Frenemy of the People

by Nora Olsen

Overview

Clarissa and Lexie couldn’t be more different. Clarissa is a chirpy, optimistic do-gooder and a top rider on the school’s equestrian team. Lexie is an angry, punk rock activist and the only out lesbian at their school.


When Clarissa declares she’s bi and starts a Gay-Straight Alliance, she unwittingly presses all of Lexie’s buttons, so Lexie makes it her job to cut Clarissa down to size. But Lexie goes too far and finds herself an unwitting participant in Clarissa’s latest crusade. Both are surprised to find their mutual loathing turning to love.

A change in her family’s fortunes begins to unravel Clarissa’s seemingly perfect life, and the girls’ fledgling love is put to the test. Clarissa and Lexie each have what the other needs to save their relationship and the people they love from forces that could tear them all apart.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781626390638
Publisher:	Bold Strokes Books
Publication date:	05/13/2014
Pages:	264
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)
Age Range:	13 - 18 Years

About the Author

Nora Olsen was born and raised in New York City. She received a B.A. from Brown University. Although her mother, a prize-winning author, warned her not to become a writer, Nora didn't listen. Nora’s debut novel The End: Five Queer Kids Save The World was published in 2010. Swans and Klons is her second YA novel. Her short fiction has appeared in Collective Fallout and the anthology Heiresses of Russ 2011: The Year's Best Lesbian Speculative Fiction. Nora’s goal is to write thrilling stories and novels that LGBTQ teens can see themselves reflected in.


Nora lives in New York's Hudson Valley with her girlfriend, writer Áine Ní Cheallaigh, and their two adorable cats. When not writing, Nora works as a babysitter. She also enjoys volunteering for Room to Write, an organization of publishing professionals and writers who visit NYC classrooms to teach creative writing. The highlight of Nora’s year is volunteering at Camp Jabberwocky, a summer camp for children and adults with disabilities.

Editorial Reviews

2014-03-31
A bisexual teen girl whose house is being foreclosed upon falls in love with the rebellious lesbian daughter of investment bankers. Outspoken Clarissa, attending an equestrian awards ceremony with her three best friends, has the sudden realization that she is bisexual. Activist Lexie, who broke up with her first girlfriend a few months earlier, is making plans to apply to a college that takes teenagers midway through high school. When Clarissa's sister, Desi, who has Down syndrome, decides to run for homecoming queen, a not-entirely-convincing sequence of events leads Clarissa to ask for Lexie's help with the campaign and Lexie to agree. Housing foreclosures and the dubiously legal related activities of banks are well-illustrated in accessible and emotionally resonant detail. The interpersonal relationships are at times less convincing: Readers are told that Clarissa and Lexie have an immediate antipathy, but it seems more that they just come from different walks of high school life. The two girls move from hostility to declaring their love for each other with confusing speed, and an incident involving the horse Clarissa's family has been forced to sell fails to create a believable misunderstanding between the pair. Despite some enjoyable storytelling and informative detail, an uneven romance. (Fiction. 14-18)

Kirkus Reviews