HATING JESSE HARMON

Sparks fly when a bookworm and a football player are paired up in a prom-centered romance.

At her football coach father’s request, Frances, a sardonic, fat high schooler, must tutor popular athlete Jesse to keep him from flunking English so he can stay on the team. Shortly after standing up for autistic classmate Sonny in a lunchroom confrontation, Frances is nominated for prom queen and decides to go for it to prove a point to the school’s elite. As Frances and Jesse start spending time together, they gradually start having feelings for each other. Alternating point-of-view chapters shift between Frances’ and Jesse’s perspectives. Sonny also gets a few chapters, but her portrayal is stereotypical and problematic: She is treated like a mascot by Frances and her friends, who call her Caterpillar as her utterances consist of recitations of caterpillar facts. Sonny primarily feels like a plot device for Frances’ growth; Frances is repeatedly shown as her savior. Ableist terms like spaz, nuts, and crazy are used throughout, and Frances’ internalized fatphobia would have benefited from examination. An underdeveloped gay relationship comes across as tokenizing. Frances, who has been cynical and sometimes cruel about her mother’s recovery from alcoholism, is unconvincing in her attempt to grow in understanding. Sonny is cued as Latine; most other characters are presumed White.

Rife with problematic disability tropes and held back by flat characterization.