Messy Perfect

Gr 7 Up–Boteju’s latest queer coming-of-age story offers a vulnerable look into the intersection of identity and religion. Cassie Perera, a straight-A student and textbook overachiever, has a secret: she’s a lesbian. She’s known since she outed her childhood best friend, Ben, and threw him under the bus to hide her own identity. And now that Ben has moved back? She must find a way to make it up to him and repair their friendship. After a chance encounter with another school’s Gender & Sexuality Alliance (GSA), and their beautiful coleader Halle, Cassie thinks she’s found just the way to do it. Cassie’s internal struggle to embrace both her religion, which she loves, and her identity, which she wants to stop denying, is genuine and heartbreaking. Her fear of being rejected for parts of her that she can hide but not change, juxtaposed with the freedom and self-expression she finds among her new friends, artfully articulates the beauty of community. The supporting characters, Halle, Ben, and other members of their underground group, help show the lived experiences of LGBTQIA+ teens as anything but monolithic.