The Comedienne’s Guide To Pride (Hayli Thomson, HarperCollins)
The only phrase you’ll need to get this debut into the hands of avid YA readers will be ‘Sapphic rom-com’—but there’s a lot more to this novel that will capture a reader’s interest and heart. It is a celebration of funny women throughout the ages. While reigning Saturday Night Live stars Kate McKinnon, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler (among others), are the inspiration for Taylor, the protagonist of The Comedienne’s Guide to Pride, other characters such as her mother have their own generational comedy icons. Even the elderly Gilda, who Taylor meets at improv therapy, listens to I Love Lucy episodes while driving her Rolls-Royce Phantom. There’s a lot for teens to identify with in this novel, which captures the tumultuous time of the end of high school, including new romance, coming out, worry about university, and having pride in your work and yourself. It’s a relief when Taylor’s humour, which leans towards insensitive and mean at the beginning, is called out by those around her and she grows to understand differing perspectives. That the entire novel is set in Salem, Massachusetts and riffs on the historical backdrop of the witch trials adds a delightful dramatic irony to this coming-out narrative. Hayli Thomson’s debut is ideal for readers 14 and over who are after something light-hearted and littered with one-liners, lesbian longing and deadpan delivery of funny misinformation. Letting the world know who you are can be the hardest sketch to write.
Michael Earp has 20 years of children’s specialist bookselling experience and manages The Little Bookroom.
