I think Schrag was trying to make some astute points about how hard it is to figure out who you are in a world so caught up with labels, bless her heart, but the message got seriously diluted. We’re supposed to think that Adam grows up as the story progresses because he eschews his prior desperation for popularity, but that doesn’t make what he does any less reprehensible. He’s a selfish, spoiled, self-involved brat. You don’t need likable characters to make a book succeed (just look at Lolita–a book that made its controversial premise pay off, I might add), but I feel like in order for this book to work you need to be on Adam’s side. To start with, Adam has some hideously unlikable characters. Well, Ariel Schrag has a lot to answer for. Done right, it has the potential to be a scurrilous take-down of society and what is considered normal. When he falls for a lesbian at a party, Adam pretends to be trans in order to date her.

He’s determined to lose his virginity and make all his friends back home jealous, but finds himself surrounded by his sister’s lesbian and trans friends. It all starts when 17 year-old Adam goes to visit his lesbian sister in New York City for the summer. You see, Adam has the audacious idea to take the standard rom-com premise where someone pretends to be someone/something they’re not, and throw in gender norms and sexuality as a twist.

When I first picked up Adam, I confess I was simultaneously intrigued and repulsed by its premise.

Adam by ariel schrag