The State of Us
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4.3 • 38 Ratings
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- $5.99
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- $5.99
Publisher Description
"Dre and Dean have got my vote!"—Adib Khorram, award-winning author of Darius the Great Is Not Okay
When Dean Arnault’s mother decided to run for president, it wasn’t a surprise to anyone, least of all her son. But still that doesn’t mean Dean wants to be part of the public spectacle that is the race for the White House—at least not until he meets Dre.
The only problem is that Dre Rosario's on the opposition; he’s the son of the Democratic nominee. But as Dean and Dre’s meet-ups on the campaign trail become less left to chance, their friendship quickly becomes a romantic connection unlike any either of the boys have ever known.
If it wasn’t hard enough falling in love across the aisle, the political scheming of a shady third-party candidate could cause Dean and Dre’s world to explode around them.
It’s a new modern-day, star-crossed romance about what it really means to love your country—and yourself—from the acclaimed author of We Are the Ants and Brave Face, Shaun David Hutchinson.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Andre "Dre" Rosario and Dean Arnault have one big thing in common a parent running for U.S. president but, at first glance, little else. Mexican-American Dre, a Democrat, is gay and out, and his dad rose to prominence defending asylum seekers. Buttoned-up Dean is white, on the asexual spectrum, and closeted, and his Republican mother wants trans soldiers banned from the military. But since no one else understands the pressures they're under, that's what brings them together, the two 17-year-olds soon finding that they more they talk, the closer they get. Which doesn't mean it's easy: Dre has problems with Dean's mother's politics, and Dean doesn't know how his perfectionist mother would handle knowing who he really is, from his sexuality to his career goals. Things get more complex when the third-party candidate, a cartoonishly sleazy businessman known "for exploiting anyone and everything he could," tries to make them a campaign issue. Though Dean's diction veers from believably formal to somewhat robotic, Hutchinson (Brave Face) creates two likable characters in a love-against-the-odds story that effectively takes up the well-timed issue of how to love people whose beliefs one doesn't share whether they're parents or prospective partners. Ages 13 up.
