The Rules of Us

March 15, 2023
A girl's plans for college, love, and the future are derailed. Jillian always has a plan: She knows she and her boyfriend, Henry, will win scholarships for New York state students that will allow them to attend college together, study video game design, and found the ultimate video game company. But instead of enjoying the night of their junior prom, Jillian and Henry come out to each other as gay. Jillian implements a new set of rules to keep their future on track--after all, they're still best friends, and their academic and career goals haven't changed. But when the scholarship committee requires supplemental evidence showing their well-roundedness, Henry enrolls in Mandarin at a community college, and Jillian joins crew--and in the process, they both develop new romantic entanglements. Jillian's narrative voice is engaging, depicting her complex and evolving relationships and self-image despite her strict self-moderation. The discussions of labels for sexuality, developing independent selves, and exploring a variety of relationships are mature and subtle. Similarly, Jillian's blinkered reactions to Henry's own evolution are empathetically and realistically depicted as he deals with subjects such as his anxiety and connection to his Korean heritage (Jillian is White). The exploration of both main characters' family issues is well done. The queer romances are sweet and slow burn, but they form the background to Jillian's internal struggles. A heartfelt journey into a teen's emotional and internal evolution. (Fiction. 14-18)

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March 20, 2023
On the night that Jillian Bortles approaches her longtime boyfriend, Henry Yoo, about losing their virginities to each other, the unexpected happens—they both come out to one another as queer. Despite the revelation, the two New Yorkers vow to remain best friends and continue to pursue the future they’ve been building together, which involves snagging the coveted Purdy Memorial Scholarship, attending Oneida Polytechnic Institute, and starting their own video game company. They enter the summer with a set of rules meant to guarantee their success in staying friends: “no fighting, no messing around, no more running, Purdy first.” But when the Purdy scholarship committee requests that they sign up for summer experiences that demonstrate their well-roundedness, Jillian and Henry find themselves separated for the first time ever, and new crushes, old hurts, and tightly held secrets create fissures in their friendship. Through Jillian’s intense and emotionally raw first-person POV, Nissley (The Mythic Koda Rose) depicts the duo’s codependent relationship and eventual untangling with earnest nuance, making for a tender portrait of a girl on the cusp of adulthood trying to reconcile the future she thought she’d have with the one she is heading toward. Jillian is white and Henry is Korean. Ages 14–up. Agent: Danielle Burby, Mad Woman Literary.

May 1, 2023

Gr 9 Up-Long-term couple Jillian and Henry have a carefully crafted plan: get the scholarship of their dreams so they can go to the school of their dreams and study video game design. Their plan doesn't include them unexpectedly coming out to each other on prom night at the end of their junior year. What follows is a spectacularly messy untangling from their completely codependent lives. Henry is ready for a life separate from Jillian before she is, leading to hurt feelings and jealousy that threaten their chance of finding a way to remain friends. Her long-simmering crush on her crew teammate, Carla, might be just the thing she needs to be able to move forward. Unfortunately, the story often strains credulity. For example, their singular focus on a singular scholarship when there are many other scholarship options is explained away in a quick sentence toward the end of the book, which is dissatisfying and doesn't match with what we know about Jillian and Henry's meticulous planning up to that point. The characters also lack consistency, which makes some of their choices seem sudden and confusing, especially Jillian's exploration of her queer identity and feelings for Henry and new love interest Carla. Henry and his new love interest are Korean American. Jillian is white. Many secondary characters have a variety of cued racial and gender identities. VERDICT There are better messy coming out books, like Leah Johnson's You Should See Me in a Crown or Brandy Colbert's Little & Lion. A secondary purchase.-Katie Patterson

Copyright 2023 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 15, 2023
Grades 9-12 Jillian Bortles (white) and Henry Yoo (Korean American) have been inseparable for years, and they have big plans for a future together. But on the night of junior prom, Henry comes out as gay, forcing Jillian to confront the fact that she has been thinking a lot about another girl at school. They try to remain best friends, but their connection becomes tenuous as summer arrives and they start keeping secrets (and crushes) from each other. Henry goes off to take a Mandarin course and round out his education for a potential scholarship, leaving Jillian with more time alone. So she joins crew as her own extracurricular, which just so happens to mean she'll get to see the girl she likes a lot more often. Nissley's nuanced storytelling covers a multitude of big, messy topics without ever feeling didactic. Though the story is told from Jillian's perspective, all the characters are well-rounded, and the narrative feels urgent and vulnerable. This is a sensitive and compelling story of love, queerness, friendship, and self-discovery.

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