They hate each other by Amanda Woody

Jonah and Dylan have antagonised each other from the moment they first met, however their friends think they would make an adorable couple and tease them relentlessly to this end. To put an end to the taunting, they decide to ‘fake date’ for three months and then stage a spectacular breakup that will silence their friends for good.

What a surprise; as they get to know each other the chemistry begins, despite their very different personalities and backgrounds. Jonah who works in a restaurant to support his two younger sisters, appears brash and confident, the life of every party, but this is a far cry from his home life with an alcoholic and often absent single-parent father. Dylan, well-off and outwardly successful in both studies and sport, is more reserved and reluctant to see his therapist to address issues with his estranged brother, panic attacks and PTSD.

Unfortunately, the voices of the two boys sound very similar and there is a lot of description and explanation that can be frustrating to plough through. Readers will also need to suspend disbelief to accept the on-going ‘fake date’ trope, the final extreme change in Jonah’s home life, and the boys’ happily-ever-after ending.

They Hate Each Other is an earnest attempt to address many of the issues facing young people today, and Woody prefaces the novel with a list of content warnings; alcoholism, neglect, underage drinking, PTSD and panic attacks, eating habits and body image, sexual harassment, physical abuse and explicit sexual language. All these are integral to the characters’ backstories and on-going issues, but add a line-up of characters encompassing pretty much the whole range of sexual-diversity and you have a story that often feels overly issues-based. A less contrived alternative might be Erik J. Brown’s Lose You to Find Me, if you don’t mind losing the ‘fake date’ plot.

Themes: LGBTQI+, Fake-date, Relationships, Friendship, Family, Trauma.

Margaret Crohn