Date Me, Bryson Keller: TikTok made me buy it!

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Reclaiming an asian work as one of your own to supposedly "critique" it does not sit well. Trying to perfect another person of colour's work by contextualizing it for a western audience is so wrong. This simply isn't 'inspiration', it is ripping off the hard work of another author without giving credit where it is due. The fact that he would have said nothing about his supposed 'heavy inspiration' if people didn't catch him speaks volumes. This author thought he could escape and profit from stealing someone else's work. That brave boy who does the asking is the POV character, Kai Sheridan. And it wasn’t actually bravery on his part, just an impulsive (and immediately regretted) moment of exasperation. Kai has long known he’s gay, but always intended to keep it a secret until he was away at college and starting a new life. Coming out to anyone — much less Bryson, whom he barely knows — was never part of the plan. The tone is very preachy, as mentioned before, but also basic and not nuanced at all; sounds more like an adult telling the story. The most important part of writing YA books is nailing down teens’ voice and this book failed at that miserably. It’s cringy and embarrassing, and takes a lot of effort to get through. That Steve Buscemi “How do you do, fellow kids?” meme? That’s exactly this book’s energy. MC: I couldn't agree more. And thank you so much for telling your story and giving us this amazing lesson.

However, what I did appreciate about this story was the differing trajectories of Kai and Bryson coming to grips with their sexualities; the bit about there being no right way to get to the destination I thought an important one. MC: I love it. Date Me, Bryson Keller is such a feel-good escapist piece of fiction, but like we're talking about right now, it doesn't shy away from the real issues of coming out and facing the world as a member of the LGBTQIA+ community. So while there's so much fun and sweetness throughout, there's also a lot of real-talk moments that really resonated with me and I'm sure, and hopeful, will resonate with a lot of queer teens. So if there's one thing that you would want a young queer person listening to the story to take away, what do you think it would be? Even though it was a fluffy book for the most part, there were also some awful moments that Kai especially had to go through. It was devastating to read and I'm quite glad with how things turned out in the end, even though some resolutions felt a bit rushed and easy.KVW: I think the overall message, because the final line in the book is, "Gay means happy too, you know." We’re so wrapped up in the pain of being queer and not being accepted, for some of us, that it takes away from the fact that we actually deserve to be happy, we deserve happy endings. It doesn't have to be a romantic relationship to be a happy ending, but just that you deserve to be happy in whatever you do. You being queer doesn't make you less than anyone else. There is no normal when you stop believing that straight is normal. And I think that was what I wanted to show with this book. Yes, it may be a bit rough for a lot of us on this journey, but hopefully we can be happy because we deserve to be. Without giving away any spoilers, my favorite scene was their date. I had so much fun writing about two boys just being able to have fun and date freely. It was a dream date experience which was so fun to create.

If you know me you are aware that I’m not much of a television watcher. Especially since the invention of subscription services - mainly because I’m terrified that I might become one of these people . . . .No voy a indagar más en este tema por no cabrearme, pero vamos, me parece muy fuerte que el/la autor/autora pase esta historia como propia, cualquier lector de BL sabrá de qué estoy hablando. VERGONZOSO. Despite, for the most part, being a fun and romantic story, it also managed to pull at my emotional heartstrings. It had me smiling and swooning one minute, and raging and rallying the next. Although I referred to this as Kai’s coming-out journey, disgracefully, for those responsible, many of his significant coming-out moments were stolen/forced on him by other people, and for that I became a total rage-monster of indignation and disgust on Kai’s behalf. No one should ever have such a personal and meaningful experience taken away from them, but poor Kai did so on more than one occasion. To this, all I can say is that, however frustrated and heartbroken I was on Kai’s behalf, I was also proud of the way he handled himself and I was thankful there were enough supportive people in his life to rally around him.

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. Date Me, Bryson Keller by Kevin van Whye – eBook Details This author, when trying to justify plagiarizing Takarai's premise, stated that "There were themes that I wanted to explore in a western setting and as an own voices writer."This YA story was without a doubt one of the most fluffy, adorable, feel-good tales that I've read in the last year, and I completely fell in love with both Kai and Bryson. The premise was quite fun and interesting, but what really did it for me were the two main characters, Bryson and Kai. I just liked them so much! Even though this book takes place in just two weeks I appreciated how Bryson and Kai's relationship started and then developed. Also, I was surprised to see that to me it did not feel rushed, it felt quite organic actually.