I Kissed Shara Wheeler (Book Review)

I have wanted to read Casey McQuiston’s YA debut I Kissed Shara Wheeler since it was announced because they did the near-impossible by winning me over as a romance writer. I liked Red, White, and Royal Blue well enough but it was One Last Stop that really impressed me. Yes, I know I’m in the minority there. It’s a steamy romance novel that nevertheless makes room for a fun time-travel plot and a squad of delightful and delightfully queer side characters that expand the story beyond a single relationship. I am pleased to report that I Kissed Shara Wheeler is as much fun as I expected. 

What’s it about?

Chloe is the only openly queer person at her private Christian Alabama high school, but aside from a few minor dress-code infractions she mostly keeps her head down because she is desperate to win valedictorian. She all but has it in the bag; her only real competition is the headmaster’s daughter and the school’s beautiful golden girl, Shara Wheeler. When Shara kisses Chloe out of the blue and then vanishes—leaving only a series of clues for Chloe, boyfriend Smith, and neighbor-with-a-crush Rory to follow—Chloe funnels all her energy into finding her and brining her back before graduation… because it is no fun to win if it’s only by default.

What’d I think?

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

I Kissed Shara Wheeler is a lot of fun. It’s basically a treasure hunt. Think Paper Towns or 13 Little Blue Envelopes, but gayer. My favorite thing about it is my favorite thing about One Last Stop: the community. Chloe is a great character with her hard edges and carefully cultivated misbehavior, and I liked her romance (it’s a Casey McQuiston novel; of course there’s a romance!), but the best part of this book is the relationships she builds with Smith and Rory over the course of the scavenger hunt. Shara kissed all three of them before vanishing, but aside from that the three don’t obviously have much in common. Smith is the popular, talented quarterback of the football team, Chloe is the scary queer smart girl, and Rory is the school delinquent. Through their connection to Shara and the uncomfortable truth that she kissed them all, they band together across social strata and ultimately rock the conservative school to its core. These three lead characters could easily have fallen into stereotypes, but McQuiston develops them all beautifully, building off the existing archetypes to create three-dimensional characters who feel unique. Do you know how hard it is to make me care about a football player? I loved Smith—he may actually be the most relatable character—and usually I hate the football jocks just out of principle. 

Darius the Great Deserves Better (Book Review)

Darius the Great is Not Okay by Adib Khorram is a fantastic novel. For about a year now, it’s been the standard by which I’ve been judging contemporary YA fiction. So when I found out that it has a newly released sequel, I was excited.

A/⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

What’s it about?

Home from his life-changing trip to Iran, Darius is getting used to the new status quo. Although he’s still the target of some racist and homophobic bullying, things are overall much better: he has mended his previously distant relationship with his father, he regularly videochats with his best friend Sohrab, he is on the varsity soccer team and his teammates have embraced him in a way he’s never experienced before, he’s landed a coveted internship at Rose City Teas, and he has his first ever boyfriend. But this new, improved existence is still not perfect: Laleh is struggling at school, the family has fallen on hard times, Stephen’s depression rears its head, Sohrab goes suddenly radio silent, and Darius’ friendship with his teammate and one-time bully Chip has become very complicated.

What’d I think?

I love Darius. I loved him in his first appearance, and I continue to love him in the second. He’s the sort of character you want to read about and the sort of person you’d want to befriend. Khorram’s character work is extraordinary, and he does a particularly great job of presenting Darius as a three-dimensional character even as he focuses on certain elements of his identity. Darius the Great is Not Okay is primarily about Darius connecting with his heritage: his mother is Persian and his father is white. Because he was never immersed in his mother’s culture, he feels isolated from it and the first novel takes him to his mother’s childhood home to meet her family and explore that long-unexpressed part of himself.

You Should See Me in a Crown (Mini Book Review)

Leah Johnson’s debut novel You Should See Me in a Crown has gotten lots of good hype and I’ve wanted to read it since June but only just managed to get it from the library. It’s every bit as cute as promised.

Report card: B/⭐⭐⭐⭐

What’s it about?

Liz is an excellent student and a talented musician, but—as a Black, queer, shy girl living in Indiana—she’s not your typical Prom queen. Normally, this wouldn’t be an issue, because under normal circumstances Liz wouldn’t care any more about prom court than prom court cares about her, but then a scholarship she was counting on falls through and Liz realizes she only has one option: take advantage of her school’s obsession with Prom, which comes with a hefty scholarship grant.

