It’s really amazing and still refreshing that this isn’t a story about being queer: it’s about characters who are messy and complicated and yes, also just so happen to be queer. In a very sweet and realistic way, we see the three of them come out to each other, at the same time, without any fuss or drama or fanfare.

Right off the bat, we learn that this kind of queer narrative is completely different from Her Name in the Sky: where Hannah’s friend group was mostly straight, Codi is a lesbian, Maritza bisexual, and JaKory gay. There’s some really excellent queer romance in this novel, but it comes in second to the platonic relationships, particularly those among Codi, our introverted, artistic main character, and her two best friends since forever, Maritza and JaKory.

Late to the Party accentuates Quindlen’s strengths as a writer by centering the novel on friendship.

Turns out, second chances are an apt theme for this entire review: they’re an important aspect of the novel, but also, giving Quindlen a second chance was easily one of the better decisions I’ve made all year. And so when I saw Meryl Wilsner (author of Something to Talk About, another excellent sapphic romance) raving about Quindlen’s new book Late to the Party, I was more than willing to give it a chance. And while I obviously don’t think queer novels centered on coming out are a bad thing-in a lot of ways, they’re necessary, especially to young queer kids-I’ve grown fatigued in recent years of reading stories about the pain that comes with discovering your queerness.īut the things I’d loved about Her Name in the Sky had left an impression on me. But on the other hand, this is a book about coming out-a painful, dramatic coming out that puts our main character through so much hell, it was really difficult, at times, to read about. On the one hand, I was really impressed with Quindlen’s writing: her characters felt so three-dimensional, and their relationships to each other were written so authentically, it was like taking a nostalgic trip back to my own high school days. Earlier this year, I decided to clear out my TBR list on Goodreads a little bit-the logic being, I suppose, that what is quarantine for, if not all the sapphic books you never got around to reading? As with any such endeavor, the results were a mixed bag-the good, the excellent, and the “ bizarre, but it was about witches ”-though there was one novel in particular I had a hard time parsing my feelings about: Her Name in the Sky, author Kelly Quindlen’s debut novel, which follows a queer teen named Hannah and her friends through their senior year of high school.

Late to the party by kelly quindlen