Review: Odd One Out

Odd One Out by Nic Stone
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

"Love is hard, sex is easy."
-Arcade Fire, "Signs of Life"

Welcome to the third in my series of ARC reviews for books I received on Twitter's very own #arcsfortrade this August 2018. We're at the halfway point now, surrounded by two books on either side of Nic Stone's latest: the already-read Girls of Paper and Fire and Light Years on one side, and my forthcoming reads For a Muse of Fire and A Blade So Black on the other.

And I can tell you that this is my favorite of the three I've read thus far, simply because it gave me a little something that's still quite lacking in the YA world - questioning rep. Nic Stone's candid author's note talks about how much she needed this book at various points in her life from questioning her sexuality, and I agree with her 100% re: my own queer experience. I questioned for years after high school, and while I've spent just as many years since then self-labeling as bi, I fully embrace the possibility that said label may not stick over the years because I'm still not 100% sure about anything when it comes to sex.

Maybe it would help if I knew a Coop or a Rae or a Jupe in my life.

These three protagonists - here listed in the order of their POV segments; they each get an act of the book all to themselves - are a pretty special lot. Not only because of the diversity they all bring to the table, but also because each of them reflects me in their own way. Coop, that guy who wants someone to love and have sex with, but can't be with the one he wants (okay, maybe I haven't been crushed out on a gay girl, but I have felt, too many times, that kind of sad longing for people who just aren't interested in me) - and also wrestles a lot with how to approach love and sex without upholding the patriarchy. Rae, who has feelings for two people at once and is very confused about it (me watching The Amazing Spider-Man back in 2012 and being unable to decide whose shoes I'd rather be in, Peter's or Gwen's, during that one scene where Gwen and Peter kiss while she cleans his battle wounds.) And Jupe, who thinks she knows herself and her identity but oh, how life can still throw curveballs her way (me going weeks at a time feeling more towards the gay end of the Kinsey scale until I meet a woman in class, get to talking to her, and want to ask her out.)

Again, I can't say there's been a lot of questioning rep in the YA world - or any other literary age group, for that matter. To be frank, the best example I can think of is More Happy Than Not - naturally, Adam Silvera gives the glowing blurb that tops this book's cover. Maybe Ramona Blue too, though I haven't read that one yet. On that subject, I sincerely hope that this book doesn't get Ramona Blue'd to death, if you know what I mean. It's pretty good on depicting questioning and/or fluid sexuality, and draws attention to the potential harm certain scenarios can cause, but I still can't help but think that there are those out there who would probably try and drag this book and author to hell and not come back.

Don't.

Seriously, just don't.

Because while a lot of the scenarios Nic Stone presents are messy as hell and I found myself staring in stunned surprise at the pages very often (like, "holy crap, did they really just do that? THEY DID OH MY GOD"), that's the gorram point.

Not everything is neatly tied up in a bow with easy answers. And if you read Stone's debut, Dear Martin, last year, you know this is going to be a pretty well-recurring theme in her work.

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