Reasonably good, but in need of a good editor.
Social outsider Mattie is already considered pretty weird. But the thing that she hides from even her best friend Stella (who is off to boarding school for the summer) is her passion for escapology. Mattie's particular obsession with Akiko Miyaki (female Harry Houdini) leads her to the woman's agoraphobic daughter, Miyu, who agrees to teach Mattie. Will has it all together--he's a good-looking basketball player with a popular girlfriend. But he also has a secret--one that not even his girlfriend knows. He's gay. The two characters meet and make an agreement to tell each other their secrets.
The teens' voices in this book are full of sass and fairly authentic, though Will's use of early 20th century slang may be off-putting to those who like to believe teens all speak with emojis and text-speak. This keeps the tone light, even in more serious passages. However, the very real issues that the teens do face are glossed over and many points where better points could have been made.
The flaws in this book are fairly minor, but will keep me from recommending it. First, early on in the book, Mattie responds to the suggestion of joining the school's GSA with "I'm apolitical". Any modern YA author--even a debut author--should know better. The existence of queer humans is not political. Second, the parallel between escapology and being in the closet is not a great one. I'm not sure why being interested in escapology is such a potentially socially unacceptable thing, but apparently it is. Third, while I always appreciate a story about a social outsider, the way the author portrays the popular girls is distinctly sanctimonious.
Overall, this is a reasonable debut novel, but it would benefit greatly from a good editor and a few conversations with some queer teenagers.
The teens' voices in this book are full of sass and fairly authentic, though Will's use of early 20th century slang may be off-putting to those who like to believe teens all speak with emojis and text-speak. This keeps the tone light, even in more serious passages. However, the very real issues that the teens do face are glossed over and many points where better points could have been made.
The flaws in this book are fairly minor, but will keep me from recommending it. First, early on in the book, Mattie responds to the suggestion of joining the school's GSA with "I'm apolitical". Any modern YA author--even a debut author--should know better. The existence of queer humans is not political. Second, the parallel between escapology and being in the closet is not a great one. I'm not sure why being interested in escapology is such a potentially socially unacceptable thing, but apparently it is. Third, while I always appreciate a story about a social outsider, the way the author portrays the popular girls is distinctly sanctimonious.
Overall, this is a reasonable debut novel, but it would benefit greatly from a good editor and a few conversations with some queer teenagers.