One of my favourite YA authors has done it again! While I was sceptical when I started to read the ‘Call It What You Want’ – flashbacks of previous books that have used the ‘school project’ plot element and many ended up telling the same story, but I persisted with it and I am so glad I did. A quick trigger warning notice – this book discusses attempted suicide, flashes of abuse between parents and their children, and discussions on abortion.
The story follows two; I suppose you would call them socially shunned students from the same high school – Rob and Meghan. Rob, previously of the popular crowd and well-known lacrosse player, has been abandoned by his best friend Connor and his old life when it came to light that his father (also known as Rob – it does get a little confusing) was caught embezzling funds to the tune of $7 million. The family have now lost everything, and with Rob (Jnr) having to come to terms with his father’s attempted suicide and new social pariah status, he attempts to set right the mistakes his father made – but how can he when everyone thinks he was in on it too?
Whereas Meghan, previous brainiac and of few friends, was found to have cheated on the SAT’s and consequently had the results of over 100 students thrown out. Now, with fewer friends than ever, she’s having to cope with snide comments at school as well as a crumbling family at home.
The two of them get partnered up in their calculus class – because who wants to work with a cheat and supposed thief? And the beginnings of an unlikely friendship is born…
As you can tell, the story is not as plain sailing as you would expect. It is quite typical of YA books to have a very strict story hero and story villain, with the hero often being perceived as perfect. Contrasting with the norm, the mistakes of the main characters (in this book) are very plain to see, and lets just say as the story progress the more secrets and mistakes are made and come to light. Call It What You Want challenges what we perceive our lead characters to be like and you question their decisions and motives. While you do root for Meghan and Rob, they are both deeply flawed – but like the book teaches, your mistakes do not have to define you, and we experience the journey of both of the leads being lost characters in their own senses, to being found.
Speaking of ‘lost’ things, the beginning premise of the book (here I’m talking about the school project) was kind of lost as time went on. They went to meet up to do the project a few times in the beginning but never actually got round to doing it at all and then it kind of gets lost? Not a massive criticism, but it was such a major point of disagreement in the beginning of the book that kind of just disappears.
The side plot follows Samantha (Meghan’s sister) who has recently returned from college and has announced to the family that she is unexpectedly (and by this I mean unplanned) pregnant. Throughout the story, we see Samantha struggle with her decision regarding her pregnancy as they had awarded her the previous year a full-ride scholarship to Duke – for playing lacrosse. Aside from following Meghan and Rob’s personal story arcs, I also really enjoyed reading the sisterly bond between Meghan and Samantha and how their relationship really blossoms throughout the book. As Samantha relies more and more on Meghan for support, we also see Samantha’s interactions with Rob as well (as they are both previous lacrosse players for the school, they would have had a very similar social standing at the school, and share similar interests) and I love their friendship as well.
If you pick this book up and believe it to be a run-of-the-mill YA set in high school (I know I did to a degree when I saw the school project element, but I had faith in Kemmerer’s storytelling) then please reconsider. Meghan and Rob are incredible characters, complex in ways I haven’t read in YA before but lovable all the same. And the twists at the end! Honestly, I kind of saw where we were heading, but I wasn’t expecting that AT ALL!
Have you read Call It What You Want yet? Brigid Kemmerer fan?
Thanks for reading, Rhi x.
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