Is anyone else in love with an underrated book that they read over and over? Mine is Whatever: Or How Junior Year Became Totally F$@cked by S.J. Goslee. It’s a queer young adult novel I read three or four years ago and have re-read over four or five times.
The pitch: Hilarity ensues when a slacker teen boy discovers he’s gay, in this unforgettably funny YA debut.
It’s a funny, slice-of-life coming out story and love story and reads like very good fanfiction. Which makes sense because the author used to be a fanfiction writer. It’s pure comfort for me. I reached for it this weekend to try to keep reading books after I finished The Weight of the Stars by K. Ancrum but wasn’t quite ready to start Pet by Akwaeke Emezi.
I think it’s important to have books like that. This book doesn’t have the weight of some of my other favorites — where I will cry and be obsessive and scroll through Instagram tags to find character memes. It’s a perfect-for-me, stand-alone novel that is the equivalent of eating comfort Pizza Hut after a long week. Fanfiction gives me the same feeling but Whatever is a book, so it counts (don’t get me started on the amount of “uncounted” reading that happens on a weekly basis).
Anyway, if you are the type of person who likes fluffy and funny queer teenage love stories you should definitely read this book. S.J. Goslee’s most recent novel is also great: How (Not) To Ask A Boy To Prom.
With Love,
Natalie