Call Your Boyfriend

Gr 9 Up–Cole and Woodfolk team up for this queer YA romance about the masks we wear to protect ourselves. Beau Carl has been secretly hooking up with popular influencer and all-around high school “It” girl Maia Moon, but despite Maia’s frequent promises that she’s done with her boyfriend, she continues to keep her relationship with Beau on the downlow. Then Beau finds out that Maia has also been stringing along Charm Montgomery, her math tutor. In a common romance trope, Beau and Charm team up to get revenge on Maia for hurting them but end up catching feelings for each other. Although the chemistry between Beau and Charm seems clunky, the overarching message about what it means to perform an identity for others is nuanced and well done. All the characters could do with some more development, but the book achieves its main goal of being a fun queer romance that depicts the identity struggles young people face. Beau is white, Maia is biracial (Black and white), and Charm is Black.