Saturday, November 27, 2021

As If On Cue by Marisa Kanter - OPTIONAL

As If On Cue
by Marisa Kanter, 
389 pages. Simon and Schuster, 2021. $20. 

Language: R (99 swears 2 'f'); Mature Content: PG13 (sexual teasing); Violence: G. 

BUYING ADVISORY: HS - OPTIONAL 

AUDIENCE APPEAL: AVERAGE 

17yo Natalie has been competing with Reid for 10 years - he's her dad's clarinet student, and they've been pranking each other since they were kids. This year, due to budget cuts, there is no drama club. The only club the school is funding is Band, good for Reid, but bad for Natalie; she has written a play - "Melted" a parody of "Frozen" but with no budget or advisor the school doesn't plan to produce a play this year. Until one of Natalie's pranks gets out of hand, and Reid's answering prank also causes a lot of trouble - the school's answer? Make them work together as co-directors of "Melted" and make it a musical by making Reid write the score. 

The pranks were sometimes funny, but often terrible, even though they had agreed that the pranks weren't supposed to be mean, when they turned out that way Natalie seemed surprised because that wasn't her intention. I had trouble liking Natalie - she was just too much. There were also a lot of characters - lots of kids in the cast and Nat's friend group. One of the friends is bi.  I also hate when the school leaves the production up to the kids, puts an adult without theater experience in charge and they don't supervise; too much pressure on the kids and not a realistic example of a student production. 

Lisa Librarian

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