REASONS TO HATE ME

In this debut, an autistic aspiring playwright pens a blog addressed to her bullies while questioning her sexuality and dealing with messy friend conflict.

“Reason #1: Because of me, you will never date the hottest guy in school,” begins Jess Lanza’s second blog entry addressed to the three classmates who’ve targeted her. Their persecution began in the aftermath of Jess’ kissing Noah, a fellow theater kid who’s dating her former best friend, Chloe, a Black-presenting girl who’s also autistic. Each blog post lists another reason for these bullies to hate Jess, who’s cued white, many of which are tongue-in-cheek (“I assault innocent people with baked goods, and I am reluctant to apologize for it”). In reality, Jess is desperate to make amends with Chloe. As Jess grows closer to athletic Cam, an attractive boy who has floppy blond hair, their friendship complicates her exploration into whether she’s asexual. Jess, who nurses a great love for Shakespeare and a longtime desire to attend the ultra-competitive dramatic writing program at Tisch, sometimes includes in her posts snippets of dialogue in a screenplay format to process the hypothetical scenarios she’s imagining. Unfortunately, meandering and unclear storytelling lessens the impact of the central conflict by muddying the stakes and undermining readers’ understanding of the characters’ motivations.

A potentially interesting drama in need of greater clarity.