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A review by liralen
Flip the Script by Lyla Lee
3.0
Cute, and I am always happy to see some unexpected* queerness in YA. What most interests me, though, is the difference between this era of YA and the sort I grew up reading. I'm making some broad generalisations here, but bear with me: in the teen fiction I read in the late nineteens and early aughts, problems and solutions tended to be local. A girl had a problem, there were issues to be had, some things worked out and some things didn't but for the most part she didn't change the world. It was a moment. Now...so much more YA fiction is about movements: It's not enough for a girl to land a coveted acting role—to have her moment—but she has to push the entire industry to change as she does so. It was true in [b:I'll Be the One|53098416|I'll Be the One|Lyla Lee|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1575913396l/53098416._SY75_.jpg|68119645], and it's true here, and it's far from universal but much more common now than it once was.
Maybe it's that the YA of today (oh god, I've become one of those crotchety people going 'back in my day'...well, better lean into it, I suppose) leans aspirational rather than realistic: instead of problems that resolve messily, or without the main character getting their way, they end up with the prize, the scholarship, the boy (the girl), the parental support, the...whatever it is that they need. And it's fine! And I'll still read and enjoy them! It's also true that there's a lot more YA now set in non-western settings, and I'm here for that. But there's also a reason that it feels a lot more brain candy than substantial.
*Unexpected if you have forgotten the details of the back-cover copy by the time you read it, which I had
Maybe it's that the YA of today (oh god, I've become one of those crotchety people going 'back in my day'...well, better lean into it, I suppose) leans aspirational rather than realistic: instead of problems that resolve messily, or without the main character getting their way, they end up with the prize, the scholarship, the boy (the girl), the parental support, the...whatever it is that they need. And it's fine! And I'll still read and enjoy them! It's also true that there's a lot more YA now set in non-western settings, and I'm here for that. But there's also a reason that it feels a lot more brain candy than substantial.
*Unexpected if you have forgotten the details of the back-cover copy by the time you read it, which I had