What did I think?

You Should See Me in a Crown has a lighter, less grounded feeling than I expected. It definitely has a heightened, reality TV short of feel. There’s a social media page for the school that everyone follows obsessively, filled with posts, hashtags, and even gifs of classmates. Liz’s friend Gabi obsessively tracks Liz’s mentions on Campbell Confidential and launches a campaign to give the impression that Liz and a (male) classmate are in a relationship, because it makes Liz trend. Maybe there are insane schools like this, but none of the ones I attended (I was a military brat; I went to several) treated even the most popular students like full-blown celebrities. I can see making memes about each other, but gifs? Shipping tags?

I sometimes have a hard time readjusting my expectations when a book doesn’t match my anticipations at least in broad strokes. I had to rapidly reassess what I thought I was getting into. Once I’d checked my this isn’t how high school works expectations at the door, I enjoyed You Should See Me in a Crown. It’s a little cheesier than my usual taste, but it is a teen romance and there’s a lot to be said for a novel that’s unabashedly upbeat. Because here’s the thing: queer Black girls deserve just as many cheerfully cheesy romances as anyone else, but there aren’t many for them yet.

This is an easy read, and while there are some serious issues lurking in the corners—Liz has to deal occasionally with racism and homophobia, but also with the worry of having a brother with Sickle Cell—but they do mostly stay in the corners, stepping into the main lane only to get beaten back. You Should See Me in a Crown takes place in a fictionalized version of the world where even a regular girl can be a celebrity, but that world doesn’t remove our world’s tragedies or inequities; it makes them surmountable. The cynical part of me doubts—especially now—that a poor, unpopular, Black, queer girl could win a popularity contest in a deeply Red state. I desperately hope I’m wrong, and at the very least I hope that books like You Should See Me in a Crown—which depict a world moving in the right direction—help to prove me wrong.

Everything About You is So Musical

Welcome back to Musical Monday! To the best of my ability, I’m going to try to theme these more. When I first started writing about musicals I did it totally randomly. I’d pick five random shows with nothing in common and slap them onto a post together. Last time I did a Musical Monday I wrote about three shows that were loosely based on historical events, and I like the idea of having them sorted.

This time, the theme is even tighter. These three musicals are all about unpopular high-schoolers making their way up the social ladder in, let’s say, less than ideal ways. Furthermore, none of them are original musicals: two were based on movies, and one on a YA novel.

Mean Girls

Which cast recordings have I heard, and which is my favorite? I think there’s only one… the OBC recording. Update: as of 2024, there’s a movie! I’ve not seen it yet and heard mixed reviews, but still. 

Are there any good YouTube-available clips? Actually, yeah! Mean Girls is pretty good about putting clips on YouTube. There are actual performances of “Sexy” and “Stop” as well as music videos for “World Burn” and “I’d Rather Be Me.” “Apex Predator” has a music video in addition to a live performance on the Today Show. Plus, the cast performed “Where Do You Belong/Meet the Plastics” at the Tony Awards.

What’s it about? It follows the same plot as Tina Fey’s 2004 classic movie. Basically, a new girl who has been homeschooled her whole life goes to a public high school and falls in with the popular clique, realizes how terrible they are, and then brings them down from the inside with the help of a few outsider pals.

What’s so good about it? It’s cute and silly, just like the movie. Mean Girls is not the kind of musical that’s going to change lives or be remembered as a classic, but it’s still fun. The songs are catchy and expand the characters from the original movie, so it’s unsurprising that it is popular with young adults, especially those of us who grew up with the movie.

Update: Having seen the show live (in 2023) it’s now a favorite. The songs are universally catchy and it’s a laugh a minute. I like the original movie a lot, and the musical does a fabulous job of updating it enough that it stands alone as its own thing while still feeling very much like a faithful reinterpretation/love letter to the original. The movie musical is pretty fun, too.

