content warnings: near-drowning, infidelity
representation: gay main character, japanese-american side character, portuguese-american side character, mlm side character

This was a perfectly inoffensive contemporary that, quite frankly, seems really underrated. It's about a girl who secretly loves escapology and her making friends through her weird passion, why have more people not been talking about this??

The plot is so close to being ridiculous, but it somehow always stays just grounded enough that you believe a teenage girl would be getting out of a straitjacket in a water tank in a speakeasy (yes, that is actually something that happens in this book). I credit most of the realism(?) to the characters, all who feel like people I know.

While none of them will leave a lasting impression on me, I still really enjoyed reading about each character because they all have depth and flaws, something which it seems like all characters should have and yet so many authors still fail. Erin Callahan is not one of those authors. Mattie and Will both have POVs throughout the book which obviously helps you to understand them, but even in each others' POVs you still feel like you would know them even without their thoughts.

Miyu, Stella and Frankie were all such fun additions, too, particularly Stella and Frankie as I didn't think either of them were going to be very important. I loved how we got to learn so much about Miyu without her saying very much at all, and I'm not going to lie the end had me tearing up a little.

The fact that there are two characters, Betsy and Meadow, who should so perfectly fit the bitchy mean girl trope and yet Callahan decides to not take that route should be commended. Both (admittedly, Betsy more so) are made to be human beings who are more than just popular girls and who can actually be gasp nice people.

The feminism sprinkled throughout the book also made me very happy. There were discussions on women being looked over in history, how a person finding gay people so fascinating can actually be harmful, how much we romanticise the past when it comes to discrimination, Mattie coming to the realisation that her secret is nowhere near as high-stakes as Will's, and so much more! I also really appreciated that there was no pressuring of Will to come out, from the narrative or the characters.

This is a fun book that more people should read because it was honestly a delight.