She Drives Me Crazy

Romance

Print length: 288 pagesRoaring Brook Press, 2021

Description

After seventeen-year-old basketball player Scottie loses a game to her ex-girlfriend, a parking-lot collision makes the night worse: she has damaged the car of Irene, the cheerleader she cannot stand. Repairs will take weeks, forcing the rivals into an awkward daily carpool. Scottie soon proposes an even stranger arrangement. If Irene pretends to date her, Scottie can unsettle her toxic ex, while Irene gains a chance to improve her own social position. Their carefully staged romance demands convincing public affection, but private irritation begins giving way to feelings neither planned to perform. This queer young-adult romantic comedy uses forced proximity and fake dating to examine heartbreak, reputation, and the difference between winning someone back and choosing a healthier future.

Reading profile

About this profile

Collected’s assessment, not reader ratings. Complexity runs from 1 (least demanding) to 5 (most demanding).

Writing: How much attention the sentences and language require.
Ideas: How much interpretation or abstract reasoning the book asks of you.
Structure: How much you need to keep track of speakers, timelines and connections.
Background knowledge: Prior knowledge needed to follow the book, beyond what it explains.
Emotional intensity: Emotional pressure, from gentle (1) to intense (5). Separate from difficulty.

Writing style

Conversational · Dialogue-driven · Direct · Witty

Pace

Brisk

Tone

Hopeful · Humorous · Romantic · Warm

Structure

Linear

Focus

Character · Plot · Relationships

Emotional intensity

3 / 5

Reading complexity

1–5 · higher means more demanding

Writing: 2 / 5
Ideas: 2 / 5
Structure: 2 / 5
Background knowledge: 1 / 5

Themes

BelongingFriendshipIdentityLoveSexualityTransformation

About Kelly Quindlen

Kelly Quindlen is an Atlanta-based young-adult novelist whose fiction places queer lives within varied families, communities, and traditions of faith. Her Name in the Sky explores desire amid the pressures of a nonaffirming Catholic world, using sacramental imagery to let queer characters claim spiritual meaning for themselves. In the more comic She Drives Me Crazy, Quindlen recasts fake dating, romantic rivalry, and school sports while treating sexuality as accepted rather than as the story’s central crisis. Across these modes, she is especially attentive to heartbreak, self-worth, and parents who offer credible, imperfect support. Her publishing choices, from self-publishing to traditional publication, also reflect a sustained concern with preserving difficult material while reaching readers through libraries and bookstores.

Book details

For the print edition listed above.

Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Language: English
ISBN: 9781250209160

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