My favorite songs: “World Burn,” “’More is Better,” and “I’d Rather be Me”

---

Be More Chill

Which cast recordings have I heard, and which is my favorite? There are two main ones, one Broadway and one Off-Broadway. I heard the Off-Broadway version first and vastly prefer it. Broadway added a few songs, none of which are worth it, and the characterizations are different from version-to-version (even the ones played by the same actor). I liked all characters better in the Off-Broadway version, but the biggest reason to skip the newer version is that the Squip leans waaay too far into the Keanu Reeves impression. Still, if you’re a Dear Evan Hansen fan you’d probably be interested to hear the Broadway cast, because the insanely cool Jared Kleinman (aka Will Roland) plays Jeremy.

Are there any good YouTube-available clips? A few. That is, there are some good ones but if you know this musical at all you have to cringe a little at a few of the censored lines. It’s not, like, Spring Awakening at the Tonys censorship, but it’s still enough to warrant a shaking of the head. Still, we’ve got “Pitiful Children,” “Two-Player Game,” “More than Survive,” and “Michael in the Bathroom.”

What’s it about? Based on the novel by Ned Vizzini, Be More Chill is about a tragically unpopular high schooler who downloads a supercomputer called a Squip into his brain. The Squip is intended to help him navigate the world in a cooler, chiller way… but it goes about as well as you’d expect.

What’s so good about it? It’s silly fun. This is the rare adaptation that improves its source material 100%. I didn’t care for the book—there’s some sexist, racist, and homophobic stuff in it, which the musical thankfully eliminates and/or outright criticizes—but the musical improves on it drastically, making the characters more sympathetic and the social commentary stronger. The songs are very catchy, and have a kind of electronic sound you don’t often hear in musicals. Seriously, like half of them are major earworms. Be More Chill only made it to Broadway because it went viral with teens and young adults, which actually makes a lot of sense. This is a musical for people for whom technology plays a large role, which means that it probably has a pretty steep generational divide (I have a hard time picturing my grandparents enjoying it, even though they love theatre) that I happen to be on the right side of.

My favorite songs: “Michael in the Bathroom,” “Pitiful Children,” and “The Squip Song”

---

Heathers

Which cast recordings have I heard, and which is my favorite? I think there’s just the one with Barrett Wilbert Weed. I mean, there’s also the soundtrack from that Riverdale episode, but, like, lol.

Update: There’s a professionally filmed version now! It’s on Roku, I think. I have a full review here.

Are there any good YouTube-available clips? Not very many. I found two montages, plus a studio recording of “Candy Store” and a low-key performance of “Seventeen” at Barnes & Noble.

What’s it about? Mean Girls but with more murder. A girl falls in with a group of popular mean girls, which is bad enough, but then her unpopular boyfriend turns out to be a murderous psychopath.

What’s so good about it? This is the weird show that I like but also I don’t. It has some very good songs, but I actually hated watching it because it’s too dark. Like, really dark. There are a couple of shows that have compelling music but are too graphically violent for me to enjoy actually watching (Sweeney Todd and Little Shop of Horrors are also in this very specific category) and Heathers is one of them. So, yeah. Great songs. I loved to listen to this one and then I read the Wikipedia synopsis and went yikes. I’ll watch any musical proshot I can, even if the wiki made me say yikes, and I have to say… my opinion has not changed. This is absolutely a ‘music only’ one for me.

My favorite songs: “Candy Store,” “Freeze Your Brain,” and “Dead Girl Walking”

---

gif credits here, here, and here

Yes No Maybe So (Book Review)

Because Becky Albertalli is one of my favorite authors, I knew I was going to read Yes No Maybe So as soon as I could (which was unfortunately not as soon as I got it, because of book club and a few other reading obligations). I’d never read anything by her cowriter Aisha Saeed before, but I’ll probably look into her other work in the future when by TBR pile is smaller, since I really enjoyed Yes No Maybe So.

What’s it about?

Neither Jamie nor Maya really wanted to be involved in a local election. Jamie is too anxious to talk to strangers, and Maya is distracted by her parents’ separation and her best friend’s sudden lack of time for her. They both get roped in, however, and become a team. The longer they canvass together, the more important their relationship and the canvassing itself become. In addition to forming a close connection, they also begin to realize how vital this election really is: a racist bill that would target Muslim women like Maya and her mother is introduced and anti-Semitic plagiarism starts appearing around town.

What’d I think?

