MOST VALUABLE PLAYER

Everyone wants to date star quarterback Cameron Morelli, and he used to consider himself irresistible.

Darius, Cam’s team captain, warns him not to ask out androgynous water boy Mason Gray—who’s frail and has long lashes, and an appealingly symmetrical face—right before going on the field. As Darius puts it, “We need your ego for the game.” But Mason’s flat-out rejection still comes as a shock to Cam, who regards himself as “spectacularly attractive.” After this devastating romantic fumble, his night only gets worse. A traumatic memory provokes Cam into a fight with another player, his team loses, and his coach refuses to lift his suspension until his grades improve. His whole future rides on impressing a scout in an upcoming game, so Cam has no choice but to accept the help of the tutor his coach picks for him—Mason, the boy who clearly despises him. Behind the personas they play at school and their attractive appearances, which are repeatedly emphasized in the text, both Cam and Mason have traumatic pasts they’re desperate to keep secret. As the boys move from clashing to becoming lovers, their relationship veers into a dependent dynamic with Cam positioned as Mason’s protector, an unhealthy imbalance that would have benefited from being unpacked. The primarily white secondary characters unfortunately lack believable dimensionality. Like Mason, Cam is white, although he describes himself as having “the mysterious and sexy air of an ethnically ambiguous man.”

More uncomfortable than romantic.