Especially when they read scenes like the one with which the novel opens: Nick's well-meaning dad has scored him an office job working for a construction company, where Nick spends most of his time playing with the stapler and ogling the hot construction workers. Readers, then, can be excused for worrying, too. So far, none of that has happened for Nick, and he's starting to worry it maybe never will (670). That at some point you got tall and grew out of pimples and into the ability to understand what stock options are. Nick had figured it was something that happened to everyone. In particular, a guy who is not really sure he is ready, or even able, to make the jump to independence and this weird thing called 'adulthood': Though the novel is written in the third person, the language Henry uses makes it clear that we are clearly in the mind of an 18-year-old guy. (117)Īs the above quote, and almost every line in her story, demonstrates, Henry's strength as a writer is voice.

He's just super cool, and gets a kick out of pissing off his stepdad, who is an evangelical Christian and can be kind of a dick. Devon even took Nick to prom, which was beyond incredible because he's not even a little bit bi-except for the thing that happened at baseball camp when they were fourteen that they don't talk about. As the narrator, focalizing through Nick, explains:ĭevon Staples and Nick Stahlnecker are now, and forever will be, best bros. Nick is gay, while Devon is straight, but the differences in their sexual orientations never get in the way of their best friendship. Even better, it did so while drawing on a decidedly contemporary feminist set of underlying assumptions, far different than the typical two guys fighting over a girl love triangle found in much New Adult romance in the Twilight vein.Īdulting takes place during the summer between Nick Stahlnecker and Devon Staples' high school graduation and their taking off for two different colleges, where, for the first time since they were in elementary school, they will be living in different towns.

I was in real need of cheering up this past summer, and Henry's book made me laugh so hard my stomach ached for days after I finished it. In need of a good chuckle, but tired of being expected to laugh at sexist jokes and male-centered humor? You might want to pick up Lisa Henry's latest male/male romance, Adulting 101.

Adulting 101 lisa henry