Yes No Maybe So looks like a romance from the outside (which is adorable). Lots of romances have similar covers–I think that’s why I get roped into so many–and the synopsis is certainly formatted like one. As I’ve mentioned before, I don’t especially like romances, and the last book I read was an especially frustrating one. That said, there are some writers who can make me care about romances. I’ve read all of Becky Albertalli’s books, and she does an excellent job of fleshing out her stories beyond their central relationships while managing to keep her central relationships endearing and shippable. While Jamie and Maya falling in love is arguably the main plotline of Yes No Mabye So, they both have full and rich lives beyond each other, to the point that both of them could anchor their own novels without much extra content. Romance is an element in this novel; it is not the novel.

I particularly loved Maya’s half of the book. Her best friend is moving away to college and suddenly doesn’t have time for her. Her parents are separating. She is a person who had a very solid foundation of friends and family and all of a sudden doesn’t. Throughout the novel, her relationships shift. She’s terrified of change, but has to make the best of everything changing around her, and she does it with aplomb. With a little prompting she reaches out to old acquaintances and new friends. She involves herself in an important election even though she’s too young to vote in it and comes across racist abuse from the opposition. She’s strong and vulnerable and smart, and I love everything about her.

Jamie’s pretty good, too. His relationship with his little sister is sweet and the way he confronts his anxieties to help the people and the causes he cares about it laudable. He has none of the sexist machismo that so many romance heroes suffer from. So often I read novels where smart, talented women fall for guys who are handsome jerks who disguise their possessiveness with “chivalry” or “masculinity.” It’s nice to find a romance that lets both its leads be legitimately kind, good people.

The political tilt of the novel is really well done. It takes a strong, unapologetic tone. It doesn’t flinch away from the realities of today’s political climate, and somehow it manages to instill in the reader a strong feeling of democratic fervor without feeling like it’s main point is to be propaganda. I was already going to vote, but Yes No Maybe So is a kick in the pants to learn more, listen more, and advocate more. If you want the world to change, why aren’t you doing your part to change it? So many YA novels are about teens changing the world, but it’s not usually our world. It’s Panem, or the Wizarding World, or an alternate universe, or a dystopian land that might have been our world once but hasn’t been in a while. Maya and Jamie live in our world now, and are working to change it. They’re normal kids in the normal world, and if they can do it… why can’t all of us?

Yes No Maybe So is just what I hoped it would be. It’s a cute romance, but it’s also a call to action, a story about families, a story about religious freedom, and also—weirdly—an advertisement for Target all wrapped up in one. Becky Albertalli was already on my must-read list, but I’m going to go ahead and add Aisha Saeed as well, because Yes No Maybe So is the kind of book that can expand your outlook while still telling a sweet, enjoyable story. This is definitely one to check out, especially if you’re worried about the world’s climate today or if you really liked Red, White, and Royal Blue.

Our Own Private Universe (Book Review)

I wish this cover had done more to emphasize that Aki is black.

Our Own Private Universe is the second book by Robin Talley that I’ve read. Pulp wasn’t my favorite book ever, but it had enough in it that I liked that I’m at least passively interested in reading Talley’s other work. Hence this selection, which I enjoyed.

What’s it about?

Aki (Ack-ee, not Ah-kee) is on a service mission trip in Mexico when she meets Christa, a beautiful girl from a nearby church. Encouraged by a pact with her best friend Lori to have a summer fling, Aki begins a tentative romance with Christa despite a few obstacles: Christa has a boyfriend back home and is deeply closeted, Aki doesn’t want to admit that she gave up on music even though it’s what they first bonded over, and a church-sanctioned trip doesn’t leave much opportunity for lesbian hook-ups. But her new romance with Christa isn’t all that’s going on: Aki and her new friend Jake become increasingly involved with the church and, specifically, its political outreach, Aki’s brother Drew reveals a secret that could rock the family, and Aki and Lori have the most serious fight of their long friendship.

What’d I think?

Our Own Private Universe has two major storylines (the romance and the turn towards politics) and several comparatively minor ones. There’s a lot going on in this book, and it’s balanced quite well. It’s pitched primarily as a romance, but I’d argue that classifying it that way does it a disservice. Yeah, there’s a romance, but it’s pretty standard for a queer romance. Instead of the love triangle and awkward misunderstandings that come part-and-parcel with straight romances, we get coming out and navigating the closet. It’s a cute enough romance, but it doesn’t bring all the much new to the table. Between this novel and Pulp, it’s pretty clear that while Robin Talley likes romance, it’s far from her first priority. In my review of Pulp, I wrote that Pulp frames queerness more as identity and less as desire, and that’s true for Our Own Private Universe as well. Even though the romance is certainly more central here than in Pulp, and Aki is really into Christa, the love story itself is not the main point of the book.

