Review

When Bailey and Charlie first meet, they can’t stand each other. They’re both fourteen; he has his tongue down a girl’s throat at the airport, and she has to interrupt them to get them to move forward. They’re seatmates on the flight — two divorce-kids schlepping between parents — and he cockily tells her that girls and boys can’t really be friends. They always want to be something more. And he has a really cynical and pessimistic view of the chances of love or even relationships surviving.

A couple of years later, Bailey’s at the cinema with her boyfriend Zack, and crazy-in-love Charlie’s there promposing to his girlfriend Becca.

And about a year after that, Bailey, her friend Nekesa and Nekesa’s just-back-in-town friend Theo are training for new jobs at Planet Funnn, a new mega-hotel complex, and so is Charlie, by now dumped by Becca, and taking it badly. Bailey’s relationship with Zack is also over… and she’s not really over him either.

Bailey is a book-loving, people-pleasing rule follower with high maintenance food preferences and Charlie is an anarchic cynic who doesn’t mind a bit of conflict but is a lot of fun to be around. He particularly likes betting on things, like what people are going to get from the vending machine. When he bets Bailey that Nekesa and slightly-sleazy Theo will get together, Bailey is uneasy at the idea of betting on her friend, but she feels sure that Nekesa would never do anything to jeopardise her relationship with boyfriend Aaron. So the bet is on.

Meanwhile, Bailey and Charlie are becoming friends. Friends who help each other out with a little fake dating now and then. And Bailey starts to wonder… is it true that men and women can’t be friends? And if so, what’s happening with her and Charlie?

*

The first thing I noticed was that this was very similar to When Harry Met Sally. VERY similar. Then the characters referenced WHMS and I thought, phew, (a) it’s a reimagining rather than a weird rip off and (b) I’m not crazy. (I also realised later that one of the dedications is to Nora Ephron, so it all checks out.) The similarities are mostly in the first third and the final third. A lot of the middle section involves non WHMS elements, like the bet, issues with divorced parents and fake dating. I like that intertextuality. It’s fun to see how Lynn Painter handles it.

WHMS is a tough act to follow, and I’m not saying that this book is on the same level, but, happily it is really funny, particularly when all the set up’s been completed and we’re in present day action. The banter is great. It’s told from the quasi-alternating first person perspectives of Bailey and Charlie, and they’re both funny; having said that, Charlie always gets the best lines even though Bailey gets the lion’s share of the narrative perspective.

“Do you think a guy that serious about manscaping,” Charlie said quietly, out of the side of his mouth, “would EVER introduce Funyun dust into his chestal thatch?”

I snorted. “Be nice.”

“I am,” he said, still watching the guy. “I have mad respect for anyone who would choose to keep it bear-thick on top and nonexistent on the bottom. He marches to his own drum.”

There are also more serious aspects to the narrative, such as the impact on Bailey and Charlie of their parents’ divorces, although these are explored and (semi)resolved within the romcom genre. Charlie, though seemingly über-confident, also has some insecurities of his own.

One of the reasons I read it was to check whether it really was senior fiction (year 10 & up) where we’d put it, or if it could go into junior fiction (7 to 9) as well, with our other Lynn Painter YA. Reluctantly, I decided that we did have it in the right place. While the romantic action, although thrilling, is PG — limited to passionate kissing — there is a lot of swearing. Lighthearted, comical swearing, mostly, but still too much for me to wave in front of our year 7s. Charlie in particular loves effing and blinding. An f-bomb here or there is par for the course in contemporary YA, but this was something else. And it just has a senior fiction vibe (see content info).

I gobbled this one up: it’s fun, romantic and pacey. Will definitely be recommending to year 10 & up.

> Click here for content info — spoilers, enter at own risk!

Charlie and Bailey are hurt by the fallout from their respective parents’ divorces—both of them don’t like their mum’s new boyfriend hanging around the apartment and they feel like one or more of their parents have no time or attention for them anymore… this is resolved positively for Bailey, but Charlie’s situation is left unresolved; Bailey’s mum’s boyfriend starts staying at their place overnight; much swearing, particularly after the opening set up, with a staggering (for YA) quantity of f-words and other more minor swears, mostly used comically or in self-castigation — a few tiny samples: “I’m gonna look up this weaseld*** and see what his story is”; “Feel free to join me Bailey, if you’d rather have fries and amazing conversation than f***s*** pizza”; “Just f***ing done and exhausted with motherf***ing emotions”; romance elements are thrilling, but limited to (passionate) kissing, although on two occasions this is when they’re sort of in the same bed for the usual complicated plot reasons — still just kissing though; Charlie calls off the kissing before it goes any further because he doesn’t want to take advantage; Charlie ghosts Bailey for complicated emotional reasons; Nekesa is upset with Bailey for betting on her — resolved positively; it’s revealed later that Theo bet Charlie that he couldn’t get Bailey to go out with him … Bailey is understandably upset, but it’s clear to the reader who has the benefit of Charlie’s first person perspective that it was ‘only’ a joke and he regrets it; Bailey’s mum becomes engaged and Bailey has to move house — she’s upset but it resolves positively; Charlie has stress-related acid reflux, a germ phobia and is quietly devastated by his parents’ divorce and his break up with Becca; Charlie and Bailey attend a party where there’s teen drinking and possible bong use (not depicted), but they don’t drink, playing trivia instead; a girl vomits on Bailey’s leg at a past drunken party (backstory — Bailey didn’t drink, she read a book on her phone instead!); a popular mean girl is reportedly mean to Bailey, making her reportedly feel anxious at school (tiny element of narrative); occasional mild sexual allusions. Main & minor romances are mlw. Random note: most of the official internet synopses says that they work at a waterpark. They don’t! Stop saying that! There’s a waterpark in the hotel complex, but they’re only involved with it on one tiny occasion. Weird.

*

Painter, L. (2023). Betting on you. Simon & Schuster Books for Young People.

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