Date Me, Bryson Keller!
By Kevin van Whye
ISBN: 9781466820838
Author’s Website: www.kevinvanwhye.com
Brought to you by OBS reviewer Omar
Summary
What If It’s Us meets To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before in this upbeat and heartfelt boy-meets-boy romance that feels like a modern twist on a ’90s rom-com!
Everyone knows about the dare: Each week, Bryson Keller must date someone new–the first person to ask him out on Monday morning. Few think Bryson can do it. He may be the king of Fairvale Academy, but he’s never really dated before.
Until a boy asks him out, and everything changes.
Kai Sheridan didn’t expect Bryson to say yes. So when Bryson agrees to secretly go out with him, Kai is thrown for a loop. But as the days go by, he discovers there’s more to Bryson beneath the surface, and dating him begins to feel less like an act and more like the real thing. Kai knows how the story of a gay boy liking someone straight ends. With his heart on the line, he’s awkwardly trying to navigate senior year at school, at home, and in the closet, all while grappling with the fact that this “relationship” will last only five days. After all, Bryson Keller is popular, good-looking, and straight . . . right?
Kevin van Whye delivers an uplifting and poignant coming-out love story that will have readers rooting for these two teens to share their hearts with the world–and with each other.
Review
The synopsis of the book tells everything you need to know and catch your attention.
Kai dreams of becoming a writer and tell stories, but he is shy and does not want the attention to fall on him. His best friends, Donny and Priya take him to a senior party over the winter break, where he witnesses and helps create the DARE. During the party, Bryson Keller argues that high school sweethearts don’t last or survive after high school, his classmates don’t agree with him and actually mention that he hasn’t dated anyone before. Bryson bragged that he could get a date easily and even have a new one each week, his classmates don’t believe him and dare him to try until spring break. If he fails, he will have to take the bus every day until graduation.
Two weeks before spring break, on Monday everything changes for Kai. It starts with a soda spill and a late detention. In a burst of anger, Kai asks Bryson to date him and by the term of the DARE, he has to do it.
A week can be long for some and short for others, but it only takes one week to change the perception of a person.
I liked the book; it was a great story with a fun and romantic twist to a first date in high school. Date Me, Bryson Keller! was a good coming of age story and coming out story. While it shows us the positive outcomes for LGBT students that come out during high school, it also shows the negative side, the backlash, and bigotry that young teenagers have and even adults still have. All this creates a compelling story that captures its audiences until the end.
While I liked the story, it brought back memories of high school, and that was not fun. The clubs, clichés, the jocks, and nerds, were somethings one of those things that one hopes to not relieve again. It was great reading about how Kai and his friends navigate the prestigious Fairvale Academy and grow up a little bit over that week.
One would believe that love stories that center around one week of school would be long, but it was actually short. Date Me, Bryson Keller! was a fast-paced read, it is easy to follow along with the characters, and the days dividing the chapters were a fun addition to the book.
“It’s true when they say that children aren’t born with hate or prejudice,” Dad says. “It’s us who teach them those things…”
If you are interested in coming of age stories, then I recommend you Date Me, Bryson Keller! In this story, a dare that is supposed to help two students with their project, but instead creates something new and liberates them.
