Date Me, Bryson Keller by Kevin van Whye
Genre: YA Realistic Fiction
Blurb (on back of book):
What If It's Us meets To All the Boys I've Loved Before in this upbeat and heartfelt boy-meets-boy romance that feels like a modern twist on a '90s rom-com!
Everyone knows about the dare: Each week, Bryson Keller must date someone new--the first person to ask him out on Monday morning. Few think Bryson can do it. He may be the king of Fairvale Academy, but he's never really dated before.
Until a boy asks him out, and everything changes.
Kai Sheridan didn't expect Bryson to say yes. So when Bryson agrees to secretly go out with him, Kai is thrown for a loop. But as the days go by, he discovers there's more to Bryson beneath the surface, and dating him begins to feel less like an act and more like the real thing. Kai knows how the story of a gay boy liking someone straight ends. With his heart on the line, he's awkwardly trying to navigate senior year at school, at home, and in the closet, all while grappling with the fact that this "relationship" will last only five days. After all, Bryson Keller is popular, good-looking, and straight . . . right?
Kevin van Whye delivers an uplifting and poignant coming-out love story that will have readers rooting for these two teens to share their hearts with the world--and with each other.
MY OPINION: ******
If I could have highlighted every single line of this book, I would have.
I absolutely adored this book. Just from seeing the blurb, I knew I had to read it. I was not at all disappointed and it honestly surpassed my expectations.
Kai is not the most popular kid at school. He's always the plus one to parties and not many people care about him. His two best friends are dating, so he's always the third wheel between them. Nobody knows that he's gay, not even his best friends or his family. Bryson Keller is the exact opposite. He's the most popular kid in the grade, he's good-looking and well-known, and everybody seems to love him. However, Bryson doesn't believe in high school relationships. He agrees to a dare: he will date the first person to ask him out every Monday morning for the next three months to try to prove his point that high school relationships are not real.
For the next couple of months, the dare continues and Bryson continues to have a new girlfriend every week, though he never does anything physical between them (this is important!). Kai has kept his secret and is content where he's at. However, one Monday morning, Kai finds himself in trouble for being late because of an incident involving his ex-girlfriend. Bryson is also late on the same day and they are forced to suffer the same detention together. Kai has never really spoken to Bryson but with a sudden burst of confidence, he decides to ask Bryson out, making Bryson the first person to know he's gay. Kai is the first boy to ask Bryson out, but Bryson agrees to it and keeps Kai's secret for him (aww).
Kai is convinced Bryson is straight but he finds himself falling for him nevertheless (and honestly, I don't blame him). Bryson is the perfect fake boyfriend, doing all the right things and acting like it's real. He even holds Kai's hand, breaking his rule of no physical touching in the fake relationships. Kai is confused about where Bryson's sexuality lies because it seems that Bryson might actually like him more than Kai thought.
Bryson is an absolute sweetheart. I am convinced there is not a mean bone in his body. He is so kind to Kai and treats him right the way anyone deserves to be treated in a romantic relationship.
I loved this book with all my heart. It tackled serious topics, including coming out, homophobia, and the questioning of sexuality. Coming out should always be a person's choice and it's cruel and heartbreaking that other people think that they can control when someone comes out by "outing" them against their will. Aside from that, as Bryson says, "love is love". Everyone should be entitled to love whomever they want with no judgment from others. So long as everyone feels safe and happy in the relationship, it should not matter to anyone else. Bryson's best friend's reaction to Bryson's coming out was truly disgusting. I'm so glad that Kai stopped him before he used the forbidden word that should be truly eliminated from our language. It's disgusting, offensive, cruel, and discriminatory. Kai's parent's reactions were understandable for the most part, despite me not feeling happy with how they reacted. However, I can understand that it was a lot for his parents to take in, especially since Kai didn't get to tell them the way that he wanted to.
I loved the way that Bryson treated Kai. He never judged him, not even in the beginning when he first found out Kai was gay. He always treated him right and with love and respect and he continued to take care of him no matter what people said or thought about him. When Kai was hurting, Bryson didn't press for answers and instead was just a shoulder for Kai to cry on. Bryson was everything I am convinced does not exist in real life in a teenage boy but I'm glad that he was there for Kai. I wish I could forget this book existed so that I could pick it up and read it all over again as if it were for the first time.
I loved the way that this book dealt with sexuality. Bryson wasn't pressured to put a label on himself, despite his realization that he liked both girls and boys. Since he had never liked a boy before Kai, it didn't necessarily mean he was bi or gay and he could have just had such a strong connection with Kai. There was no pressure to put labels on anything. I loved the conversations they had about sexuality and why the automatic default is considered straight. I have a lot of friends who are a part of the LGBTQ+ community but they don't feel the need to necessarily put a label on themselves and it's refreshing to see that in a young adult novel since many that I've read have set labels on each character (not that it's bad to identify as gay or lesbian or bi or pan, etc). As Kai says, "That’s the thing with labels: they tend to stick to you like unwanted gum. It’s why I’m so careful not to be labeled." People tend to see your sexuality as the biggest part of you, such as saying "oh, he's the gay kid" when in reality it's not the most important part of a person. Remember: "being gay is never a choice" as said so artfully by Kai.
One thing I would like to say is that bisexuality and pansexuality do exist, which I think Kai failed to grasp. He seemed to keep pushing the idea that one can only be straight or gay and nothing in between, but that's definitely not true. It would have been nice to see the author mention that Bryson may have been bi, not just gay or straight.
Some quotes I loved:
"Living your truth is important, but sometimes living the lie is what keeps you warm, fed, looked after…breathing. Sometimes hiding is the difference between life and death."
"Being closeted has meant that I’ve always just had to listen and ignore the homophobic stuff because I’ve never wanted to put the spotlight on me."
"It’s unfair how heterosexuals get to love, laugh, and live so freely, while we second-guess everything. Our actions are always cautious."
"The truth is that I don’t know if I’m gay. Yes, I like you, but does that mean I’m gay, too?"
As a final note, I would like to insert this beautiful quote. "On this Friday night, we are just two boys kissing because we want to, because we like each other. And there is nothing at all wrong with that. Because love is love is love." Love whoever you want.
I would recommend this book to readers looking for an adorable, fluffy, fun LGBTQ+ romance!
Main Character: Kai
Sidekick(s): Bryson, etc
Villain(s): Homophobia, coming out, labels, etc
Realistic Fiction Elements: This book is all very real to life.
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