My pandemic reading seems to come and go in waves — one month I’ll be tearing through books like there’s no tomorrow, and then another month I am just staring at the page blankly trying to make myself engage with what’s on it. August was a good reading month, and I can already tell September’s not going to be. I’ve got like sixteen YA books checked out that I’m officially excited to read, but I can’t get started on any of them, or any other book either. Is anyone else having this problem?
Luckily, I read two terrific contemporary YA novels before my reading brain decided to go into low power mode, and I’m excited to share them with y’all! Though there are many bad things about the world these days, one things that makes me feel great is that these books exist in the world and the youth of America can read them. Thanks to Not Just Fiction and Words for Worms for recommending these books to me!
Felix Ever After, Kacen Callender
Felix Love has never been in love. On a good day, he’s proud of the Black trans artist that he is; but on bad days, he wonders secretly if he’s got one too many marginalizations to deserve a happily ever after. His dad can’t bring himself to use Felix’s name, and his mom left them years ago and hasn’t spoken to Felix since he came out as trans. Meanwhile, he’s staring down college applications and getting together a portfolio for a Brown scholarship he dearly needs, when someone at his school puts up a public gallery of photos of Felix pre-transition, all captioned with his deadname. As he’s navigating the transphobia of an unknown classmate, his yearning to find romance, and his ongoing questions about his gender identity, Felix has to confront who he is and who he wants to be.
Gosh, I’m glad this book exists. And on, like, a couple of fronts. It’s one of these YA contemporaries where I felt a keen sense of recognition for all the interpersonal relationship stuff. There’s a scene where a friendly acquaintance is helping Felix with a thing and he’s thinking “Geez, why aren’t we friends? We should be friends!” and I don’t know why it stuck out to me so much except that I used to think that all the time in high school, and then I would be too scared to do anything about it. Or one of the major plots of the book is that Felix kinda develops a crush on a character he formerly thought of as an Enemy, and a, it’s awkward, and b, it stays awkward. Apart from anything else, I loved that the book depicts the tooth-aching awkwardness of being a teenager (feral, inherently!) trying to navigate interpersonal relationships with other teenagers (also, inherently, feral!).
I am also glad it exists from a representation standpoint. At no point does the book yield any ground to ignorance. When Felix’s friends (and enemies) screw up and say the wrong thing about race, gender, sexuality, whatever, it’s clear they’re in the wrong. The book also grants Felix space to question who he is. He knows that he’s a boy, but maybe not always, and he’s not sure that “not always” is allowed, particularly since he’s already made a big fuss about being trans. By the end of the book, he’s found a term that fits him — demiboy — but the other queer characters in the book constantly affirm the validity of questioning identity and searching for the ones that fit you the best.
Maybe the loveliest thing about this book is Felix’s relationship with Ezra. I felt warm every time Ezra leapt to Felix’s defense — and it’s a keynote of his character that he always leaps to Felix’s defense. Even at moments when Felix doesn’t immediately think it’s worth the trouble of picking an argument on his own behalf, Ezra’s right there calling out their friends for transphobia, racism, whatever. I loved that whatever else was going on in Felix’s life, he always had this friend who was ready to go to the mat for him, and I hope every real trans kid in the US has a friend like that.
You Should See Me in a Crown, Leah Johnson
Liz Lighty has never given too much thought to prom. She’s got better things to focus on than the mean white girls of Campbell County — like, for instance, the music scholarship that’ll take her to Pennington College so her grandparents won’t try to sell their house to send her to college. But when the scholarship doesn’t come through, her only shot at getting enough money for college is to become prom queen.
Reese Witherspoon recently expanded her book club to include YA books (link), presumably just so that she could start her YA book club with You Should See Me in a Crown. It’s exactly the kind of contemporary YA book I yearn for! Netflix movie adaptation when? In particular, Leah Johnson strikes such a good balance between giving her protagonist enough independence from her family that she can get on with the plot of the book, while still very much grounding her in the love, support, and loyalty she shares with her brother and grandmother. (In particular, there’s a scene towards the end where she’s talking with her grandmother about the things she’s been struggling with, and it is so, so lovely and warm, as are all the scenes she shares with her family.)
Liz is also part of a friend group she loves but can’t always 100% depend on, which felt like the most relatable high school content ever. Her best friend Gabi is the foremost booster of her campaign to be prom queen, but Gabi isn’t always respectful of Liz’s identity and boundaries. She pushes Liz to be discreet about liking girls, while playing up her friendship with gorgeous football star Jordan Jennings, who stopped being Liz’s friend in freshman year. Meanwhile, Gabi herself isn’t sure how much of herself she wants to show to the school, which leads to her being not-completely-honest to her crush, new girl Amanda Mack. And, perhaps best of all — I am a sucker for this kind of thing — lots of the students whose measure Liz thought she had turn out to be more interesting, worthwhile people than she realized.
NETFLIX MOVIE ADAPTATION WHEN. You Should See Me in a Crown is warm and funny and kind. It meant the world to see a Black, queer, anxious teenager get her happy ending.
Have y’all read any good contemporary YA lately? It hasn’t historically been my favorite subgenre, but in the past few years I feel like it’s just exploded with books that call to me.