Date Me, Bryson Keller: TikTok made me buy it!

Product Information

Small Role, Big Impact: Louise Keaton, is mentioned sparingly in the novel but if it wasn't for her spilling soda on Kai's blazer, he would have never been late for drama class, get paired up with the equally late Bryson and initiated The Bet out of frustration. I look up from our arms. Our eyes meet and it’s totally unnerving. This is the closest I’ve ever been to Bryson Keller. I jerk my arm away. Bryson frowns. “Uh, yes. I’m free,” I answer. “Then how about we get together and at least decide on what movie we’re going to perform.” “Okay. Where?” “I know this great café,” Bryson says. “We can go there if you want?” “Sure.” “Meet me in the parking lot after school, then.” “Sounds like a plan.” I stand. “Where are you going?” he asks. “To beg for my life.” Mrs. Henning is seated in the front row, flipping through some notes. As I approach her, I take deep, calming breaths. She looks up. “What can I do for you, Kai?” “Uh, actually, ma’am…,” I start awkwardly. “I was wondering if— no, hoping that—that you’d let me out of detention today. I can do it tomorrow?” “Why would I do that?” Mrs. Henning asks. “You were late today. And so you must serve your punishment today.” “I was hoping to work on my script at lunch. I’m almost done and just need to do a bit more work to get it ready by the deadline. If I don’t, I won’t be able to submit.” “Time management matters, Kai. I understand that life happens, but I can’t give you any special treatment. On my way to audition for Elphaba, I broke my toe. But did I let that stop me? Of course not. I worked through the pain, made it on time, and was sensational.” There isn’t anything I can do or say now. The one thing I wanted for my senior year is slipping away. I would have loved to write the school play for my final year at Fairvale Academy—a small way for All the bad things that happen in Date Me, Bryson Keller feel like they only happen so that someone can condemn them. (Also so that Kai feels more lonely.) I said the book is a preachy bulshit and that is exactly what I meant. No opportunity is wasted to include a paragraph or two of someone defending an idea, and all of them have the subtlety of getting pummeled in the head with a sledgehammer. It’s also present in the narrative at other times, when Kai explains to readers how difficult it is to be a gay teen and how he hates it because love is love. MC: “Oh no. What next?” And one of the things I love about all of these rom-com tropes is they are so fun, they're so lighthearted, but at the same time, they're pivotal moments for the characters themselves.

The reader] says he actually teared up because it reminded him so much of his own experience. I think that's the amazing thing of having the story out there, having readers tell me that what I've written resonates with them. And having the story described as wish fulfillment, because for so many queer teens, this probably will never happen. Having this chance to escape into a world where anything is possible, it's exciting to hear that I gave them that, because Bryson Keller is wish fulfillment, escape, and where everyone gets to date the dream guy in high school. However, what I did appreciate about this story was the differing trajectories of Kai and Bryson coming to grips with their sexualities; the bit about there being no right way to get to the destination I thought an important one. Cool Kid-and-Loser Friendship: What others perceived Bryson and Kai as when they were secretly dating. KVW: It's a side of ridiculousness that's probably never going to happen in real life, but it's fun to imagine if it would. Ironic since this story bursting at the seams with social justice issues one of which being how queer kids never get the romcoms, HEAs and the like, instead being relegated to the funny friend or killed off. So I was surprised that not only was Date Me, Bryson Keller not funny but Kai, our protagonist, was put through the gauntlet.

MC: I love the tropes. They, like we were saying, make the story just feel that much more rich, more relatable, and they add that extra layer. There's so much you can do with tropes and they’re so much fun.

First of all, I love the fake dating trope, so I was excited when I read the synopsis! And the book itself did not disappoint. Actually, I'm not sure if "fake-dating" should be used to describe this book. They are certainly fake-dating, I guess, for a day or two at most -in secret (???) and both of the characters fall in love almost immediately, senselessly, profoundly. This was so unbelievable that made the rest of the story difficult for me. So yeah, there wasn't the slow-burn I love in the fake-dating trope, just... full romance. MC: Definitely. Rom-coms, queer literature, it's all so in the moment and so relevant. And it's such a good time too, because I feel like queer teens, especially, need to see themselves in this type of story. They want to see, and I want to see, and I'm sure so many other people want to see, more characters like this coming into a more mainstream narrative and becoming more commercial, because there are so many queer teens out there. This is a story that, personally, I would have loved to have when I was in high school. Token Trio: Kai (mixed-race and homosexual) and his two best friends Donny (wealthy, caucasian) and Priya (female, Indian) form this. The Bryson that appears in the finished draft is vastly different from the one who first showed up in my earlier drafts. I really have my editor to thank for that. She pushed me to make him as developed as Kai.

Success!

Kai Sheridan didn’t expect Bryson to say yes. So when Bryson agrees to secretly go out with him, Kai is thrown for a loop. But as the days go by, he discovers there’s more to Bryson beneath the surface, and dating him begins to feel less like an act and more like the real thing. Kai knows how the story of a gay boy liking someone straight ends. With his heart on the line, he’s awkwardly trying to navigate senior year at school, at home, and in the closet, all while grappling with the fact that this “relationship” will last only five days. After all, Bryson Keller is popular, good-looking, and straight . . . right? Everyone knows about the dare: Each week, Bryson Keller must date someone new–the first person to ask him out on Monday morning. Few think Bryson can do it. He may be the king of Fairvale Academy, but he’s never really dated before. In a word, in a phrase? It’s a preachy bulshit. If you’re looking for a light, cute gay romcom, you should keep looking. This book is not it. The tone is very preachy, as mentioned before, but also basic and not nuanced at all; sounds more like an adult telling the story. The most important part of writing YA books is nailing down teens’ voice and this book failed at that miserably. It’s cringy and embarrassing, and takes a lot of effort to get through. That Steve Buscemi “How do you do, fellow kids?” meme? That’s exactly this book’s energy.