AS YOU WALK ON BY

Theo and his friends have been daring each other to do ridiculous things once a month since freshman year, but it takes everything going wrong for him to dare to be the person he really wants to be.

Seventeen-year-old Theodore Jamal Wright isn’t as well off as many students at Brook-Oak, his Louisville, Kentucky, magnet school. He works hard academically to meet his single dad’s expectations; trains hard on the track team to keep up with best friends Darren and Jay; and tries his best socially as a less-than-popular, more-than-awkward, out Black kid. A dare from Jay pushes Theo out of his comfort zone: attending an exclusive party and asking Christian, his crush, to the prom. At the party, Theo reconsiders some of his closest relationships: Discovering Jay possibly already knew Christian had a boyfriend and the dare was destined for hurtful failure exacerbates the growing tensions between him and the wealthy friend who hasn’t always treated him well. This in turn puts things into perspective as Theo reconciles with a friend he treated poorly in middle school. The novel excels emotionally in its portrayal of intimate moments with a small cast of vulnerable, honest, queer characters who connect meaningfully, exploring friendship in mature, thoughtful, high-stakes contexts. When the party ends, Theo must put what he’s learned into practice, realistically stumbling before he can walk away from hurtful relationship patterns and toward genuine ones.

An authentically adolescent novel seriously concerned with friendship in honest, resonant ways.