LOVESICK FALLS

A plan for three friends to spend the summer together goes awry when love triangles cause tension.

Celia Gilbert has carefully planned the trip to Lovesick Falls, a tiny town in a redwood forest whose spring water allegedly causes people to fall out of love. Celia envisions spending the summer before their senior year living in a cabin with her two best friends, Ros Brinkman and Andrew Touchstone, working at local theater festival Arden & Company and watching Power Jam, their favorite campy British TV show. If this plan also happens to lead to Ros’ finally falling for Celia, who’s been secretly in love with them for the last year, so much the better. But chaos erupts almost immediately: Ros meets Jess Orlando, a tiny blond boxer, and falls head over heels for her, which makes Celia both angry and jealous. And then there’s Oliver Teller, the incredibly hot star of Power Jam, who has coincidentally arrived at the festival to act in a play and, despite an awkward first encounter, has really taken to Celia (for whom Touchstone has unrequited feelings). In this story based on Shakespeare’s As You Like It, a play famous for its complex and comic overlapping love triangles, Drake deftly introduces a multitude of beautifully nuanced characters, weaving their stories into a queer ode to friendship, theater, and the complexities of love. Central characters largely present white; Oliver has “deep olive” skin.

An exceptional retelling of a classic Shakespearean comedy.