KISSING EZRA HOLTZ (AND OTHER THINGS I DID FOR SCIENCE)

Predictable hate-becomes-love
romance is given new life by an inclusive cast.

After being rejected from nine art
schools, Sephardic, bi, “edgy” Amalia needs to buckle down and make better
grades senior year to get into a traditional college. (Yes, this makes
absolutely no sense, but apparently in this version of reality, art college
admissions happen before senior year.) She talks her way into AP psychology and
ends up paired with uptight Ezra Holtz, fellow Jew and longtime nonfriend (they
have endured synagogue, youth group, and parental attempts to make them
friends). Of course, they choose to do a matchmaking experiment (on three
refreshingly varied and diverse couples), and, of course, they fall into lust
and then love. Sex-positive and frank without being graphic, with characters
for whom religion is significant but not the point, this is an unexpectedly now
entry in the sometimes-entrenched formula of romance, which makes the flaws—Amalia’s
“manic pixie dream girl” past self never feels real
despite many references to drinking and smoking pot, the college timeline will
make teens in the know laugh, and Ezra is too perfect—forgivable. Many Jewish
readers, in particular, will rejoice in seeing themselves and will recognize
moments such as Amalia’s doing homework on the High Holy days while reflecting that “kids don’t have to do this crap on Christmas Eve.”
One of Ezra’s two dads is trans.