Also, anecdotally, while Molly seems to identify as straight and allo in the book, as an ace/aro-spec individual I found her anxieties about crushes/dating/relationships and how they work in practice to be really relatable! So while I wouldn’t call her a queer character, she (to me, from my own personal reading) feels queerer than I anticipated, which was a lovely surprise. Mina’s on-the-page pansexual identity is refreshing, as is the rest of the diverse identities of the cast of characters (including but not limited to Molly being fat and the Peskin-Susos being both a Jewish and multiracial family). The Peskin-Suso moms feel real and relatively developed, as does the entire family’s dynamics. Molly feels like her family is changing so fast she’s not sure how to keep up–or if she wants to in the ways her sister is encouraging her. On top of this, as soon as marriage equality is legalized nationally, their moms decide to hold a summer wedding. Her twin sister Cassie, on the other hand, is diving into a full-fledged relationship with a pansexual girl, Mina, throwing a wrench in their twin dynamics. I love it so! Molly Peskin-Suso has had 26 unrequited crushes on boys. The Upside of Unrequited by Becky Albertalli But here’s a shout-out to 2017’s books with queer supporting characters. Honestly, in a year that has so many great books with queer main characters, we hope none of these win, no matter how much we love them.
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