These three, Ollie, Will, and the quick-witted Lara (the Rizzo character), are well-rounded, sympathetic characters, and their self-doubt, love, and heartbreak all sound like genuine expressions of adolescent angst. The novel has a racially diverse cast of characters, at least three of whom are queer. Besides, the primary audience of this novel likely hasn’t seen Grease. But the storyline is different enough from the movie to still make for a fun read. When the boys see one another at a party, Will’s initial excitement at seeing Ollie quickly dissipates, and as the days go on, he distances himself from Ollie, unwilling to admit his true feelings.Įarly on while reading this YA novel, I started hearing Frankie Valli’s voice in my head, and it dawned on me that Only Mostly Devastated is a queer retelling of the movie Grease, only here the girls have traded in their Pink Ladies jackets for identical necklaces, and the guys are basketball players donning black and white letter jackets. Now the new kid at the local high school, Ollie is quickly befriended by a group of girls, and before long tells them of his fling with Will-only to discover Will attends the same school and is still very much in the closet. When Aunt Linda takes a turn for the worse, Ollie and his parents decide to stay for the school year.
At the lake one day with his cousins, he meets a boy named Will and the two are immediately taken with each other, and so begins a summer romance, the sort of mutual infatuation perhaps only experienced by high schoolers. Out-and-proud Ollie moves from San Jose, California, to Collinswood, North Carolina, for the summer with his family to help care for his ailing Aunt Linda.
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