Old Enough
A Novel
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4.3 • 25 Ratings
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- $5.99
Publisher Description
Finalist for the Lambda Literary Award in Bisexual Fiction
“Old Enough is full of growth, heartbreak, and winsome bisexual chaos.”—Vogue
A debut novel “as astute, funny, and loving as your best friend from college”* about a young bisexual woman who is pulled between a new sense of community and loyalty to a friendship she’s outgrown
*Isle McElroy
Savannah "Sav" Henry is almost the person she wants to be, or at least she's getting closer. It’s the second semester of her sophomore year. She’s finally come out as bisexual, is making friends with the other queers in her dorm, and has just about recovered from her disastrous first queer “situationship.” She is cautiously optimistic that her life is about to begin.
But when she learns that Izzie, her best friend from childhood, has gotten engaged, Sav faces a crisis of confidence. Things with Izzie haven’t been the same since what happened between Sav and Izzie’s older brother when they were sixteen. Now, with the wedding around the corner, Sav is forced to reckon with trauma she thought she could put behind her.
On top of it all, Sav can’t stop thinking about Wes from her Gender Studies class—sweet, funny Wes, with their long eyelashes and green backpack. There’s something different here—with Wes and with her new friends (who delight in teasing her about this face-burning crush); it feels, terrifyingly, like they might truly see her in a way no one has before.
With a singularly funny, heartfelt voice, Old Enough explores queer love, community, and what it means to be a sexual assault survivor. Haley Jakobson has written a love letter to friendship and an honest depiction of what finding your people can feel like—for better or worse.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Jakobson's astute debut chronicles a young woman's exploration of her trauma and sexuality. After an unsteady coming-of-age in high school, college sophomore Savannah "Sav" Henry has come out as bisexual and made a group of queer friends. When Sav's childhood best friend, Izzie, announces her engagement, Sav flashes back to painful and unprocessed memories involving Izzie's unnamed older brother, who raped her when she was 16 and he was 20. Though Sav is drawn back into Izzie's orbit, she's passed over as maid of honor because Izzie, who didn't understand what Sav went through with her brother and blamed Sav, doesn't want things to be "awkward." As Sav prepares for the wedding, she risks her friendship with a classmate named Candace, the first to introduce her to the other queer people in their dorm, by secretly fooling around with Nova, a polyamorous woman who broke up Candace's relationship. Jakobson lands the intensity of college friendships and sexual relationships with exquisite depictions of Sav and her cohort. Though the trauma plot threatens to become heavy-handed, Jakobson lends a gentle touch, showing how Sav works through her conflicted feelings about her rape. This writer shows plenty of promise.
Customer Reviews
Old Enough: growing into yourself
3.5/5 - apple ebook
funny, sweet, and endearing. beautifully captures what it’s like to be young and healing from past trauma. an ode to broken promises and new versions of yourself. i wish some parts of the book were slower and others faster. it had a college setting, but doesn’t necessarily feel like i was immersed within it, i felt like a ghost floating around from the dorms to the coffee shop to bars. i wanted more Wes and less of Nova and Matt, they both felt one-sided.