These Witches Don’t Burn (Book Review)

I feel like I’m the only YA fan who didn’t read These Witches Don’t Burn by Isabel Sterling in October this year. I like dressing up for Halloween (this year I was Klaus from The Umbrella Academy!), but that’s the extent of my spooky October activities. I did read a bunch of reviews for it, though, and since they were almost entirely positive, I figured I’d give it a shot.

What’s it about?

Hannah is an elemental witch living in Salem, Massachusetts. When she and her ex-girlfriend Veronica come across evidence of a blood ritual, Hannah becomes convinced that a Blood Witch—the most powerful and most dangerous kind of witch—has come to Salem. She knows firsthand what Blood Witches can do to someone, so, when the more senior members of her coven refuse to, she decides to investigate the  on her own, with only occasional help from Veronica.

What’d I think?

I liked These Witches Don’t Burn, but I’m surprised by the almost universal enthusiasm it has been met with. While it’s cute enough and Hannah’s best friend Gemma is a wonderful, beautiful person that I would love to have as a friend, the rest of the book is honestly pretty meh.

Hannah is an unmemorable main character, but her love interest Morgan makes her look like a sparkling personality. The mysterious villain is far from mysterious if you’re paying even the slightest bit of attention. And, most grievously in my opinion, both the A and B plots of the novel hinge on an unexplained incident that took place before the story starts but which is never adequately addressed.

I Wish You All the Best (Book Review)

I Wish You All the Best by Mason Deaver has been knocking about on my to-read list for a while. At first, I heard all good things but didn’t read it because it was always checked out at my library. Then I read a pretty negative review that complained that the main character was annoying and hard to root for, so I put the book on the back-burner and stopped looking for it for a while. Then I saw it was nominated for several Shimmy awards and was embarrassed that I’d only read a handful of the nominees (Rainbow Rowell’s Wayward Son, Leigh Bardugo’s King of Scars, David Yoon’s Frankly in Love, Cassandra Clare’s The Red Scrolls of Magic and Ghosts of the Shadow Market, and Angie Thomas’ On the Come Up). I’m still hoping to read more of the nominees, but since I Wish You All the Best was already on my list, I figured I’d start there.

What’s it about?

After coming out as nonbinary to their parents, Ben is kicked out of their house and forced to turn to their estranged older sister Hannah. With nowhere else to turn, Ben moves in with Hannah and her husband Thomas and has to start a new life from scratch in the latter half of their senior year… which would be difficult enough without dealing with the anxiety and trauma that comes from being disowned and the awkwardness of a new crush.

What’d I think?

Since I brought it up in my introductory paragraph, I feel like I should address the accusation that Ben is an unlikable character. I disagree, and I’m honestly surprised that that is even a critique of I Wish You All the Best. This novel is Ben’s story and while, yes, there is a fairly prominent romantic storyline, that—and everything else—plays second fiddle to Ben’s journey of identity. Ben is a wonderfully written character, and the way that Mason Deaver juggles Ben’s anxiety, gender identity and sexuality, and family problems is impressive. Ben has a lot of silent struggles. After the reception at home, they’re understandably hesitant about coming out again. Their parents’ toxic and abusive behavior has negatively impacted Ben’s mental health without Ben being fully aware of it, or the extent of it until experiencing life free from it. These storylines all weave together but are somehow distinct as well, and the result is a character who is very fully realized and who very quickly commands the reader’s attention and empathy.

Social Intercourse (Book Review)

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: sometimes impulsively picking up a book you’ve never heard of majorly pays off, and sometimes it really doesn’t. The latter is true with Social Intercourse by Greg Howard. I thought the punny title and creative cover indicated an equally clever novel within the pages, but unfortunately Social Intercourse is primarily a hodgepodge of tropes and clichés slapped together in uninspiring ways to create a novel that is somehow both nothing new and actively annoying.

What’s it about?

Beck is out and proud, and Jax is the star quarterback. They don’t have much in common until Beck’s dad and one of Jax’s moms start dating and they unite for the purpose of breaking them up. Between scheming against their parents’ new romance and helping plan the community’s first Rainbow Prom, Beck and Jax find themselves falling in love.

