Christina (A Reader of Fictions)'s Reviews> Odd One Out

** spoiler alert ** Odd One Outwasn't really what I was expecting out of this bisexual love triangle book. It's a decent readalike for Julie Murphy'sRamona Blueif you thought that one didn't have sufficient drama. It's sort ofRamona Bluemeets Dawson's Creek.

Odd One Outconsists of three POVs: Courtney "Coop" Cooper, Rae Chin, and Jupiter Charity-Sanchez. Rather than switching back and forth, the book's broken into three sections and they proceed in the listed order. While this works, I do think the swapping helps convey the emotions others are experiencing as something goes down and to pick up the same scene from different viewpoints, which may have helped a bit here.

Right off the bat, Courtney annoyed me, because he's crushing really hard on his best friend, Jupiter aka Jupe. He knows she's a lesbian, but he refuses to give up the dream of her wanting him someday. He gets jealous of anyone she's texting, and he dates other girls briefly just because she tells him to get a girlfriend. Probably she does that because the way he constantly pervs on her (like telling her to change when she's in skimpy clothes in her own room and when she refuses, showing her that he has a boner—he doesn't flash it but still yuck). I've had guy friends crush on me when I wasn't interested, and it's pretty fucking terrible without the added element of him basically denying her sexuality and hoping his penis will make things happen.

It's really hard for me to believe that Jupe and Coop, who are neighbors, are allowed to sleep together in one or the other's bed basically every single night. The parents were like "Jude's a lesbian, so it's fine," which, like, does that really happen outside of pop culture? I also can't fathom the idea that Jupe's unaware that Coop's in love with her and wants to have sex with her, because guys aren't subtle, and again he even reveals that he has basically a constant boner in her presence and he's constantly checking her out. Even more minor experiences with guy friends were deeply uncomfortable and had me slamming on the brakes and putting distance between us, and, with how well she knows him, none of this would have been a surprise. So basically I find this relationship rather toxic, as do Coop's friends, who were the only characters in the book I mostly ended up liking.

Rae ends up becoming friends with both Jupe and Coop. She and Jupe bond over the fact that they're both biracial, and she and Coop bond over their love of/trauma from a children's show they both watched. Honestly, the missing star of the children's show plot was weird af, and I really feel like that needed to be made much more significant or be edited out. As it is, it feels like an artificial way to bring Coop and Rae together as friends, since it doesn't really seem like Rae has much in common with either of them. I'd have preferred to see Coop and Rae truly bond over cheerleading, but that actual common interest isn't really used. Also, the cheerleading stuff is so much more interesting imo.

Rae's half-Asian and half-white, and she's always felt really out of place, having previously lived in a predominantly white community. She also has major trust issues because her mother and then her sister left her. Jupe and Coop appear to be her first real friends. Again, I had a bit of trouble with this, because clearly Rae's really attractive since both Jupe and Coop are super into her immediately, and she's a cheerleader. Maybe times have changed, but through the lens of my high school experience, this really doesn't add up to Rae being the incredibly awkward, nerdy, friendless loner she's made out to be. (I say this as someone who was an awkward, nerdy, friendless loner.) Her POV, like the children's show plot line that makes up much of it, does feel somewhat unnecessary. She ends up feeling like a red herring or something. She has a POV so you think that she might end up with one of them or that the book will end in an OT3. That's not how things go.

In theory, I should love Rae, because she's a dork who's obsessed with words and crossword puzzles. However, I also had issues with her behavior that go beyond just being a teen. She forces a kiss on Jupe who had said no, because she didn't want to be Rae's experiment. She does apologize, though. Worse, though, she continues to flirt with and touch Rae at every opportunity, particularly once she's decided she wants to date Courtney. Again, it's another super shitty friendship.

Things get much worse when we get to Jupe's POV, and not just because sometimes it's in second person for some reason and then switches back to first. At the very end of Rae's, Rae confesses to Jupe that she has a crush on Coop, and Jupe encourages her to go for it. When we flip into Jupe's POV, we learn that Jupe was just about to confess her own feelings for Rae. Jupe then decides that she cannot bear the idea of Rae having something of Coop that Jupe does not, so she offers Coop sex with her for his birthday.

Jupe and Coop proceed to hook up for a couple weeks, and Jupe really loves the sex, but, inevitably, Rae confesses her feelings to Coop, who proceeds to ask Jupe for advice. BUT, of course, he sees a message from Rae on her phone about it and realizes that Jupe knew this was coming, and they cease being friends for a while. Courtney DATES RAE ANYWAY. Even though he has been "in love" with Jupe for the entirety of the book and obviously is even more in feels because of all the sex they've been having. GAH WHY.

Jupe's a mess at this point because she doesn't want to say that she's not a lesbian because people will think she was fixed by a magical penis, so she decides to test herself by having sex with her lesbian friend, Bri. Bri's hesitant to begin anything with her and explicitly says she doesn't want to be involved with girls who also enjoy the peen (she doesn't know about the sex with Coop and also this attitude is awful) and that this will change things. Basically, she's like please only have sex with me if you're really into this, and Jupe's all in. They have sex and Jupe enjoys it but does not get the feels, so she ghosts Bri.

With the help of Coop's friends, aka the only ones in the book who openly communicate about anything, Jupe decides no label fits and comes out to the GSA at school as label-less but liking both girls and at least one boy. In short order, everything's fine. Coop and Rae break up, and apparently they weren't serious anyway because he couldn't bear to kiss anyone but Jupe (except after he learned she had sex with Bri—ugh these kids and using people). Rae forgives Jupe and Coop, and they're not friends again yet but probably will be soon. Everyone is fine. There aren't really emotional scars.

I've talked before about how much I love a well done love triangle, but this is not that. The thing that bugs me is that Rae's just there as a distraction. Neither of them seem to have a particularly authentic connection to Rae, aside from finding her hot. And, in the end, when they get together, Rae conveniently doesn't care so everything is fine and dandy. The character arcs in this book just are not where they need to be to make this work.

Also, sexualities are complicated, no doubt, and a girl who thought she was a lesbian can find out that she's bisexual or pansexual or something else she's not sure how to label yet. I thoughtRamona Bluehandled the lesbian ends up falling in love with a boy plot line pretty well. It's not my favorite plot line by any means, but it can be done with nuance. Here, though, it did bother me that he had been lusting for her for years and ends up getting what he wants. The fact that they were friends all those years, and he was just waiting and hoping for this really rubs me the wrong way.

Though I do love Stone's motivation in writing the book, helping questioning teens to know that it's okay to wrestle with their identity, I feel like it gets a bit lost in all the dirtbag stuff all three are doing to one another and to others. I did like the fact that Coop is a male cheerleader and Jupe's dads, and the fact that Rae's being lovingly raised by her single father. Unfortunately, I just didn't like the main characters, or, at least, I did not like them together. For once, I wanted a book not to be romance.