Summary: <\/strong>Imogen visits her bestie at her nearby college and gets a taste of what it\u2019s like to be seen as queer, and along the way realizes that maybe she isn\u2019t so straight after all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tessa stops short. \u201cYou\u2019re an <\/em>award-winning chef?\u201d<\/em><\/p>
\u201cYeah\u2026 I don\u2019t want to brag, but\u201d\u2014I bite back a smile\u2014\u201dI kind of swept the ten-and-under category in the Li\u2019l Cookies Library Fundraiser Bake-Off.\u201d <\/em><\/p>
\u201cYeah you did,\u201d Tessa high-fives me. <\/em><\/p>
\u201cBest Rice Krispie Treat of my life,\u201d Lili says. <\/em><\/p>
\u201cThanks! It\u2019s the recipe from the back of the Rice Krispies box.\u201d<\/em><\/p>
This book made, at least to my eyes, several year-end best lists for queer YA fiction in 2023, and so I could not resist giving it a try. Then, I read the whole thing in more or less one sitting, and I understood what all the fuss was about. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
A thing I\u2019ve heard more and more from the LGBT+ community (or maybe my ears were finally ready to listen) is the phrase \u201cYou are queer enough,\u201d and this book is basically the embodiment of this concept. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In some ways, Imogen had never given too much thought to her sexuality. Since all her friends are queer, and while she\u2019s never kissed a boy (or anyone else!), she\u2019s always seen herself in contrast to them. In other ways, because she\u2019s always seen herself in contrast to them and has that message constantly reinforced by another friend, she\u2019s never had reason to give it much thought. Then, a little white lie gives her a weekend where no one questions that she *could* be queer. That gives way to weeklong flirting exchange with another girl that has Imogen questioning everything she thought she knew. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
What does being queer look like? What if her love of queer people and queer media left her blind to the fact that it could look like her? What about earlier obsessions with girls? And most importantly, what about this new girl keeps her up too late and smiling? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Imogen, obviously, is a delight to spend an easy 300+ YA pages with, and one that left me up too late and smiling way more than I\u2019m used to. And the Rice Krispies treats, well, they were a bit easier and made well before bed time, but they were no less satisfying than the book (given it\u2019s been years since I have had or made them). <\/p>\n\n\n\nRice Krispies treats (pre-cutting)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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