Kate in Waiting by Becky Albertalli

Summary from Goodreads:

Contrary to popular belief, best friends Kate Garfield and Anderson Walker are not codependent. Carpooling to and from theater rehearsals? Environmentally sound and efficient. Consulting each other on every single life decision? Basic good judgment. Pining for the same guys from afar? Shared crushes are more fun anyway.

But when Kate and Andy’s latest long-distance crush shows up at their school, everything goes off script. Matt Olsson is talented and sweet, and Kate likes him. She really likes him. The only problem? So does Anderson.

Turns out, communal crushes aren’t so fun when real feelings are involved. This one might even bring the curtains down on Kate and Anderson’s friendship.

Review:

I love this author. There are just some authors that seem to have the ability to speak to my soul. Like I can read them and immediately recognize them, immediately connect with their main characters, and immediately just settle into a comfortable rhythm. Becky Albertalli has this writing style that just writes like my inner voice. Like my inner monologues are sometimes eeriliy similar to her main character’s inner monologues.

This book spoke to me because I have a gay friend who reminds me of Anderson. Or I guess I had a close friendship like this one with someone when I was younger. I don’t ever remember sharing crushes with him.  But, I super connected to the story. Who can’t relate to liking the same guy as your friend? I feel like this is classic teenage drama right here. What I loved is not knowing the crushee’s sexuality. This was fresh. I also liked that this wasn’t the only crush going on either. There were multitudes of others going on! The side characters were everything.

I also loved that the whole book revolves around the theater kids. It was one rehearsal and set design session after another, and I was here for all of it! It reminded me of a book I love by David Levithan.

I love the push and pull of Kate and Anderson’s friendship. There were moments when I was seriously upset at Anderson, but I think I was supposed to be. I also wasn’t  always sure why they were both crushing on the guy they were crushing on. He didn’t seem that great to me. Maybe a little more could have been written about him? However, I think the book was more about other things. It was about navigating all the relationships, and learning to shine.

At first I didn’t think I was liking this book as much I love Albertalli’s others, but then I lost that silly notion and just got lost in it. It’s the kind of book you wish you could just call in sick and stay home with/you’re secretly glad you can’t be social yet because of the pandemic still. Any way, I really enjoyed it. The characters were great. The concept was great. I could have kept reading it. I give it a 9/10.