What’d I think?

Warning: This review contains spoilers. I’ve kept them vague and nonspecific, but they are not separated out from the rest of the review like normal. Also, there’s some ranting.

I’m a character person. I want to care about the characters I’m reading about. I want to love them. I want to care that they get together/save the day/survive high school/etc. I don’t mind if they’re bad people as long as they’re well written and I care about what happens to them. Antiheroes can be awesome, but it’s a problem when characters are awful and the writer doesn’t seem to know. Based on what other characters tell us about Beck, he’s a sweet guy. Based on what we see him do, he’s a bitchy asshole who thinks he’s better and hotter than the rest of the world. Based on what other characters tell us about Jax, he’s a hot quarterback. Based on what we see him do… yeah, he’s just a hot quarterback. He narrates half the novel. He’s a closeted bisexual. He was abused as a child. And yet after all that, the most descriptive thing I can think to say about him is that he’s a hot quarterback.

Ramona Blue (Book Review)

Before grabbing Ramona Blue (by Dumplin’ author Julie Murphy) from the library, I’d only heard good things. A few chapters in, I went to Goodreads to read some more reviews and found tons of people talking about a controversy. Having now read it, I don’t think Ramona Blue deserves either the high praise or the censure it’s received. I liked it, but it’s not a story I feel called upon to widely recommend.

What’s it about?

Ramona Blue is a big personality living a life that is increasingly too small for her, both figuratively (she feels trapped in her small town but doesn’t have the money to leave) and literally (her family has been living in a tiny trailer since their home was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, and now her sister Hattie is pregnant and the deadbeat father is moving in despite the lack of space). Ramona is determined to do her best with what she’s been given, even though she knows that providing financially for Hattie will keep her from achieving her own goals. Things get even more confusing when her childhood friend Freddie comes back and she finds herself attracted to him, despite identifying as a lesbian.

What’d I think?

Since it’s what pretty much everyone talks about when they talk about this book, I’ll start with the controversy. Yes, a major storyline of Ramona Blue is Ramona, who had previously thought of herself as a lesbian, falling for a guy. However, this is not a novel about a young woman being “cured” of being queer. It’s confirmed throughout the novel that Ramona is bisexual, and that her feelings for Freddie do not erase or contradict her feelings for girls. The characters who suggest otherwise are summarily shut down. Ramona’s journey to discovering her sexuality is actually really well done, and while I can see why it might upset some people—I was worried early on, which was why I went to Goodreads partway through the book—any hurt feelings are going to come from the reader, not the writer; Murphy treats the sensitive subject matter with tact. Also, for what it’s worth, the storyline is inspired by Murphy’s own experience.

I do wish, however, that Ramona had a better love interest. I enjoyed reading Dumpin’, but I found the romantic interest boring and unworthy of the heroine’s attention. My response to Ramona Blue’s Freddie is the same. For all her talents, Julie Murphy can’t write a male hero who holds my interest. Freddie is very bland, and when he’s not bland he’s the tiniest bit smug and homophobic. When Ramona first tells him that she likes girls, his first instincts are to 1) be offended she didn’t tell him earlier 2) ask how she knows and whether she tried guys first. At another point, he takes Ramona to a pool and challenges her to a race, even though he’s been swimming competitively for years and it’s literally her first time swimming laps. Like, seriously, dude. You’re so desperate to win that you set up a competition that could literally only be an embarrassment for your opponent? Classy. And yes, he does mature a little as the story goes on, but he has so little discernible personality that it’s hard to see these as bad moments from an otherwise good guy.

Fan Art (Book Review)

Even though I’d never heard of it before, I thought I’d enjoy Fan Art by Sarah Tregay. I love stories about fans and fandom, and as a general rule I’ll read any one that I come across. Unfortunately, Fan Art is not at all what I thought it would be, and it surprised me in the worst kind of way.

What’s it about?

Jamie, a high school senior and the art editor for the school literary journal Gumshoe, has a crush on his best friend Mason, but doesn’t want to come out to Mason for fear that it will ruin their friendship. When he advocates for a comic drawn by a lesbian classmate, he clashes with his Gumshoe coworkers who don’t want to include unabashedly queer content in their journal; he worries that his enthusiasm might push him out of the closet.

