Adorkable

Adorkable (2020) Shane K. Morton

I had some major problems with this story.

Let’s start with the biggest one first.

Billy’s best friend shows up to the most important class of her freshman year and crushes on the TA.

Then,

But I did think about asking you out to my fraternity’s mixer this weekend, if you are interested in being seen with a lowly grad student who fetches coffee and makes copies to get through school.”

I actually typed out a note when reading this, “No no no no no.”

Then this.

“You are going to be trouble,” he laughed loudly. “I don’t think that the professor would like me dating someone in the class I am the assistant for.”

“Then it’s a good thing we aren’t dating.”

My note, “Ugh. No. This is NOT ok.”

Why did I have issues with this? Because it’s a power imbalance. He is presented as having power in the course, which makes it difficult for her to say no to anything he might might ask.

Let me be clear, if he had waited until the class was over I’d have been fine with it. If he was the teachers research assistant and didn’t take part in the class, I’d have been far less squicked out. But the situation as it was presented was not ok. I don’t care that Gwen is presented as a take no shit kinda gal, it’s simply not acceptable. (Why yes, I was asked out by my TA my freshman year in college. I ended up dropping the class rather than trying to figure out how to say no to a second date.)

I almost quit reading then and there, but decided to continue, because I was curious about other elements.

I was also squicked out by Gwen feeling she had to join a sorority in order to get ahead in the world. But that was minor in comparison.

Then there were the cell phones–or rather the lack of them. Hell, a land line made an appearance.

The phone rang, and Billy rolled over to answer it. “Hello? Oh. great. Someone will be right down.” He hung the phone back on its receiver.

The lack of smart phone use, combined with the fact that Gwen and Billy listened to nothing by 80s music kept confusing me as to when this actually was set.

Then there were the typos. I generally am willing to cut self-pubbed books some slack for typos, but these were mixing up the names of the characters, which led to a great deal of confusion as to what the hell was going on.

I guessed the mystery element pretty quickly, but didn’t particularly mind that. What I did mind was that the denouement depended upon the characters not using cell phones for everything, like every normal teen and young adult in the world.

So, this didn’t work for me on multiple leaves. And I am still mad about the dating the TA bit.

Because NO. It’s not hot, it’s a super uncomfortable power imbalance.

Rating: 4/10

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