THIS IS NOT A LOVE SCENE

A humorous, hearty novel about the realities (and fantasies) of being a teenager with a disability.

Maeve is a Fredericksburg, Virginia, 18-year-old looking for love, feeding her passion for film, and texting her friends. She also has “a form of muscular dystrophy,” and while she may be perceived as asexual, that doesn’t stop her from positively expressing her sexuality and flirting with any hot guy she sets her sights on, especially Cole Stone, an actor in a film she’s shooting. Maeve is fully aware that her disability does not diminish her worth, and while it does sometimes create insecurity, it never holds her back for long. Maeve fights a variety of ableist ideas and situations, yet, strangely, she doesn’t seem to consider certain events problematic, such as when a priest interrupts a parade to bless her. Unfortunately, Maeve’s best friend, Mags, isn’t always supportive—she is continually negative about Maeve’s romantic pursuits—and seems to be more of a tool for plot development than a fully formed character. Megale’s #ownvoices debut is narrated by Maeve with strings of fast-paced and memorable text messages interspersed throughout the text. The structure of the novel, with multiple points of tension and resolution, creatively maintains reader interest. The book assumes a white default for most characters; one of Maeve’s friends is black.

Readers will want to zoom in on this story featuring a strong, sexually confident, disabled female character.