Forward March, by Skye Quinlan, follows Harper McKinley, the daughter of the principle of her boarding school and a Republican senator who is running for president. When Margot Blanchard, another girl in band, tells her at the start of the school year that somebody has been impersonating Harper on Tinder and that Margot had been sexting with her, Harper is forced to face the question of who, if anybody, she’s attracted to. As the two grow closer, and Harper’s friends turn on her, she finds herself torn between her parents’ agendas for her and her own.

I liked Harper as a character, but she was kind of bland. She’s very passionate about band, which I appreciated; she talks a lot about how it’s the only thing that she’s ever chosen for herself, which helps to tie in that part of the narrative with the wider political and sexuality narratives. I will say that she surprised me in the ways that she is willing to stand up for herself, showing more backbone than she appears to have at first glance.

One thing that I did really enjoy was the asexuality rep, particularly since I didn’t know about it going in. As a demisexual person, I found Harper’s struggle with that aspect of her identity to be very relatable and well-written. It’s been a year or two since I’ve red such good ace representation. While the wlw rep was also good, the ace rep was what really stood out to me about the book, and is definitely its saving grace.

All of the secondary characters are really only okay, Margot, the love interest, did absolutely nothing for me other than being significantly better than all of Harper’s friends, who were complete jerks. Their romance was somewhat cute, but nothing extraordinary, and I really didn’t find myself caring much one way or the other whether they got together. I did really appreciate her for how kind and considerate and supportive she always is with Harper, which is especially important in comparison with every other character’s treatment of the protagonist.

Harper’s friends are all horrible. Nadia, her best friend and roommate since they were 7 (who sends their kids to boarding school at 7?), was particularly bad, but her other friends were awful as well. One thing that I didn’t understand was the fact that one of Harper’s friends, Evelyn, is the daughter of another presidential candidate who is openly rude to Harper about her dad’s campaign, and yet they still seem to be at least relatively close. It felt very odd and contrived.

Honestly, the contrived aspect of that plot point really extends to the entire book. It’s unclear why everything has to be so dramatic; while Harper’s parents are honestly the most interesting characters in the book, it just feels like a bit much that one of them controls Harper’s school and the other is running for president, which influences her life in a number of other ways. The entire presidential campaign part felt a little odd to me, and, while key to the plot, felt strangely in the background for the first half of the book, which feels particularly odd because that seems like it ought to have an impact on almost every aspect of Harper’s life. Regardless, while Harper’s parents aren’t lovable characters by any means, they do feel human, and I enjoyed their scenes more than almost any of the other characters.

The worst thing about the book for me was the ending; without spoiling anything, it definitely has too much of a tone of “you have to forgive people who have hurt you no matter what, or else you’re a bad person,” which just… isn’t a good message, and really rubbed me the wrong way, particularly with the sorts of topics that are depicted in the book.

Overall, I did enjoy Forward March, particularly the ace rep. If you’re just looking for a cute romance or good queer representation, and don’t mind a couple of characters who will anger you or a somewhat-contrived plot, then you should definitely give it a go. I will say that one should look at the trigger warnings before starting, because it does deal with a few topics that I wouldn’t have expected it to that could be an issue for some readers. Overall, I’m giving this book 3/5 stars.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a free eARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.