Beware of Best Friends

Sassen does not beat about the bush. Right from the start, she moves straight into top gear: at a birthday party, everyone in the class has to come as their favourite hot woman. Joshua dresses up as Beyoncé and, after much protest, the prudish kickboxer Dylan goes as the tough police officer from a TV show. Their classmate Lindsey, who everyone has a crush on, puts on a huge Kardashian-style butt. Joshua thinks Lindsey is so hot that she could just have come to the party as herself.

So far, so funny. But admitting to your real feelings? That’s a bit trickier. Joshua, who would happily spend all day drawing girls, hasn’t had sex yet, and he’s terrified by Lindsey, who has suddenly decided that she wants him to draw her. Sergio, who, during the Covid epidemic, isn’t ashamed to offer his body to anyone who feels the need to be touched, doesn’t get what Joshua is so worried about.

Dylan is the opposite. He sees himself as Lindsey’s guardian angel – and thinks that she’s a saint. If anyone claims to have done it with Lindsey, he beats them up. There probably hasn’t been a YA novel since Sue Townsend’s The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole that has made readers burst out into such uncontrollable laughter – possibly to the irritation of innocent bystanders.

This is also a beautiful book about vulnerability, thanks in part to the illustrations by Martijn van der Linden, who shows what Joshua puts in his sketchbook. The writer and the illustrator are equal partners, taking it in turns to tell the tempestuous and touching tale of four friends and love.

Age: 15+