'Literally' is a bouncy summer read built on a sleight-of-hand trick
Annabelle Burns, star of Lucy Keating鈥檚 new young adult novel, Literally, has an ideal life. Perfect friends, perfect house, perfect family, perfect plan for her future. Yet four major developments threaten to overturn everything in a single Monday morning.
One: Her parents announce they鈥檙e getting a divorce. Annabelle is the last to find out; even her older brother鈥檚 best friend, Elliot, knows before she does.
Two: Her parents are selling her beloved childhood home in Venice Beach, California. When Annabelle comes home from college next year, she鈥檒l have two strange, memory-less houses to visit.
Three: The world鈥檚 hottest boy transfers to her high school and falls for her within 30 seconds. Hunky gentleman Will Hale is so well-suited for Annabelle that it鈥檚 like he was designed for her. They鈥檙e both overachievers, organizational experts, and all-around good kids. Their compatibility strikes Annabelle as almost eerie, but she decides not to look a gift boyfriend in the mouth.
Four: bestselling YA author Lucy Keating visits Annabelle鈥檚 school as a guest lecturer. Normally her books have tearjerker endings 脿 la Nicholas Sparks, but she鈥檚 really trying for a happy ending with her next project. Keating describes it as a book about a very organized girl who lives in Venice Beach with her divorcing parents and older brother.
Sound familiar? Annabelle鈥檚 blood runs cold. Hearing her life story laid out as a plot arc, Annabelle tracks Keating down later.
She blurts out, 鈥淚 don鈥檛 know how or why you are doing it, but I鈥檇 really appreciate if you鈥檇 stop writing about my life.鈥�
Keating鈥檚 response is not what she expects:
鈥淎nnabelle, I鈥檓 not writing about you. I鈥檓 writing you,鈥� Keating replies cheerfully. 鈥淵ou are in my book. You鈥檙e a character.鈥� Some of my characters demand to be heard. Others just sit in a drawer, waiting for the right time.鈥�
At first Annabelle tries to dismiss Keating鈥檚 comment as just another spoonful of weird in the weirdest day of her life. But Keating鈥檚 interference soon becomes impossible to ignore.
Like her idol, Diane Sawyer, Annabelle gathers the facts. She questions her memories, her instincts, her choices 鈥� your standard teen existential crisis, really. She even finds herself looking at Elliot differently.
When even weirder things start to happen, she takes notice. The omnipotent authoress manipulates circumstances, changes facts, and throws obstacles in people鈥檚 way so events will proceed as she intends.
Decisive, Type-A Annabelle Burns won鈥檛 take this lying down. For the first time in her life, she decides to rebel.
As it turns out, authors don鈥檛 take kindly to their characters fighting back! What ensues is a battle for Annabelle鈥檚 soul. Will Keating dictate the terms of her character鈥檚 life, or will Annabelle take the reins of her future?
In 鈥淟iterally,鈥� the actual Lucy Keating constructs a tidy little sleight-of-hand trick. We鈥檙e pitched a light and fluffy fiction with the springy texture of '90s rom-coms like 鈥淪he鈥檚 All That,鈥� but she delivers it with a citrusy twist of metafiction.
Southern California, perfect life disrupted, love triangle: It鈥檚 practically a "Sweet Valley Twins" book. Annabelle Burns is an Elizabeth Wakefield who begins to wonder what it would be like to be a Jessica.
The trouble is, I always liked Elizabeth better than Jessica. Some of Annabelle鈥檚 most deeply-rooted habits (organization, planning, respect) are the ones she tries to shuck off first. If you鈥檙e going to stick it to The Man 鈥� and The Man happens to be an overconfident YA novelist 鈥� your teen years aren鈥檛 a bad time. I just hate to see signs of maturity jettisoned before everything else.
鈥淟iterally鈥� will serve as a bubbly palate cleanser for some and skew saccharine for others. If you鈥檙e looking for YA with a similar concept but a little more edge, allow me to recommend the superbly sour 鈥淓nter Title Here鈥� by Rahul Kanakia.
At times the 鈥渁uthor within her own book鈥� plot conceit reads as wishful thinking; I鈥檒l admit to more than a few eye rolls with this one. But ultimately, it led to a fun guessing game about how this book actually came to be.
Expect to polish this one off in a weekend at most. 鈥淟iterally鈥� goes down easy as a bouncy little summer read.
