THE TEMPERATURE OF ME AND YOU

A lonely gay teen with a burning desire for love meets a mysterious new boy with explosive powers who is on the run from an evil corporation.

As the only openly gay boy in his grade, high school junior Dylan Highmark has few prospects for romance, even with the help of Perry and Kirsten, two cheerleaders who are his best friends. Although his parents enthusiastically (and annually) celebrate his coming out, Dylan has no LGBTQ+ peer community support, something further emphasized by his school’s Gay Straight Alliance, where he is the first gay member in years and most participants describe themselves as allies. Dylan is desperate to escape his Philadelphia suburb until Jordan Ator arrives and lights up his world, literally. Jordan moved from Arizona to escape HydroPro, the hydrogen fuel corporation responsible for his parents’ deaths and his own mutant fire powers following a car crash. Unfortunately, Jordan can’t control his combustibility, and HydroPro has no intention of letting him get away. Several times throughout this novel, characters express that their circumstances make no sense, a refrain that unfortunately captures both the unfolding plot and the foundation for the hydrogen-based superpowers. HydroPro knows Jordan’s location due to the string of publicized arsons connected to his powers, making their struggle to apprehend him unbelievable. There are many instances of casual fatphobia alongside the valorization of muscled bodies. Main characters read as White.

An interesting premise that fails to spark.