What’d I think?

When Jamie delivers Challis’ graphic short to the Gumshoe staff, there’s an intense debate about the merits of the work. One of the editors is violently homophobic, but most of them are just concerned that the comic has no plot:

When we finish, Michael collects the pages again. “It might just be me, but there’s no plot, right?”

[…]

Holland stifles a giggle. “It’s a little fluffy, but gay boys are popular.”

This is a very meta conversation. I’m not going to give Fan Art much credit in this review, but I will give it some here. At least in this conversation, it’s quite self-aware. Everything that Jamie and the others discuss here may as well be about Fan Art itself. It’s fluffy. It’s gay. There’s no plot. Even the specifics—which I won’t list here, as they’d require specific discussion of the climax, which is too spoilery—apply perfectly to Fan Art. Of course, we’re supposed to agree with Jamie when he argues that Challis’ comic—and by extension, this novel—is about love triumphing and coming together with someone despite cruel classmates. But I don’t agree with Jamie.

Solitaire (Book Review)

About a month ago, I read and loved Radio Silence by Alice Oseman. I knew immediately that Oseman had the potential to become one of my favorite writers, so when I found Solitaire at the library, I grabbed it without even reading the summary. I’m just as enthusiastic about Oseman after Solitaire as I was after Radio Silence.

This is a review for the 2015 version of Solitaire. If you would like to read about the differences between that one and the one released in 2023, you can do that here.

What’s it about?

Tori hates everything (it’s funny because it’s true). She’s depressed and exists on the periphery of her friend group. Then she meets Michael and Solitaire comes into her life and everything changes. Michael is quirkily fun and relentlessly cheerful, and weird enough that pretty much everyone avoids him; Tori finds that she doesn’t hate him the way she hates everyone else. Solitaire is an anonymous blog that orchestrates a number of pranks that escalate over the course of the school year, and all seem to relate to Tori in some obscure way.  Things go too far.

What’d I think?

I adore Oseman’s writing, and I love the great care that she puts into her characters’ internal lives. That said… I hope she’s okay. There is so much brokenness in Solitaire. Every character is more heartbreaking than the last. Actually, that’s a lie. Charlie, Tori’s nice brother, is the most heartbreaking. He’s the sort of character that fangirls like to adopt to protect from harm. But Charlie is far from the only character who elicits strong reactions. I wanted to sit the whole group down and tell them that it’s all going to be okay.

Everyone in Solitaire is struggling. Some characters hide it better than others, but everyone is hurting. This could easily make for a depressing book, but Solitaire expertly toes the line between sad and upsetting. It’s evocative. There are bright spots, true friendships, and genuine love that keep things from getting too bleak. It’s amazing that the novel is as compelling as it is, because Tori’s depression manifests itself primarily as numbness. She all but sleepwalks through life, but there are moments when she breaks through: when she starts to understand Michael better, when Charlie backslides back into self-harm, when Becky seems to betray her, when she decides to track down Solitaire, etc. But even when she is numb, she’s not flat. I was never bored with Solitaire. I read it in fewer than twenty-four hours, and probably would have raced through it in a single sitting if I hadn’t had to do annoying things like go to work.

Radio Silence (Book Review)

I’ve read many positive reviews about Alice Oseman’s Radio Silence. It seems like almost everyone whose blog I follow has read and loved Radio Silence, so it has been on my to-read list for a long time; I finally found it at my new library and I’m glad I did, because it’s just as good as everyone promised.

Summary: What’s it about?

Frances is the perfect student: she’s the head girl, makes perfect grades, and is certain of success at university once she gets her inevitable acceptance. At home, Frances is different: she loves nerdy, patterned stockings and she enthusiastically and obsessively draws fanart for her favorite podcast, Universe City. Then Frances befriends Aled Last, whose twin sister Caryse was friends with Frances before she ran away two years ago, and discovers that he makes Universe City. Aled and Frances are able to be themselves with each other in ways they can’t be elsewhere, at least until everything goes wrong.

Review: What’d I think?

There is so much to like about Radio Silence. It is exactly my kind of book. The characters—all of them, from the protagonists to the minor side characters—are extraordinarily well-developed. Frances is the only POV character, but the other characters are so real that their emotional journeys are just as plainly realized. Aled and his best friend Daniel are done particularly well. I don’t think I could’ve have known Aled any better even if half the novel had been written from his perspective.

