The Pursuit of Miss Heartbreak Hotel

April 15, 2019
Lucy "Lu" Butler is in heart-wrenching, agonizing love. Lu believes there are only two kinds of love: "Never-Ending Pending Love" and "Happily Never After," and she assumes that both end in heartbreak. Lu first pines for her English teacher, Ms. Hayes, but after a high-stakes chance encounter in the bathroom with her former best friend, Evelyn "Eve" Brooks, Lu's feelings shift. Unfortunately, Miss Popular Eve is dating the school's universally beloved Nate Gray, and Lu doesn't know how to own and accept her sexuality let alone pursue a former friend. Lu's senior year brings heartache, loss, and complication: an aging grandmother, an absent mother, an overworked father who spends more hours performing trauma surgery than at home, conflicts with her sister, and growing doubts about her long-held assumption that she'll grow up to be a doctor too. Although Bonneau's debut novel offers an unconventional lesbian romance and is narrated in original language, the confluence of young adult tropes feels slightly derivative: stress around prom, using drugs to escape, pining lust, and insurmountable familial conflict--none of which is explored in sufficient depth. The prose is highly stylized and evokes the mid-20th century: cigarettes are "tars," friends are "apple-Jacks," and girls are "betties." The onslaught of invented slang is ultimately disorienting, distracting readers from the heart of the novel--a tender, queer coming-of-age story. All characters are assumed white. An experimental story that teaches young readers that love takes courage. (Romance. 14-18)

COPYRIGHT(2019) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

July 12, 2019

Gr 9 Up-Lucy dashes into the bathroom after an unfortunate borrow-sweater-from-beautiful-teacher-start-your-period-and-bleed-on-it incident. And bam, she sees Eve who has just taken a pregnancy test. "Ours is an age-old tale of two betties, apple-jacks forever, when suddenly one goes ace gorgeous and then, naturally, massive popular. Said popular betty ditches other, unsaid, unpopular betty for superhit cool crowd. Girls don't speak again for four years, until a chance meeting reunites them while they await together the results of an underage preg exam" (the results are negative). Lucy more than misses Eve; she loves her. But Eve is "too taken. Too straight." Or is she? As their senior year unfolds, Lucy and Eve experience a gradual coming back together. The death of Lucy's grandmother throws her into an existential quandary, prompting changes. Lucy and Eve come out during their senior year, to varying responses. Plot-wise, this book treads familiar ground. Girl loves girl; girl gets girl after they graduate high school and live authentically. Yet the plot seems like a minor detail. The stunning originality of the neo-beat writing sets this novel apart from standard young adult fare. Phrases such as "bestest apple jack," "flip flapping betties," and "dragging tars" fill the page. VERDICT Fans of Jack Kerouac and the Beat Generation should dig the language, and those looking for a refreshing, normalized treatment of a triumphant lesbian love story may enjoy this tale of two true-blue betties reunited.-Laura Falli, McNeil High School, Austin, TX

Copyright 2019 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from May 1, 2019
Grades 10-1 *Starred Review* Lu is ready to graduate from high school without letting anyone, not even her two bestest apples, Zoe and Maya, get close to her heart's truth. Her quiet pining for a lovely English teacher comes to an abrupt end when simultaneous bathroom dramas reunite Lu with Eve, her long-lost middle-school bestie. The two parted ways when Eve turned gorgeous and soared through high school on a popular-girl trajectory, while Lu bonded with likable fellow misfits. But that doesn't seem to matter now: the intervening years drain away as Lu carefully but ardently schemes a way back into Eve's orbit. Lu's exuberantly original narrative propels the reader through a roller coaster of emotions that includes not only the nerve-wracking pursuit of Eve but also the death of a beloved grandmother and the bittersweet nostalgia of high school's final days. Although Lu's loneliness is in large part due to her closeted sexuality, many teens will relate to the sense of isolation she feels in relation to family and friends. In her debut novel, Bonneau expertly wrangles slang expressions into snappy dialogue and vibrant introspection with an ease reminiscent of Francesca Lia Block. Hand this to teens looking for same-sex romance or offbeat, character-driven storytelling.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)