How to Be the Best Third Wheel by Loridee De Villa, 336 pages. Wattpad Books, 2022. $11.
Language: R (39 swears, 0 “f”); Mature Content: PG13; Violence: G
BUYING ADVISORY: HS - OPTIONAL
AUDIENCE APPEAL: AVERAGE
Getting back from summer vacation with the fam in the Philippines, Lara is surprised on the first day of senior year that all three of her best friends got boyfriends. Even worse, the three boyfriends are friends with Lara’s mortal enemy: James. With betrayals stacked on top of being guilted into tutoring James and pressure to prepare for her future, Lara feels more out of place than ever.
The vomit of background information in chapter one introduced the book as amateur writing. With that knowledge up front, De Villa’s silly and ridiculous writing style was able to be more entertaining than annoying – though still in an eye rolling kind of way. Lara’s story feels exaggerated, like it’s not meant to be realistic but just continual funny scenes as Lara tries to figure out what she wants to do with her life.
Lara is Filipino, James is half-Filipino, and De Villa wrote a very diverse set of supporting characters: Jasmine is Chinese, Carol is Indian, Kiera is white, Logan is white, Mark is Peruvian, and Daniel is Black. This diversity is shown on the front cover. The mature content rating is for alcohol use, innuendo, and mentions of sex.
Reviewer: Carolina Herdegen
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