A novel about friendship, feminism, and the knotty complications of tradition and privilege, perfect for fans of Becky Albertalli and Stephanie Perkins. Jemima Kincaid is a feminist, and she thinks you should be one, too. Her private school is laden with problematic traditions, but the worst of all is prom. The guys have all the agency; the girls have to wait around for "promposals" (she's speaking heteronormatively because only the hetero kids even go). In Jemima's (very opinionated) opinion, it's positively medieval. Then Jemima is named to Senior Triumvirate, alongside superstar athlete Andy and popular, manicured Gennifer, and the three must organize prom. Inspired by her feminist ideals and her desire to make a mark on the school, Jemima proposes a new structure. They'll do a Last Chance Dance: every student privately submits a list of crushes to a website that pairs them with any mutual matches. Meanwhile, Jemima finds herself embroiled in a secret romance that she craves and hates all at once. Her best friend, Jiyoon, has found romance of her own, but Jemima starts to suspect something else has caused the sudden rift between them. And is the new prom system really enough to extinguish the school's raging dumpster fire of toxic masculinity? Filled with Kate Hattemer's signature banter, this is a fast-paced and thoughtful tale about the nostalgia of senior year, the muddle of modern relationships, and how to fight the patriarchy when you just might be part of the patriarchy yourself.
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I think. this would have been a great book for me personally to have read at age 13, and also for a lot of current teen girls struggling with internalized misogyny/Not Like Other Girls syndrome. For me as an adult reader it came across a bit didactic in pursuit of that goal.
Still, it's a noble goal, and I also liked it sex positivity and pursuit of intersectionality. It bit off a lot of stuff and some of the family stuff in particular was maybe more than could be properly chewed? But maybe it's enough just to hint at some parental drama without digging into it.