Frances and Aled are gloriously nerdy. They’re so enthusiastic about all the things they love, even if they keep their enthusiasm quiet when they’re out in the real world. The way that Frances and Aled bond over their enthusiasms is beautiful and very real, and I love how completely Oseman averts the boy/girl friendship = romance trope that is so ubiquitous and annoying.

This is Kind of an Epic Love Story (Book Review)

I picked up This is Kind of an Epic Love Story by Kacen Callender* mostly on a whim. It has a cute cover, a diverse set of characters, and is endorsed by Adam Silvera. It’s not the best book I’ve ever read, and I would argue that it’s not quite as epic as its title promises (a complaint I’ve seen repeatedly on Goodreads), but it’s fun and it goes by quickly. Also, I think the novel wants to shift the definition of ‘epic.’ More on that in a minute.

*This is Kind of an Epic Love Story was published under the name Kheryn Callender, but the author has since changed their name and I have updated this post to reflect that.

Summary: What’s it about?

Nate is in an weird place after his best friend and girlfriend of one year cheats on him and then breaks up with him. They’re still friends, though. Nate still loves Flo—and is still in love with Flo—so he pretends to be fine with the whole situation, even though he is definitely not. Then his love life gets even more complicated when his childhood best friend Oliver James moves back to town. Nate’s feelings for Ollie have been complicated since before Ollie left, and the uncomfortable miscommunication they had right before their parting has only increased in awkwardness in the interim.

Review: What’d I think?

Nate is a frustrating protagonist, and the reader’s response to him will largely inform whether they like This is Kind of an Epic Love Story or not. Nate is not a great person. He is actually kind of a massive douche. He doesn’t understand boundaries and is clearly incapable of accepting it when a romantic relationship isn’t going to happen. Yes, he hangs out with Flo because they’re best friends and he loves her… but he also hangs out with her because he wants to remind her how awesome he is, so that she’ll want to get back together with him. He makes a move on Flo when he knows she’s in a relationship. He makes a move on Oliver James when he knows Ollie’s in a relationship. It doesn’t help that his friends encourage that kind of behavior (they repeatedly tell him that he should reveal his feelings to Ollie even when Ollie has made it clear that he’s taken).

When things go wrong for Nate, even slightly wrong, he bails. He wrecks—and then has to salvage—relationships repeatedly. He wrecks and then salvages the same relationship multiple times, and his response to every problem is to just ignore it until it gets much, much bigger, and then only deal with it when someone else either initiates a reconciliation or pushes him into one.

So Nate’s not great, but I also really get him. His childhood friendship with Ollie ended when Ollie moved. His relationship with Flo ended when she cheated on him. His relationship with his dad ended when his dad died unexpectedly, and his mom’s resultant obsessive overprotectiveness has trained him to view life through a worst-case-scenario lens.

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend 14×08 Review (I’m Not the Person I Used to Be)

I did not realize that “I’m Not the Person I Used to Be” was Crazy Ex-Girlfriend’s midseason finale until it was over. In retrospect, it makes a lot of sense, because this episode has a lot of the staples of a finale: most of the cast is there—including some recurring characters who are important but often absent—the drama is heightened, and there is a cliffhanger. It is a very fun, very meta episode, but most importantly, it (sort of) brings back the character that everyone—including, apparently, some of the characters—has been awaiting with bated breath. That’s right! Greg is back!

A few episodes of spontaneous romantic music aside, Rebecca and Josh’s roommate situation is going pretty well. They’re quite happy with each other. Rebecca is worried that she doesn’t seem to be totally past thinking of Josh (and Nathaniel) romantically, though. She wants Paula’s feedback, but Paula is too busy bonding with the rabbit she got to replace Brendan and doesn’t answer her phone. AJ is around to provide some snark, but Rebecca needs Paula.

Everyone is getting ready for their “ten year” high school reunion. Josh is particularly excited about the reunion because he was prom king back in the day.

JOSH: My ten-year high school reunion is coming up and I’m stoked. I may not have mentioned, but I was prom king.

REBECCA: Yeah, no, I think it’s, uh, come up once or twice. Wait, ten years? Didn’t you graduate twelve years ago?

JOSH: Yeah, okay, what happened was the class president is supposed to plan it, and our class president is Hector.