review by John Chon, age 16

Odd One Out by Nic Stone

    Odd One Out by Nic Stone is a story about self discovery. This book follows two very close childhood friends, a straight guy and a lesbian girl. Courtney “Coop” and Jupiter “Jupe” are very close, with Jupe’s parents being gay fathers and Coop’s mother being single after his father died. Coop is on the basketball team and Jupe is heavily into public service and social action. Both are in high school, and as Jupe is discovering their sexuality, they meet another new girl who quickly makes friends with them. However, they end up having real issues with figuring out what each person’s role is in their new, awkward relationship.
     This book was a means of catharsis for the author. In the acknowledgements, she writes that she wishes she had this book when she was a teenager, growing up unsure of her identity. This book does a great job of showing how people who are not heteronormative struggle with how they want to approach their sexuality. I did feel like the characters were rather oblivious to the other one’s interactions, and the casual talk of sex was definitely out of place, at least based off of my high school experience. Overall, this book is fairly solid, but not really up my alley. 3/5 stars.


Find this book in our catalog: Odd One Out

Catalog Number: YA FIC STONE,N

309 pages