May 15, 2023
Jakobson’s astute debut chronicles a young woman’s exploration of her trauma and sexuality. After an unsteady coming-of-age in high school, college sophomore Savannah “Sav” Henry has come out as bisexual and made a group of queer friends. When Sav’s childhood best friend, Izzie, announces her engagement, Sav flashes back to painful and unprocessed memories involving Izzie’s unnamed older brother, who raped her when she was 16 and he was 20. Though Sav is drawn back into Izzie’s orbit, she’s passed over as maid of honor because Izzie, who didn’t understand what Sav went through with her brother and blamed Sav, doesn’t want things to be “awkward.” As Sav prepares for the wedding, she risks her friendship with a classmate named Candace, the first to introduce her to the other queer people in their dorm, by secretly fooling around with Nova, a polyamorous woman who broke up Candace’s relationship. Jakobson lands the intensity of college friendships and sexual relationships with exquisite depictions of Sav and her cohort. Though the trauma plot threatens to become heavy-handed, Jakobson lends a gentle touch, showing how Sav works through her conflicted feelings about her rape. This writer shows plenty of promise. Agent: Ayla Zuraw-Friedland, Frances Goldin Literary Agency.
May 15, 2023
Savannah Henry faces a traumatic experience from her high school years at the same time that her life expands at college. Away from home and everyone she knows for the first time, Savannah finds her understanding of sex, consent, gender, and sexuality evolving through both an academic lens--in her Gender and Sexuality Studies 101 seminar--as well as through her own lived experiences. Befriending a group of queer people around whom she can be her authentic self and pursuing romantic relationships with polyamorous, lesbian, and gender-nonconforming folks, Savannah begins to recognize the unresolved trauma of her teenage years, including the fact that an unwanted sexual encounter was actually rape: "This haunts me every waking day of my fucking life." Her relationship with her childhood best friend, Izzie (whose brother was Savannah's rapist), begins to disintegrate as Savannah identifies the lasting harm of the rape and the social castigation she suffered in its aftermath. Izzie's looming wedding forces Sav to confront her trauma and the vastly disparate lives she and Izzie lead with fresh eyes: "We were different now, more different than I had ever thought." Jakobson brilliantly blends complex ideas and relationship dynamics with Savannah's witty stream of consciousness and sharp dialogue. The author's fearless approach to depicting sex refuses euphemism, reveling in the awkward with unflinching accuracy. Indeed, the language of the book is strikingly intentional, and Jakobson demonstrates how easy it is to respect pronouns, the damage misgendering can do, and the myriad nuances of gender and sexuality--which are removed from their binary definitions and set free. Sav's therapist tells her "We are never beholden to the person we were yesterday," and the reader breathes a sigh of relief when Savannah finally believes and forgives her younger self. This poignant rendering of one young woman's journey out of denial and shame into a budding self-love is essential reading.
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Starred review from June 1, 2023
Artsy college sophomore Savannah is finally on the brink of a solid friend group after a socially cantankerous high-school experience. She's exploring her queerness, meeting rad new people, and learning about politics and justice. In contrast to her creative, liberal higher ed environment, Savannah was raised a vanilla suburbanite in wealthy Westchester County, New York, complete with a cringey, shared sweet-sixteen bash with her BFF, Izzie. On a different path, Izzie is engaged (at 20!) to an ROTC fella and doesn't understand Savannah's interest in political correctness. Savannah dreads Izzie's wedding festivities, where she will surely encounter Izzie's older brother, who preyed on Sav when they were teens, and things got messy. Izzie blamed Sav for everything and cyberbullied her. But, in a truly teenage turn of events, the girls found their way back into friendship. Now Savannah must decide how much of the past she can safely bring into the future, with her identity, new friendships, creativity--her entire future--depending on it. Jakobson's characters are a delight, their dialogue intoxicating, their mistakes and attempts at reconciliation beautiful to watch. Readers will down this breathless debut in one sitting, sending gentle prayers up to their 20-year-old selves.
COPYRIGHT(2023) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.