Eliot McHugh is the bold, funny, and sex-positive friend you wish you had with you to help navigate freshman year of college.
author of Tell Me Again How a Crush Should Feel Sara Farizan
Margot Wood’s Fresh bubbles over with irreverence, humor, and heart , capturing teen spirit in all its incarnations and creating a new classic for a new generation.
New York Times bestselling author Danielle Paige
This delightfully modern take on a classic story is both fun and funny, sexy and sex positive , and if all that’s not enough, I have two more words for you: Jane Austen.”
author of If I Stay and We Are Inevitable Gayle Forman
I couldn’t stop reading! I was dying to know if Elliot would have a happy ending.
06/07/2021
Wood’s charming but uneven debut, a loose retelling of Austen’s Emma , is a sex-positive romp through freshman college life. Set at Boston’s Emerson College, it traces Elliot McHugh’s evolution from insecure and self-absorbed to assured and affectionate. Well-meaning but unaware of her privilege, Elliot, who’s white and queer, immediately takes up a regimen of parties and sex upon arriving at university; instead of homework and declaring a major, she nearly fails all her classes. Meanwhile, she introduces her Armenian roommate, scholarship student Lucy Garabedian, to snobbish classmate Kenton Parker—who sexually assaults Elliot at an off-campus party. Amid the fallout, she realizes that she must take responsibility for her education; mend her relationship with Lucy, who’s misunderstood the situation; and learn vulnerability as a friend and lover. Elliot’s narration breaks the fourth wall often, through footnotes and “dear reader” interjections; in places, this technique works, but lengthy footnote asides frequently interrupt the reading experience (“Have I told you, dear reader, how much I love you lately?”). Even so, strong secondary characters, including Elliot’s precocious younger sister and her matter-of-fact RA, reveal Elliot’s strengths and flaws, and character discussions around consent and sexual discovery ring true. Ages 14–up. Agent: Joanna Volpe, New Leaf Literary. (Aug.)
Fresh is a book I wish had existed when I was a teenager
#1 New York Times bestselling author of the Diverg Veronica Roth
This delightfully modern take on a classic story is both fun and funny, sexy and sex positive , and if all that’s not enough, I have two more words for you: Jane Austen.”—Gayle Forman, author of If I Stay and We Are Inevitable Fresh is a book I wish had existed when I was a teenagerVeronica Roth, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Divergent series Fresh bubbles over with irreverence, humor, and heart , capturing teen spirit in all its incarnations and creating a new classic for a new generation. ”—Danielle Paige, New York Times bestselling author bold, funny, and sex-positive friend you wish you had with you to help navigate freshman year of college.”—Sara Farizan, author of Tell Me Again How a Crush Should Feel I couldn’t stop reading! I was dying to know if Elliot would have a happy ending.”—Abigail Hing Wen, New York Times bestselling author of Loveboat, Taipei Kirkus Reviews Publishers Weekly Booklist
08/01/2021
Gr 10 Up— Eliot is headed to Emerson College to begin her freshman year, and she really only has one thing on her mind: sex. When one of her classes gives her the opportunity to have a bunch of casual hookups with her peers in the name of writing an essay about love and eroticism, Eliot jumps at the chance. However, she soon learns that casual hook-ups aren't fulfilling and that they are putting the few quality relationships she has formed at risk. The first half of the novel provides a compelling story with a good amount of conflict, but it falls flat in the second half. Eliot's character grows during this portion of the novel, but that is the only thing that happens. It felt as if the book continued following the characters through the rest of the school year simply because it was meant to be set over the course of the school year, and not because there was more story to tell. This debut has echoes of Jane Austen's Emma , (for example, Eliot sets her roommate up with her first boyfriend, only to realize he is not a good guy, similar to the way Emma attempts to set up Harriet with Mr. Elton), but the connection is pretty subtle. It will appeal less to Jane Austen fans than a firmer retelling, and the graphic, sexual content could be off-putting for some teens. VERDICT An additional purchase for libraries where sex positive titles are needed.—Mariah Smitala, Hedberg P.L., Janesville, WI
2021-05-27
In this story loosely inspired by Jane Austen’s Emma , Elliot is an outgoing, undeclared, new student at Boston’s Emerson College. She immediately becomes close friends with her roommate, Lucy Garabedian, who comes from a large Armenian American family and has far more ambitious college and career plans than she does. Elliot’s primary goal is to sleep with many people of any gender and with no commitments. This comes to fruition but isn’t as fulfilling as she thought, especially as she dwells on a conversation with Rose Knightley, her gorgeous resident adviser, about what constitutes good sex. Additionally, her courses are more of a struggle than she expected, and her behavior results in friendship hurdles. As the year progresses, Elliot learns more about who she is, what she wants, and what it takes to be a good friend and romantic partner. Elliot’s meta, first-person narration is conversational and often hilarious, with footnotes and sections directly addressing readers and inviting their participation. While it’s sometimes over-the-top, it all fits with Elliot’s exuberant persona. She’s a well-crafted, messy character who makes mistakes but ultimately means well. Unabashedly sex-positive and queer, this story is mostly light and breezy, but it has serious moments as well. Elliot is assumed White; there is some ethnic diversity in secondary characters.
A fresh, funny, college-set, coming-of-age tale. (Fiction. 15-18)
