I have read several books by the author before, but never for this age range. I must say that, despite not being the target audience, I really enjoyed this story. There are quite a few expletives in, so it is probably aimed at late teens, but it’s still an enjoyable read. Jesse’s books are always filled with strong women facing hard situations, and this book is no exception. Our heroine moves from an environment where she’s queen bee to being cast as the crazy outsider, and bullied by all. The story held my attention throughout, and I will be keeping an eye out for more books by this author

Thank you to Electric Monkey books & NetGalley for gifting this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Kiki is a confident, popular, and strong young woman. But that takes a change when she is forced to transfer schools by her parents. At her new school, she is faced with bullying and sexism that really bring her down. I feel that the author tackled this really sensitively and really did this subject justice.

I felt really emotionally involved with this story and the character Kiki. I unfortunately had to mark this down a star due to getting genuinely frustrated with an issue in the story that could have easily been solved with a little communication between characters.

However, otherwise I really enjoyed this book and I'm very eager to pick up more of the author's work.

Didn’t See That Coming by Jesse Sutanto
I give this book 4 stars

Seventeen-year-old Kiki Siregar is a gamer girl.
Her secret? She plays anonymously and even her online best friend doesn't know her true identity. Which is fine, because Kiki doesn't know his real name either.Then she transfers to an elite private school for her senior year……….

This is a YA contemporary novel,that is set in the same world as Well That Was Unexpected.
I love the Asian setting and this authors readable and witty writing style.While exploring serious topics that would be relatable to the target audiences she hits the perfect balance with occasional humour and a touch of romance.Kiki is a gutsy main character and I thought Liam was sweet.This book packs a lot in…….. changing schools,bullying,sexism,gaming,family and friendships.l wish they’d been books like this when I was a teenager.
With thanks to Netgalley,Jesse Sutanto and Farshore, Electric Monkey for my chance to read and review this book

This is a delightful novel about online friends who end up at the same school, and covers issues of bullying, toxic staff behaviour and how girls end up behaving to carve out a space in the gaming community online. As ever, this is a fantastic book from Jesse Sutanto.

This is a light, fun, humorous YA story that also deals with some heavy topics such as, sexism, bullying, cultural expectations, and moving schools. They are handled well, and could be very helpful for a YA reader going through any of them.

The FMC is confident, smart, well liked, and a serious online gamer. She is harrassed in the gaming world for her gender, so changes her profile name to sound like a boy. That is great for her gaming, but adds complications to her real life. She moves schools and encounters people and situations that are difficult and wrong- but is not taken seriously. I loved how the situations were handled in the end- and light is shed on the increasing problem.

I love her confidence, her feisty attitude, and her non-conformity to social norms. My only complaint is the language- it’s too harsh for my taste, and wouldn’t recommend it to any teens I know. Otherwise, it would be a 4 or 4.5 stars.

Kiki is a rebel and a gamer (and a good one at that). When her parents make her change school, she is devastated. If school were a game, she is right back at Level 1 and has lots of hazards and challenges to face if she is to be as popular as she was at her old school. To make things worse, her best friend online is in her class but because of the harassment she faced on line, he thinks that she is a boy!
As well as being an entertaining read, the book also deals with some tricky subjects: bullying, bias, misogyny and sexism - a great YA read.

'Didn't See That Coming'. I definitely saw that coming. Which was disappointing. I was excited to read this book because it was set in the South East of Asia, and the MC was a gamer. However, I just found this book to be predictable in an unenjoyable way. I wanted to DNF it at 6% initially 😥

The writing was straightforward, as in no flowery words. Love that. Although the writing style was not for me. I didn't like it. Some of the phrases and words used were cringey.

I thought the MC was annoying, I get that the school was stuck up and negatively old fashioned. I just thought she could have chilled a little. Especially on her first day! She was arrogant and frustrating. Xingfa, Jonas, and the principal were mean to her. But there's a smarter way to handle them.

The only thing I like about this book was the cover, the final show, and the gaming parts. Oh, my most favourite was her beating Jonas's butt in the game 😂 It was satisfying. Liam was nice but too...good to be true? The only bad thing about him was that he was a coward at the start. 😅

Overall this book is meh.

Thank you for the opportunity to read this.

Whilst I loved the idea of this book, I didn’t feel like it was executed.
I found the characters a little 2 dimensional and the writing style a little cringe.
That being said, the premise was there, and I think my younger sister would enjoy this a lot more than me.

