Shelf Awareness--Ophelia After All

YA Review: Ophelia After All

Ophelia After All by Racquel Marie (Feiwel & Friends, 352p., ages 13-up, 9781250797308)

In Ophelia After All, debut author Racquel Marie serves up a humorous and compelling slice of high-school life that's lovingly populated by characters with varied sexual orientations and racial and ethnic backgrounds, all intent on finding their way through a year of tumultuous romantic ups and downs.

Senior prom is quickly approaching, and Ophelia Rojas is indulging in many a "swoonworthy" fantasy involving the perfect date. She wants "the pretty poster, the bouquet of flowers, the silly social media post with the punny caption about saying yes to the promposal." Ophelia has always been known for "drooling" over cute guys, and her friends and family assume that she's on the alert for new crush-worthy male specimens to romanticize.

Sometimes, though, when Ophelia lets her mind wander, "someone stands out against the collection of boys" she dreams about, and this one "shouldn't--doesn't--belong there." Ophelia is becoming increasingly fascinated with Talia Sanchez, a classmate Ophelia knows "once kissed a girl and liked it." And, when one of Ophelia's literature professor mom's students launches into a homophobic monologue regarding a performance casting Hamlet as a lesbian, Ophelia surprises herself by dumping a drink on his head. Ophelia is worried because admitting she may be questioning her sexuality goes against everything everybody knows about her, including her Cuban American father and white mother with whom she has always happily shared her emotions. In anger and frustration over her inability to share her newfound feelings, she manages to alienate almost everyone she cares about. How can Ophelia be sure her loved ones will like this new version of her?

Marie's story of questioning and coming out in high school is a multilayered look at high school romance and the benefits, as well as the confining aspects, of long-held group friendships. Her fully realized characters believably love, fight, banter and support one another during this momentous last year of high school. Ophelia is the ultimate romantic, and the story paints a compelling picture of a young woman coming to terms with what exactly that word means for her. Whether accepting who she is will get her more dates than before remains to be seen, but readers will hope she "[w]on't miss being straight. Not one bit." --Lynn Becker, reviewer, blogger, and children's book author.

Shelf Talker: In this funny-yet-fraught young adult novel, boy-crazy high school senior Ophelia's world is upended when she finds herself crushing on a girl.