Going Behind the Scenes

Going Off Script by Jen Wilde

Publication Date: May 21, 2019

Summary from NetGalley:

A TV writer’s room intern must join forces with her crush to keep her boss from ruining a lesbian character in this diverse contemporary YA romance from the author of Queens of Geek.

Seventeen-year-old Bex is thrilled when she gets an internship on her favorite tv show, Silver Falls. Unfortunately, the internship isn’t quite what she expected… instead of sitting in a crowded writer’s room volleying ideas back and forth, Production Interns are stuck picking up the coffee.

Determined to prove her worth as a writer, Bex drafts her own script and shares it with the head writer—who promptly reworks it and passes it off as his own! Bex is understandably furious, yet…maybe this is just how the industry works? But when they rewrite her proudly lesbian character as straight, that’s the last straw! It’s time for Bex and her crush to fight back.

Jen Wilde’s newest novel is both a fun, diverse love story and a very relevant, modern take on the portrayal of LGBT characters in media.

ARC provided by MacMillan’s Children Publishing Group via NetGalley for an honest review.

Confession:

This was a fun book, for what it was.  The characters were somewhat one dimensional, the plot was predictable, the romance was kind of insta-love and fluffy and the ending was too neatly wrapped up with a big giant bow.  But for the right person at the right time this will be a great read.  

Bex was a good character, although I would have liked her to not be so passive at the beginning and young.  I think she would have been more believable as an older teen, not seventeen.   I found it hard to believe that she would get this internship over say a college student working on a degree in writing for television or movies.  Because of this she was too easily intimidated by everyone on set, and especially by her boss.  But that said, she was eventually able to get her act together and stand up for herself at the end.   I liked the romance with Shrupty, although it was a little too insta-love, they were still cute together.  I also liked how she came out to her cousin Parker, very cute.  

There is a very diverse cast of characters, but we don’t really get to know any of them.  Because of this they are all really one-dimensional.  One of my biggest issues with the book, is anyone who disagreed with Bex’s point of view was automatically against gays and their characters ended up being a bit cartoonish.  Her boss Malcolm, was especially one dimensional and a bit of a sleaze ball in the typical Hollywood fashion, (cheating on his wife).  

The plot does explore some very big issues, homophobia, believing in yourself, coming out, and how the media portrays gays in TV and movies.  And for the most part these issues are handled well, but it is such a short book that they don’t go  into enough depth to really help anyone understand them.  Also, the ending just had everything wrapping up in a too perfect and unbelievable way.  Bex should have gotten into serious trouble for some of the things she did, instead of rewarded because she was doing it to get justice and Malcolm off the show. 

Overall this was a pretty fun and fast read.  I did have some minor issues with it, but I think that there are lots of teens out there who will really like it.