The Fangirl Project

Gr 9 Up–Reekles (The Kissing Booth) spins a suitably charming tale of unrequited love/enemies-to-lovers romance in this YA novel about Cerys and her best friend/crush, Jake. Cerys devises a plan to make Jake fall in love with her: pretend to become a fangirl of Jake’s favorite book series and television show, Of Wrath and Rune. A major obstacle to this plan is Jake’s new friend Max, who is always there even though Cerys wants alone time with Jake. Complications arise when Cerys actually begins to like the show and grows closer to the boy she believes is Jake on the Of Wrath and Rune Discord channel. Although she eventually develops as a character, Cerys is deeply unlikable and judgmental throughout most of the book, which makes it difficult to cheer for her love story. The comedy of errors works itself out in a way to make Cerys happy, but at the expense of another character whose queerness is used merely as a plot device.