There are two versions of Frances Janvier. There's School Frances who is a boring study machine, and there's the real Frances who posts fanart for her favorite podcast Universe City. Then she discovers that the podcast's creator is Aled Last, the quietest boy she knows. Their intense friendship causes them to seek out their own voices in the face of a world telling them who and how they should be.

I adore this book for centering an intense platonic friendship. Frances could have had a crush on Aled (who is demi and gay so would not have reciprocated), but she knows very clearly that she doesn't have any romantic interest in him. Frances and Aled are characters that needed each other, and I'm glad to have been able to see them figuring things out.

 Brian’s world implodes on his birthday: his parents are gone, he and his brother are in a foster home, and everything is too much for the newly minted 13-year-old to handle. His lifeline is Ezra, the closest person he has to friend. But Ezra has his own troubles. All his friends are growing up and one of them seems to be straying away. He wants everyone to stay the same and worries that his friends won’t accept something that he just discovered about himself. 

I adore how instead of being a two-boy-vs-the-world story this is about finding your people. Because of their friendship, Brian and Ezra realize the importance of human connection and begin reaching out and back to those around them. By the end, even though everything isn't okay, I'm confident that Brian and Ezra will be all right. Chad Lucas did a wonderful job crafting a story that manages to remain light despite touching on a lot of (real) difficult issues that a tween might face. There are points that you will feel so bad for the characters, but Lucas always manages to bring the mood back up.

Overall, this was a joy to read.