JESSE SUTANTO HAS DONE IT AGAIN!!!! i am truly obsessed with her. no matter what she writes i WILL devour it. she could write about someone just having breakfast and i’d gobble it up!!!!!

This is my first book from author Jesse Sutanto and it won’t be my last (in fact, since finishing this book I’ve already read another). I think Sutanto writes very well, balancing humour and serious issues well.

I really loved how Sutanto explored the online gaming industry and how it is often a very violent and unsafe space for girls/women. Much of the abuse Sutanto included towards Kiki felt familiar — I started online gaming at a young age and while I mostly hid my identity / played the games muted, I have heard similar things be said (and in real life too, when people discuss games).

I liked how Sutanto explored what life can be like in a private school and the expectations set. I also really enjoyed how Sutanto dug deeper and explored Kiki’s home life.

Overall I did really like this book. It was well written and interesting. There were a few moments where I felt like the pacing was off and things went off the rails a bit (especially towards the ending) in a bid to wrap up the story, and I felt like a few plot lines felt unresolved/could’ve had more to them.

I probably wasn’t the target audience for this book. I am a sixty-year-old woman who does not particularly like romances, doesn’t like gaming, and avoids chiclit like the plague, BUT I loved this book! I was captivated from the start and could not put it down.
The main protagonist is a teenage girl called Kiki, whose parents have made her change schools from her beloved, liberal Mingyang school, where she was popular with staff and pupils, to the ultra-strict Xingfa school, where all the wealthy Chinese in Jakarta send their offspring. Kiki’s first day at school is a disaster – and it gets worse.
Kiki’s main hobby (when not eating cake or texting with her female friends) is playing the online team game Warfront Heroes. She had received a lot of on-line trolling and abuse when she played as a girl, so switched her identity to the male Dudebro10 - end of abuse. Online she has a wonderful friendship with Sourdawg, a gamer boy who likes baking sourdough bread. Sourdawg believes Kiki is male. Kiki believes Sourdawg is in Singapore, so they will never meet. But, then it turns out they are at the same school in Jakarta.
Who on earth could Sourdawg be? Does Kiki have to keep her online identity secret? Can she? And how can Kiki make friends with her classmates at her new school when they have quickly labelled her as #CrazyKiki.
There are some wonderful characters in this book – some loveable (including Kiki), and some entitled, misogynist dirtbags.
The book is a comment on the place of females in Asian society, and the pressure to conform, and for families not to lose face. It also deals with the insidious effects of bullying. At the start of the book, Kiki is a confident, happy, loveable young woman. But, as the bullying increases, she loses much of her confidence and joie-de-vie. Only once she reaches rock bottom, and with the intervention of some of her genuine friends, can she break out of this downward spiral, and fight back – very effectively!
I don’t think this book needs a sequel – the situation with Kiki, Sourdawg and those in her year group has reached a very satisfying conclusion. However, I’d love to see a spin-off series on juniors Eleanor Roosevelt Tanuwijaya and Sarah Jessica Parker Susanti (is it really a surprise that mega-rich parents give their children ridiculous names?) and their bid for world domination (read the book and you will see what I mean).
I really highly recommend this book to everyone. Even if you think it might not be for you given the blurb – try it! You may be very pleasantly surprised.

Thanks to Netgalley and Electric Monkey for a review copy of this novel. Set in Indonesia, this is a delightful teen story about the struggles of being your own person when a culture and peer pressure create an atmosphere that makes it impossible. It’s a novel with real issues like bullying set against a context of contemporary young interests and everyday life like gaming, school projects and just managing to survive a year in a new school. The story is centred around Kiki who in her final her parents send her to a new, strict and one of the highest ranking schools in Jakarta, Indonesia. The decision means she no longer sees her best friend everyday, and is faced with a new group of classmates who are less than welcoming, particularly the school favourite, an obnoxious wealthy guy, Jason, who almost immediately starts to bully her. The class follows, though Liam, the incredibly handsome guy next to her, still makes friendly overtures. Kiki’s only outlet is her gaming, which has long been her favourite pastime, even though bullying there has forced her to play under a male type name. It’s also the place where she’s made a deep connection to Sourdawg, her bff in the gaming world and someone with whom she feels incredibly connected to on a personal level. But when she discovers that Sourdawg attends her school, Kiki is panicked and desperately tries to find out who it is. With increasing pressure from Jason, Kiki’s life becomes increasingly miserable and she finds herself turning into a person she doesn’t like.

