FRENEMY OF THE PEOPLE

A bisexual teen girl whose house is being foreclosed upon falls in love with the rebellious lesbian daughter of investment bankers.

Outspoken Clarissa, attending an equestrian awards ceremony with her three best friends, has the sudden realization that she is bisexual. Activist Lexie, who broke up with her first girlfriend a few months earlier, is making plans to apply to a college that takes teenagers midway through high school. When Clarissa’s sister, Desi, who has Down syndrome, decides to run for homecoming queen, a not-entirely-convincing sequence of events leads Clarissa to ask for Lexie’s help with the campaign and Lexie to agree. Housing foreclosures and the dubiously legal related activities of banks are well-illustrated in accessible and emotionally resonant detail. The interpersonal relationships are at times less convincing: Readers are told that Clarissa and Lexie have an immediate antipathy, but it seems more that they just come from different walks of high school life. The two girls move from hostility to declaring their love for each other with confusing speed, and an incident involving the horse Clarissa’s family has been forced to sell fails to create a believable misunderstanding between the pair.

Despite some enjoyable storytelling and informative detail, an uneven romance.