The Set-Up Girl
by Sasha Vey
Allen & Unwin
The transition from teenagehood into young adulthood is often messy. Hormones are raging and there are so many possibilities to explore, or be hurt by. Australian author Sasha Vey has written a story for her younger self, who was desperate to see characters that identified with the label of bisexual in Young Adult fiction.
Amalia and Mae have all the pressures of the last year of high school. Protective parents want them to do their best in their studies, but developing crushes on fellow students mean that there has to be some sneaking out after dark to see where that could lead.
Amelia loves her family and has the support of her sister and older female cousins. They even have a family book club where they meet regularly with their mothers (who are sisters) to discuss classic books such as Moby Dick and Emma.
When Amelia’s best and only friend Mae announces that she wants to explore the crush she has on Kasun, the hottest boy in their class, Amelia agrees to be the ‘set-up girl’. This is despite the fact that she also has a major crush on this guy, and his best friends Jake and Laeli keep getting in the way.
Although the two friends are forbidden to date by their strict parents, they still manage to get to plenty of unsupervised parties happening in other students’ houses. Add alcohol and fairly soon misunderstandings and secret kisses threaten to derail their friendship.
Sasha Vey has said, “It might sound a bit twee, but this book is all about love. While there are other themes that are central to the narrative, including conversations around and experiences of queer sexuality and the scary-but-trilling experience of exploring the world outside the family unit, what makes each of these themes work is the love between the characters. I wanted the relationships to feel warm and real to the reader.”
Lezly Herbert
