Summary
Bex is finally in LA. She has put everything towards this for the last few years. She’s saved money, put up with crummy jobs, and researched and applied for jobs and internships. She’s done everything she could conceive of to make this happen. And now she’s here. She has an internship on her favorite TV show, Silver Falls, a show about werewolves and those hunting them down. She’ll be in the writer’s room, learning everything she can to eventually break into TV writing and production.
The showrunner is supposed to be writing a script for an upcoming episode, and so far he’s produced nothing. And this episode needs to be BIG – it needs to turn things up a notch. So Bex writes a script. The showrunner probably won’t use it – he’s been a jerk since Bex showed up on the lot. But she can show some initiative and some of her ideas. Bex’s script shows the female lead of Silver Falls getting a new love interest. A female love interest.
Bex is still wrapping her mind around her own sexuality and trying to figure out how to come out to her family and friends. But she understands how to write this relationship. And she knows Silver Falls, so she knows how to write well for these characters.
The showrunner decides to use Bex’s script. But when he “straight-washes” her storyline, Bex will have to decide how much she is willing to risk to see her story – and characters who share her sexual identity – on television.
Review
This story really came alive for me when everything started to fall apart. When Bex and her friends – both on and off the show – band together to fight the system and the individuals who want to silence them, I couldn’t read fast enough to see how it would all play out. It was fantastic!
There’s a thread of the story that’s about Bex’s personal development – her sexuality, her upbringing in a home with lots of love but little money, and her decisions about what to do with her voice and her opportunities in LA and on Silver Falls. The other thread is the “we’re not going to take it any more” rebellion. For me, that was the stronger thread. Since both have to work together, of course both were good. But the rebellion left me cheering and talking back to the characters of the book. I love when the underdog fights back.
I’ve read several books lately with gay romantic story lines in an effort to build my understanding of people and groups outside my own frame of reference. It’s been intentional. I think my faith calls me to love everyone, and I can’t do that well if people who are racially or ethnically different from me, or those with a different sexual orientation feel “foreign” or “other.” I strongly believe that my empathy and compassion grows as I know and understand people who think or live differently from me – and reading helps me do that. It helps me make better book recommendations, too, when I read widely.
If you love Hollywood stories, don’t miss this one. Even more, if you like stories where the oppressed/maligned stand up for themselves, be sure to check this one out. If you are curious to try a gay romance (F/F), this one is fairly mild as far as descriptions of the couple’s physical relationship go (kissing, descriptions of romantic feelings, and a physical encounter that takes place off-page) – pretty standard stuff for YA heterosexual romances. (Language)
