating someone.
• Samantha - Dylan's love interest.
• Jessie - One of Arthur's best friends from home.
• Ethan - One of Arthur's best friends from home. He mentions that Ethan has been acting weirdly towards him ever since he came out as gay.
• Julie and Namrata - Arthur's friends at the law firm.

Reception[]

What If It's Us[]

What If It's Us received starred reviews from Kirkus Reviews,^[4] Publishers Weekly,^[5] and School Library Journal,^[6] as well as a positive review from Booklist.^[7]

Here's To Us[]

Here's To Us received starred reviews from Kirkus^[11] and Booklist.^[12]

Adaptation[]

In September 2018, Albertalli and Silvera sold the movie rights to the novel to Anonymous Content.^[13] Brian Yorkey was subsequently attached as the screenwriter for the film.^[14]

References[]