Literary Scene: Three new talked-about young adult novels

By Ryan G. Van Cleave | July/August 2021

Meet Cute Diary
(Quill Tree Books, May 2021)
by Emery Lee

Give a me a YA rom-com any day, and I’ll read it. But make it about trans love…and happy? Fascinating. That’s what Meet Cute Diary is—a non-transphobic book about young love that doesn’t look like teen crushes we’ve seen before. (Content warning—panic attacks and mention of both a past suicide attempt and transphobia.)

In this story, Noah Ramirez runs a popular blog—the Meet Cute Diary. Here’s the problem. While it’s full of trans Happily Ever After stories, he’s made them all up. As a closeted trans kid himself, Noah was just writing out his own fantasies and dreams without realizing these were becoming vital reading for trans readers all around the world.

Of course, a troll outs Noah’s blog as fake, so his world teeters on the edge of disaster. The only way he can think of to save face is to convince his readers that the stories are true. Enter Drew, a new kid who just might be willing to fake-date Noah and legitimize the Diary. But will fake love turn into real love?

It’s a charming book that some might call fluffy. Noah, too, is a little self-absorbed and selfish, but he grows throughout the book. What really appeals, though, is the clear trans joy that’s at the heart of this rom-com with a bright pink cover.

It’s exactly the type of thing I can see being made into a Netflix original movie that gets recommended after you watch To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, The Kissing Booth, and Tall Girl.

Ryan’s Rating: 4.25 out of 5

Sisters of the Snake
(HarperTeen, June 2021)
by Sarena & Sasha Nanua

I’m a sucker for variations on The Parent Trap, and that’s essentially what Sisters of the Snake is. (Honestly, it’s far closer to The Prince and the Pauper, though I fully realize that not everyone will know the 1882 Mark Twain story or the various film versions ranging from the 1937 Errol Flynn one to the Hallmark made-for-TV version in 2000). 

In this story by debut twin authors Sarena and Sasha Nanua, we follow two characters who themselves are twins. Ria is a street urchin with a hardscrabble life—she has to steal just to survive. And then there’s Princess Rani, who learns to slip free of the golden cage her life has always been. Plus, she’s sure there’s a way to be a good ruler without being ruthless like her father. 

Both kids yearn for change, so swapping lives makes perfect sense to them.

It’s a fantasy story, no doubt about it, so expect deadly magic, mysterious temples, dark prophecies, and a mythic quest. Given all that, I’m tempted to go with a lower overall rating than what I’ll actually use here. “What pulls this out of the realm of familiar tropes and storylines?” you ask. Great question.

South Asia is richly depicted here in memorable ways. The sidekick characters (Amir, Seed, etc.) are rich and interesting. Sisters of the Snake is also a tale of sisterhood at its core, and we need more stories like that. Oh, and one final thing—the cover is really terrific.

I look forward to seeing more books by this pair of Canadian authors, whether it’s in this fantasy world or something new.

Ryan’s Rating: 4 out of 5

Counting Down with You
(Inkyard Press, May 2021)
by Tashie Bhuiyan

I didn’t mean to include two fake-date YA books in this month’s selections, but here you go. What can I say? These were the ones my book people were talking about most.

Debut author Tashie Bhuiyan’s Counting Down with You is heavily marketed as a Bangladeshi-Muslim story by a Bangladeshi-Muslin author. That’s a good start, but what’s the story? Here it is—Karina is always following her parents’ advice, though she feels she’ll absolutely never live up to their expectations. What she wants is to study English in college. What they want is for her to be a doctor. Small wonder that anxiety is a thing in this story.

When her parents go away on a month-long trip back to Bangladesh, Karina tutors Ace, the school slacker/bad boy. And tutoring leads to fake dating, because Ace said it, “Karina is my girlfriend.” He’s up for the part, though. He brings coffee, promised to buy her books, made her a playlist, wrote poems for her, and treats her right in pretty much every day. He’s maybe presented as too good of a guy for being the bad boy.

What happens then after a month of this, and her parents come back with their crushing expectations? And Karina still yearns for her thwarted dreams? Will Karina ever be the same again? Could she be?

A few things to consider—Karina’s friends come off as a little thin (Cori and Nandini feel fairly anonymous), but the grandmother is a total hoot, and not just because she’s willing to back Karina and her own dreams. Also, it’s 450 pages, and, wow, it feels like it sometimes.

If you’re looking for a different spin on a teen fake-date story, this might be for you because it’s painfully cute at times. Yet it’s more chock full of Gen Z and pop culture references than anything about Karina’s heritage or being Muslim, so if that’s what you’re looking for, this book might not fully deliver.

Ryan’s Rating: 3.75 out of 5