GRAPEFRUIT MOON

At Henry Cooke Academy in Belfast, Northern Ireland, classmates Andrew and Charlotte are under enormous pressure.

The first from his council estate to attend the prestigious school, Drew is sure his way to success is to join the Stewards, the exclusive boys’ society that serves as Cooke’s most powerful clique. Their leader is perfect-on-the-surface Adam, Charlotte’s ex-boyfriend, who blackmails her with revenge porn after she initiates their breakup. Throughout the year, Drew and Charlotte grow closer. She finds self-confidence by performing at poetry slams, while he finally feels welcome at Cooke’s through becoming part of her friend group. When a terrible decision threatens to blow up Drew’s life, and the weight of Charlotte’s secrets becomes unbearable for her, they must each risk letting go of the old selves they’ve been holding fast to. Both teens reckon with forces beyond their control, and McMillan depicts with clarity the aggressions, small and large, of the classism and patriarchy that wear down their spirits. The cruelties Drew and Charlotte face from classmates and the lives in which they feel stuck are all the more compelling for how recognizably drawn they are. Even the kinder students can be clueless in their privilege. Drew, Charlotte, and their friends are realistically flawed—joking, stumbling, and trying again, even as they fail. There’s an admirable frankness to their points of view, an honesty that rarely veers into sentimentality and renders the characters believable. Main characters are cued white.

Deeply human.