Cassie, protagonist of Tanya Boteju's Messy Perfect, seems to be the perfect Catholic high school student. She follows all the rules, exceeds academically, plays sports, and volunteers...
...well she has one aspect of her identity that she keeps it to herself...
At the beginning of her junior school year a person from Cassie's past unexpectedly shows up. For years she and Ben were best friends creating their own little world. One day their classmates caught them doing something they considered sketchy. Cassie reacted fearfully, throwing Ben under the bus and quickly regretting it. Ben was enrolled in an elite ballet academy, presumably up through high school...
...But now he's back and totally ignoring Cassie whose guilt has been rekindled.
Cassie's Catholic high is very repressed about sex talk beyond wait until marriage, of course to a person of the "opposite sex". In contrast the public high school across the street celebrates the full range of gender identities and sexual orientations.
Thinking Ben is gay and in need of a safe place, Cassie works with students of the other school to create an underground gay-straight alliance. Unexpectedly she finds her people in this group.
But Cassie's new commitments make it hard for her for to keep up with the perfection expected by her parents and school. Some of her activities run afoul of her school's conduct code. And she's strongly attracted to someone they would never approve of.
Messy Perfect is a sensitive exploration of the intersectionality of religion and sexuality and a timely reminder of the toxicity of expectations of perfection.
On a purrrsonal note, today Eugene and I had breakfast at Governors. Then we went on a road trip. The foliage was gorgeous and we saw deers and turkeys. Eugene got us subs for lunch. I got roast chicken because it's less bad for me than steak. But it's so dry and bland. After lunch I walked to a crafts sale. I splurged a little. I got a Halloween decorated jar with fairy lights, 2 Halloween bracelets, and 🐈 😻 🐈⬛️ 😺 🐱 😸 earrings. There was one stall of pastries that looked SO GOOD!!! I really coveted them. Sadly the diet from Hell is a life sentence. Right now I'm reading and writing outside near my gorgeous 🌼 🌸 🌻 🌹 🏵.
A great big shout out goes out to Eugene.
Jules Hathaway
Sent from my U.S.Cellular© Smartphone
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