ALL-NIGHTER

Just before graduation, two nemeses are thrown together for a whirlwind adventure.

Type A Autumn Povitsky, who’s lesbian and Jewish, is ready to leave high school as class valedictorian with a bright future awaiting her at Wellesley. Sure, she’s never kissed a girl, she’s worried her best friend is abandoning her, and she’s scared and “falling apart at the seams,” but she’s determined, driven, and ready to succeed. Tara Esposito, who’s pansexual and has “beige skin,” is a quintessentially edgy, tattooed bad girl with a vape pen and a failing grade in English. Autumn urgently needs a fake college ID so she can flirt with her dream girl at a poetry reading taking place on a local campus later tonight. By 7 a.m. tomorrow, Tara must write a passing essay on Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway—or she won’t be able to graduate. They agree to help one another, and their subsequent hijinks-filled night reveals that they might not be so different after all. In fact, they might actually like each other. The alternating close third-person points of view reveal the protagonists’ mindsets, and the narrative—an utterly fun read with a realistic and sensual central romance—flies by. Despite the casual tone, the characters work through serious issues, including recovering from a serious accident and managing ADHD. The supporting cast is broadly diverse in makeup.

A delightful, feel-good Sapphic romp.