Book Review: Whatever.: Or How Junior Year Became Totally F$@cked by S.J. Goslee

Publisher’s description 

It’s like the apocalypse came, only instead of nuclear bombs and zombies, Mike gets school participation, gay thoughts, and mother-effin’ cheerleaders.

Junior year is about to start. Here’s what Mike Tate knows:

His friends are awesome and their crappy garage band is a great excuse to drink cheap beer. Rook Wallace is the devil. The Lemonheads rock. And his girlfriend Lisa is the coolest. Then Lisa breaks up with him, which makes Mike only a little sad, because they’ll stay friends and he never knew what to do with her boobs anyway. But when Mike finds out why Lisa dumped him, it blows his mind. And worse—he gets elected to homecoming court.

With a standout voice, a hilariously honest view on sex and sexuality, and enough f-bombs to make your mom blush, this debut YA novel is a fresh, modern take on the coming-out story.

Amanda’s thoughts

Nothing I write about this book will be as attention-grabbing as that excellent first sentence up there describing Mike’s junior year.

I completely loved this book. It took me a little while to warm up to it (I think my problem is that I really wanted this to be written in first person, not third), but when I did, I couldn’t put it down. Many books are billed as being “hilarious” but totally miss the mark. This book is truly hilarious. As a person who enjoys sarcasm, trash-talking, swear words, and 90s music, this book spoke to me. Mike’s whole world gets rocked when Lisa, the girl he thought of as his girlfriend, tells him she wants to see other people. She points out to him that she’s not actually his girlfriend, but just a friend who he sometimes goes out with and makes out with. He’s not really broken up over her announcement. What does shock him, though, is her reasoning why he should be her student council running mate: they can sell him as gay—“it’ll be edgy.” Wait, Mike’s gay? This is news to him. Or is it? Turns out Lisa (and many others) were recently witness to him making out with a dude at a party, a fact that Mike himself doesn’t remember. Lisa tells him not to be so quick to dismiss the idea that he’s bi. Before long, Mike is accepting this (maybe) new truth about himself. He knows there’s nothing wrong with being bi, but he’s not so sure he’s ready for people to know yet when he’s just kind of figuring it all out for himself. It doesn’t talk long, though, for people in his life to start knowing—his mom, his grandma, his close group of friends, and Wallace, his sworn enemy.

Before long, Mike is doing all kinds of new things: serving as student council VP, organizing Homecoming, hanging out with cheerleaders, navigating uncomfortable silent periods with his lifelong friends, and making out with a hot (if completely surprisingly into him) guy.

Here’s an additional thing to love about this book: yeah, some things are a little bit weird for a while (and for different reasons) with some of his guy friends as he comes out, but for the most part, Mike is surrounded by so much matter-of-fact acceptance, love, and support. There were multiple coming out scenes that I just LOVED. His mom kind of nonchalantly mentions something about him finding a nice boy. His friend Cam barely blinks at his revelation. His grandmother initiates a conversation about his sexuality. Mike’s life is kind of complicated by coming out as bi, but that’s not a bad thing. Mike repeatedly corrects people that he’s bi, not gay. I can’t come up with a particularly long list of YA books with bi boy characters, so this is a nice addition to that list because it’s well-written, funny, sweet, romantic, and just GREAT. Definitely highly recommended. 

Review copy courtesy of the publisher

ISBN-13: 9781626723993

Publisher: Roaring Brook Press

Publication date: 08/02/2016

Filed under: Book Reviews