I had my own whirlwind summer just last year, at twenty-one and eleven-twelfths-the first time I'd ever been out dancing at a club, the first time I sat around with a group of people my own age just hanging out, and getting to be someone new. The friendships are real, tumultuous but caring, and the relationships felt so raw in every way, and it was wholly good.

This is distinctly coming-of-age, and there is coming-out, but the book isn't about coming-out-as-queer as much as it is about emerging as your own person. I also loved how delightfully queer this book was-and how it's about finding yourself while being queer, not finding that you're queer.

This book showed a side of the Cool Kids and the Losers that wasn't stereotypical, that blended the two groups together and showed that they weren't so different after all. Ricky and Codi's friendship was everything to me peak mlm/wlw solidarity, and I loved it. I fell in love with all the side characters, too. It was so inspiring I loved reading about her character growth. To brave rejection and terror with the chance of trying new things. I have fairly severe social anxiety, and even though Codi doesn't I loved seeing her challenge that and fight through it so she could make friends. She's a typical wallflower-shy and nervous to talk to people, and it was so wonderful to see her open up. I could relate SO MUCH to Codi, and I found her such a wonderful narrator. Late to the Party is a great queer coming-of-age about self-discovery and friendship and experiencing all the firsts of life. When I picked up this book, I was not expecting it to make me ache for things I've never done, friends I've never had, and a teenagerhood I never got. Late to the Party is an ode to late bloomers and wallflowers everywhere. The only problem? Codi never tells Maritza or JaKory about any of it.įrom author Kelly Quindlen comes a poignant and deeply relatable story about friendship, self-acceptance, what it means to be a Real Teenager. In return for never talking about that kiss, Ricky takes Codi under his wing and draws her into a wild summer filled with late nights, new experiences, and one really cute girl named Lydia. Straight kids.īut then Codi stumbles upon one of those cool kids, Ricky, kissing another boy in the dark, and an unexpected friendship is formed. So when Maritza and JaKory suggest crashing a party, Codi is highly skeptical. It’s because she and her two best friends, Maritza and JaKory, spend more time in her basement watching Netflix than engaging with the outside world. She’s never crashed a party, never stayed out too late. Seventeen is nothing like Codi Teller imagined.

Late to the party by kelly quindlen