But when she gets home, she finds out that her friends have a surprise of their own: Over the summer, they have each gotten a boyfriend. Now, all they want to do is talk about tips and tricks for managing their crushes. Noah, afraid that she'll be left behind, lies to her friends and claims that she too has a boy she likes. To prove it, Noah makes a mad dash to find a good boy who she can pretend to have a crush on and she settles on Archie. But the harder Noah tries to prove she is infatuated with Archie, the less and less comfortable she is with the whole idea. The thing is she sees how her older sister is with her boyfriend and Noah knows that her feelings (or lack thereof) for Archie are not anything like that, no matter how much she tries. Strangely, the person she does have those feelings for is her new friend Jessa.
A very nicely written book about self-discovery and early sexual identity, that in rather painful detail depicts the confusing world of first crushes and middle school drama. While kids in my day wouldn't have seen same sex attraction as an option, the overall dynamic of needing to be able to say that you were in a relationship because everyone else was feels painfully familiar. The obsessive plotting and manipulation to create those relationships also feels pretty authentic. The twist of having Noah come out as gay really doesn't change much (unless you live in Florida, in which case you probably can't read this book!) -- middle school romance is pretty generic.
There's much to like in this book. While I found Noah more than a little clueless, that's sort of a prerequisite in a romance based on near misses. Her knack for making lots of mistake and her ability to rebound from them makes her very appealing. The romance between the girls itself is sweet. While facing numerous misunderstandings along the way, it does finally achieve a satisfying conclusion.
No comments:
Post a Comment