A review by thegreatmanda
Adulting 101 by Lisa Henry

funny hopeful lighthearted reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This was a quick, raunchy, hilarious read, cuter than it has any business being, with an occasional tidbit of feeling or wisdom tucked into the madness. Nick is a ridiculous, adorable himbo, and I love him. His friendship with Devon is a unicorn, the kind of tender male friendship I crave in fiction and wish I could witness in real life. And then there's Jai, who may seem like the calm adult among the chaos, but has his own rich inner life and just enough mischief in him.

Favorite Quotes:

Nick's not the kind of guy who can write sonnets or anything, mostly because he can't remember how to, but if he happens to have a page in his notebook dedicated entirely to ass-related haikus, that's his business, right?

Nick's job is super dull. He mostly takes care of answering the phone and doing filing, and stapling things. Sometimes the things don't even need stapling, but Nick does it anyway. He makes shiny little railroad tracks along the tops of documents. His record is thirty-eight staples on one thing. Then he picked thirty-seven of them out again because he remembered he was supposed to be professional.

"It was an accident?" Nick attempts.
"An accident?" Chris huffs out. "An accident? You accidentally gave someone a blowjob?"

Devon's too scared to make a move because he's been crippled by the weight of his male privilege. He only discovered it a few months ago, and it's shaken him up pretty badly.

Jai almost laughs when, a few seconds later, Nick comes into view out the front window, punching the air in victory. He even does a weird little dance.
"I can still see you," Jai calls out the window.
Nick freezes like a raccoon caught in a porch light, then very slowly turns around to face the window. He gives Jai an awkward wave.

"My mom and stepdad will be away, and since the last thing Lewis used the pool for was so his pastor could come over and, like, adult baptize people, I'm counting on you and Nick to get in the water and really gay it up."

After lunch he steals another pen from the office supplies.
He calls it Gloria, and decides that it's his favorite.

"I think that when we're little, they tell us stories about being heroes and saving the universe, and then when we get older, they tell us to grow up and stop believing in dumb stories anymore."

He just ... Nick wanted to be special. He wanted to be Luke, with a destiny. He wanted to be Frodo, with a quest. He wanted to be an unlikely hero and do something that mattered, but there are no quests in the real world, where everything is much bigger and more tangled and complex than in the stories he loves. In the real world, small people don't get to be heroes, and Nick is the smallest person he knows.

"It's really hard to keep count of the minutes when we're fucking, Jai!" Nick counters, his voice rising. "I'm very easily distracted by your perfect ass and your incredible dick!"
Someone downstairs drops something breakable.
"Please tell me your dad doesn't have a shotgun," Jai whispers in the sudden, terrible silence.