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In this book review, Averie talks about how life-changing Late to the Party is.
Late to the Party: Book Review
Late to the Party: Book Review
By Averie Black
‘Everybody goes at their own pace’ is a sentence drilled into many people’s heads. Even Google Docs auto-fills the rest of the sentence after a few words. However, it is hard to remember when social pressure says there are benchmarks to be met. Late to the Party by Kelley Quinton explores these themes with the main character Codi Teller and her band of loser friends, JaKory and Maritza. In a society where teenagers are considered to be living the best years of their lives, 17-year-old Codi, who has never been to a party, never been kissed, and only has two friends, feels like she is falling behind– until she discovers the king of the popular kids secretly kissing another boy. Late to the Party is the perfect book for anyone who has ever wanted to fit in, as it takes a closer look at the expectations placed on popularity.
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Codi, JaKory and Maritza’s relationship is what kicks off the story. The three of them had been best friends since elementary school but, as they go into their senior year, they are tired of falling into familiar habits– watching movies and eating junk food in Codi’s basement. While Maritza and JaKory are ecstatic at the idea of going to a party, drinking, and getting their first kisses, Codi is much more reserved and would prefer to paint in her room. Since Codi is so reluctant about the party, Maritza and JaKory go without her and later call her to pick them up after they drank too much. Codi goes to pick them up and runs into Ricky, one of the most popular guys at school, kissing another guy. As a lesbian, Codi is able to empathize with Ricky being in the closet and gain his friendship. He then takes her under his wing and brings her into his “cool” friend group. The only problem is that Codi never tells JaKory and Maritza about her new friends and begins distancing herself from them.
The core four characters– Codi, JaKory, Maritza, and Ricky are all relatable characters in different ways. Codi is the reserved, somewhat selfish main character who is resistant to change but desperate for it. JaKory is the idealistic nerd who is extremely loyal. Maritza is desperate for change and romantic connection, but does not know how to go about it. Lastly, Ricky is charismatic and popular, but does not feel like he can share his true self with his friends. There is at least one character everyone can relate to, which creates a great reading experience for unstable high schoolers. There is an interesting dynamic between Codi and her two friend groups. It is clear that Codi still loves Maritza and JaKory, but that there are certain parts of her personality they cannot bring out. As her friends continue to mock her for being reserved, Codi gets more and more frustrated with them, knowing she has been doing everything they wished they could do. As a reader, it is interesting to see how multifaceted Codi is and how being around different people brings out different sides of her. It is never written like she is two-faced or manipulative, which is a nice change from characters who change their behaviors depending on who they are around.
Usually, lack of communication plot lines can be annoying to read since it could be so easily solved but, in this case, Late to the Party deserves a pass. Opposed to the characters not communicating and then crying over the results of them not communicating, Codi is fully aware that not telling her friends about hanging out with Ricky is a bad idea. She takes the reader through her thought process of wanting something for herself and feeling guilty about it, but not so guilty that she is willing to give that up. Even once her secret gets out, it takes her a little time before feeling guilty for her actions. The story is more focused on Codi’s characterization and why she would not tell her friends than just fulfilling the misunderstanding plot line. Although it is a coming of age story, it never drags on like some other books of the same genre do. Every scene feels important to the story whether it be plot beats or growing connections between the characters. This is aided by the fact the book is just under 300 pages, so it is a pretty quick read.
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One of the best relationships in the book is between Codi and her little brother, Grant. Unfortunately, they do not get a ton of focus on them throughout the story, but they have an extremely interesting dynamic. For example, one of the first scenes in the books is Codi, JaKory, and Maritza going to pick up Grant from the movies after he went out with his friends. While they wait for him, the trio sees Grant come out with a girl who he appears to be awkwardly flirting with. This sets off a chain reaction in Codi of jealousy and comparison that her little brother managed to find someone before she did. Codi begins freaking out at imagining he gets his first kiss before she does, and all of this leads to her being a jerk to him in the car. This scene has a dual purpose as it both sets up the plot perfectly and shows the rocky relationships between Codi and her brother. The siblings’ relationship is eventually tied up into Codi allowing Grant into her personal life. which was all very sweet.
