Between You & Me

June 25, 2012
Calin’s first novel, a story of romantic entanglements and self-discovery, has a few tricks up its sleeve that help it stand out from the pack. First is the pseudo-screenplay format, which has
dialogue
appearing between prose sections written from the first-person perspective of 16-year-old Phyre, who comes across as the star, author, and director of her story. Calin’s second hook is that Phyre’s closest friend is referred to only as “You,” and his/her gender is never identified, recalling Steve Brezenoff’s Brooklyn Burning. Phyre and “You” are inseparable until Phyre develops feelings for the school’s passionate new drama teacher, Mia. Acting class exercises unleash Phyre and You’s emotions, and when Phyre is cast as the lead in the school play (which blatantly mirrors Phyre’s situation) she becomes increasingly distant from You while remaining blind to her friend’s romantic feelings for her. With Phyre’s interior thoughts and descriptions taking the place of stage notes, the novel reads more like an extended monologue than a conventional screenplay, but readers will feel as if they are sitting beside Phyre on her emotional roller-coaster. Ages 12–up. Agent: Brenda Bowen, Sanford J. Greenburger Associates.

Starred review from July 15, 2012
A girl in love with the theater tells the story of her first great love in the form of a script. The entire tale unfolds as a present-tense confessional addressed to the titular (and never-named) "you" by her best friend, the dramatic Phyre. Phyre sets her scenes by describing what "you" is doing or telling "you" about what has happened in her absence, folding in snippets of dialogue. The action takes place over the course of the fall semester, as Phyre falls head over heels for Mia, their charismatic new theater instructor. It's a textbook crush: Phyre seeks out opportunities to catch Mia alone and then muffs them (her running criticism of her social gambits is hysterical), and she interprets the slightest gesture as freighted with meaning. Her fascination is so intense she barely pauses to wonder that the object of her desire is a woman, instead throwing herself wholeheartedly into her exhilaration. The direct-address/script format works beautifully for her story; her self-absorption is so extreme that she can't see what's going on with "you," but readers do, in those bits of dialogue Phyre records but does not reflect on. The play within a play that Phyre stars in (under Mia's direction) is a tad metafictively obvious, but the device does introduce action and an intriguing and revelatory subplot. Though hamstrung by a depressingly chick-lit-y cover, this total-immersion emotional experience is one readers will both recognize and thoroughly enjoy. (Fiction. 12 & up)

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August 1, 2012

Gr 9 Up-Phyre wants to be an actress. As such, she is dramatic and self-involved. She is popular, but has a reputation for being cold and aloof because she never dates any boy for long. The 16-year-old has one longtime best friend, referred to, in an obvious plot device, as "You." In her theater studies class, Phyre comes under the spell of Mia, the student teacher. She becomes obsessed with the pretty young woman and lives for the time she can spend with her, oblivious to the effect it's having on her best friend. The story is told as a screenplay, and although the format fits the action, it also hinders it. Readers get no description or details beyond the most superficial. Phyre's crush ends as quickly as it begins. Much of the action is highly unlikely: Mia starts teaching the first day, there is no appearance of a supervising teacher, and many of Mia's actions would end her career before it began. The LGBTQ hook is weak; Phyre's crush on her teacher, her first on a female, seems to cause her little soul searching, and the failure to reveal the gender of "You" at the end is irritating. Although this novel is an easy read, it has little appeal for reluctant readers. Drama enthusiasts or girls questioning their sexuality may find it intriguing, but its purchase is strictly additional.-Suanne Roush, Osceola High School, Seminole, FL

Copyright 2012 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2012
Grades 8-10 Sixteen-year-old Phyre is captivated by her drama teacher, Mia, who has an unorthodox teaching style, a passion for theater that may even surpass Phyre's, and an indefinable something else that leaves Phyre wondering whether she wants to be Mia or kiss her. Phyre's roller-coaster emotions carry her through her crush, the school rumor mill, and a play within this loosely screenplay-styled first novel. Meanwhile, you, a steadfast companion and sometimes doormat with no gender indicated, is clearly in love with her. Phyre's self-absorption prevents readers from truly empathizing with her, and although the format and second-person narration are a unique mix and the language is poetic, some readers may find the emotional thrust diluted by these trappings. Even so, this is a quick read that addresses the pain and exhilaration of infatuationwith a same-sex teacher, no less; the basic need to love who you love; and the confusion and possibilities of questioning one's sexuality, without judgment or sensationalism.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)

January 1, 2013
Phyre, sixteen, falls hard for her theater instructor, who just happens to be a woman. Calin's novel contains all the staples of a love story--confusion, infatuation, unrequited love--without reductively forcing Phyre to ponder, "Am I a lesbian?" And without revealing the gender of Phyre's best friend and ultimate first love. While the outcome is entirely predictable, the restraint is refreshing.

(Copyright 2013 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)