Social Queue
– Kay Kerr –
Text Publishing
Published 28 September 2021
♥♥♥♥♥
Once again, Kay Kerr delivers a powerful and thoroughly enjoyable contemporary novel about growing up and finding one’s place in the world. Drawing upon her own experiences again, Kerr crafts such a realistic portrayal of social anxiety and trying to navigate everyday interactions, from romance and friendship to family and work life.
Zoe Kelly has survived high school (just) and is starting a new part of her life. No more dealing with bullies, no more autistic masking. An internship at an online media company allows her the freedom to express herself through the written word – something she’s really good at. But when an article about her foray into the dating world goes viral, the responses are a surprise. Apparently, Zoe had a number of admirers in high school and she just never saw the signs. Determined to discover how she missed them and document the process, Zoe meets up with her admirers, starting with her best friend’s brother and working through to a more recent encounter at uni.
Social Queue was honestly just such a delight to read. Some books are just so easy to love. So easy to enjoy. So easy to pick up after a long day at work and just let the world slip away. Social Queue was that for me, but it was also meaningful, insightful, funny, delicious, romantic and hit me right in the “I see you” feels.
I see in the summary online that this book is being marketed as an “autistic story.” And yes, the main character is autistic. And yes, the book realistically portrays social anxiety. But this book is about a girl recovering from high school, trying to navigate the world of relationships (aren’t we all), discovering the new direction for her life and maybe, maybe falling in love. I can’t wait to put it on our realistic fiction shelves and share it with our readers. While Zoe has finished high school and is therefore older than our library’s readers, there is something eternal about this book that it will appeal to readers of many ages. It also doesn’t have much mature content, so I’m happy to be able to share it with younger readers.
The romance is fantastic. The relationships are great. I loved Zoe’s sister and even her parents, though they don’t feature much outside of everyday interactions of family life. I am so pleased the romance played out as it did – no spoilers. I didn’t pick it at first, but it was the perfect ending.
Just a delight of a book, I hope you love Social Queue as much as I did.
The publishers provided an advanced readers copy of this book for reviewing purposes. All opinions are my own.
More information
Category: Young adult fiction
Genre: Realistic.
Themes: Social anxiety, dating, online media, journalism, autism, romance, relationships, friendship.
Reading age guide: Ages 13 and up.
Advisory: Vague sexual references. References to alcohol use in a social setting. Coarse language, f*** (7), sh** (16), bi*** (3), ars***** (7), di** (2), pi** (4).
Representation: Main character is autistic. White main and side characters or characters’ ethnicity not distinguished. Main character is open to discovering her sexual identity, lesbian side character.
Published: 28 September 2021 by Text Publishers
Format: Paperback, ebook. 288 pages.
ISBN: 9781922458018
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