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All of the main characters of the book are queer, with Codi being a lesbian, JaKory being gay, and Maritza being bisexual. Ricky and Cody's love interest, Lydia, are also both queer. This book does a good job with queer representation and the anxieties that come with living in a hetronormative world. Even though Ricky knows his friends will most likely support him, he is still terrified of coming out the entire book, which creates a point of tension with Codi, whose friends are the only supporters of her sexuality. Unfortunately, the romance between Codi and Lydia was not great. It was not bad in the way that they were toxic or annoying, but it just did not feel like there was a ton of chemistry. Codi would goggle at her in her narration, but Lydia felt more like a manic-pixie-dream-girl kind of character than a real person like the rest of the cast. However, the background romance of Maritza and Vivien was super fun. Although Late to the Party is told through Codi’s perspective, it does a really good job of finishing out the character arcs of the other characters. Maritza and Viviens storyline was adorable with Maritza being petty about Vivien getting the dance captain spot she wanted and making her out to be evil when she was always a genuinely nice person. Something could also be said about JaKory’s love life, though it is never a good idea to travel across state borders without parent permission to see an online romance in real life for the first time. Good thing it worked out for him.
The best aspect of this book is that it is important to have available to kids going through the same situation as Codi and her friends. Maybe teens should not be focusing on the dramatics of keeping a big secret and being an undercover party girl, but the feelings associated with falling behind or drifting away from close friends is a significant theme. In terms of lessons in friendship, this quote from Maritza sums it up pretty well: “If you’ve grown closer to Ricky and your other new friends, that’s okay. I don’t have to be your best friend in the entire world. I just want to be in your life.”’ This is a mature and nuanced take on friendship, especially for teenagers who often view the world in black and white. A lesser book might have turned this concept into a knock-off Mean Girls where the new, popular friend group full of jerks converts the shy girl into one of them. However, this is not the case. The book makes it clear that both the original friend group and the new friend group are full of kind people who love Codi but just express themselves differently.
Going into this book, readers may expect a lesson on being more sociable or not changing who you are at all, but Late to the Party is more layered than this. It is not preaching to just make new friends and start living the life of your dreams because it shows the characters make many attempts at this and fail miserably. Late to the Party is also not preaching to just stick to your comfort zone because the characters would have been miserable if that were the case. What this book so thoughtfully encourages is to take one’s time with life, and everything will fall into place. This is not to say everything will fall perfectly without any effort, but everyone is ready for different phases at different times in their lives whether that be middle school or college. It teaches the reader that they are right where they need to be and, when the time is right, they may change and grow as a person to allow for new experiences to naturally work its way into their lives.
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Late to the Party currently, and rightfully, has a 4.03 stars on GoodReads, which is not bad at all. This is not a very popular book, so there are only a little over 2k reviews and just under 12k ratings. Overall, the majority agreed that this was a wonderful book. The few outliers who this book did not click with tended to complain mostly about the writing, which was not particularly stylized in any way, or people misunderstanding the themes of the book. Therese, who rated it 2-stars on GoodReads, said, “It seemed like a lot of the time this book was trying to say that the peak of being a teenager is getting drunk off warm beer in some dude’s basement.” She seemed to have completely missed the fact that activities like partying have been portrayed as the peak of being a teenager by every single movie, TV show, and piece of media ever. This is a point of society critiqued by the book, not encouraged by it. Yes, Codi parties and drinks with her new friends, but it is not represented as the ultimate teenage experience. It is just being told through the eyes of a narrator who has been fed that fact her entire life. Of course, Codi will feel a sense of excitement that she is finally doing the same activities as the cool kids, but that is not what the book as a whole is saying and it is certainly not what it is all about. Another reader, Robin, rated it 5-stars and said, “The fear of change versus the want to be apart of something was so prominent throughout the story. That and the underlying yearning for new experiences.” This seems to be a much more accurate assessment of the themes of the book.
Overall, Late to the Party is for all of the late bloomers who feel like they are falling behind. It is a reassuring pat on their head that new experiences will come to them as they are ready. Late to the Party is one of the only books of its particular nature, and readers are waiting eagerly to see what Quinton will do next.
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