A delightful read that deals with some really important issues, on top of a sweet romance and an insight into Indonesian culture, for both teens and adults to enjoy.

The main theme of the book hit really close to home. As someone who also likes to play a lot of online games, I know just how horrible people can be when they’re shielded behind a faceless profile. It was really refreshing to see the main character get some sort of vindication, even if it wasn’t nearly enough for what she (or the other girls at that school) went through. The romance was cute, but there wasn’t too much of it tbh. I still really enjoyed it, I love Jesse Sutano, she’s so funny. I can’t wait for her next book!

I’ll never say no to a book where the characters meet in real life and don’t realise they also know each other under a pseudonym online. It’s the type of plot that always promises drama and I enjoyed watching Kiki’s character battle with her secrets. Kiki may have been very hotheaded and I may have been silently begging her in my head to make slightly better word choices, but I was fighting with her the whole way. She’s an inspirational character facing a whole lot of toxicity from several different angles and her understandable reactions to the bullying and isolation made my heart ache and I have to say this book made me cry several times. She is definitely made from stronger stuff than I am and every time she rallied herself to stand up for herself and fight I couldn’t have been prouder. I would have loved to have seen more of her interactions with Sourdawg in real life as amongst all the other themes in this book it did feel like the romance was neglected.

I received a free copy of this book. All views are my own.

I just love Jessie Sutanto’s writing. It’’s fun and fresh and makes me smile. I was first introduced to her writing via Vera Wong but then decided to explore her books for Young Adults for my school library and I wasn’t disappointed.

Funny and fresh with loads of sass mixed in with Indonesian culture. This book deals with misogyny in both real life and in the on-line gaming world; bullying; and how to cope when it seems everyone hates you.

Kiki is a strong and amazing female protagonist but for me I just adore the Lil’ Aunties

Thank you NetGalley for the E-arc in exchange for an honest review.

Having read and loved The Obsession and The New Girl by Jesse Q Sutanto, I had high hopes for Didn’t See That Coming! I really enjoyed the discussion of how women are treated in the gaming world, both as women competing and how women are portrayed in games (oftentimes sexualised). I really loved how Kiki held herself at the end of the book especially after being treated so horribly.

This is the first book I have read by Jesse Sutanto so I didn’t know what to expect. From the description, I thought this would be a sweet teen romance and it is, but actually this book also tackles some important issues faced by teens the world over.
Kiki’s parents move her to a new school which is more “traditional” than her previous one and she is having trouble making friends and accepting the institutionalized sexism and bullying that is so entrenched in this supposedly elite school. I liked her sense of self and her fierce independence but the moments when she struggled and disliked herself were also something we can all identify with.
She is a keen and skilled online gamer, playing under a user name which suggests she is a boy after receiving threats and harassment whilst playing as a girl. The toxic gaming world of misogyny and bullying is mirrored in her real-life experience at her new school. The relationship with her online gaming friend is a genuine and sustaining friendship and when she discovers her online BFF is at her new school, the road to transferring that online friendship to real life is predictably bumpy.
An enjoyable and thought provoking YA romance.

Jesse Sutanto brings her trademark humour and charm to this young adult story, which has the additional bonus of being set in the relatively unusual world of a female gamer. That is not to say that women don't often love gaming, but simply that their interests are not often represented well in fiction.

The setting of the book is also unusual, and allows for some insights to be shared about various aspects of one particular country's version of Asian culture. Asia is an extremely diverse region, so I would advise against characterizing this as an introduction to "Asian culture" as if it is monolithic, as some reviewers tend to.

Despite taking a light hearted and humorous approach to story telling, and using the familiar friends to lovers trope, the book also offers insights into misogyny, bullying and cultural aspects of understanding (or the lack of it). Not to mention, the widespread sexism prevalent in the world of online gaming.

If you are looking for an intelligent, enjoyable and funny YA Romance, look no further. It gets 3.5 stars from me.

I really enjoyed reading this book. The characters were likeable and you were rooting for them throughout the book.

An easy but thought-provoking YA read with some great humour, especially from the younger characters. The usual YA sassiness but an underlying seriousness tackling online abuse, misogyny, bullying and class differences. I flew through the book and thoroughly enjoyed it plus I learned about Asian traditions, food and their schooling systems. Kiki is a fantastic character and the way she was gaslighted and started to lose her confidence was brilliantly portrayed but lightly done so as not to ruin the flow of the story. Highly recommended.