BLAINE FOR THE WIN by Robbie Couch
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, April 12th 2022
- Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary
- Format: eARC
- Page Count: 336 pages
Click on the cover for my review on Goodreads.
I couldn’t put down Blaine for the Win and finished it in two sittings. The vibe of it reminds me of TJ Klune’s The Extraordinaries (my review) but without superpowers.
Blaine Bowers (~16, achillean) cannot believe he got dumped by Joey Oliver (gay). On their one-year anniversary. At the fanciest restaurant ever. Joey said he didn’t want to date the mural painter who isn’t the kind of Serious Guy he needs to become President of the United States one day. Blaine will win him back by showing that he can ditch his mural painting gigs and be serious… by signing up to run for senior class president? Enlisting the help of his best friends Trish MacIntosh (sapphic, Black) and Camilla (sapphic) as well as the not-friend-only-acquaintance Danny Nguyen (bi, Vietnamese American) for an insider perspective from the student council, Blaine is ready to prove himself to be worthy of Joey. As the race kicks off, is winning Joey back still going to be Blaine’s goal?
First of all, Blaine for the Win has a great cast that includes cute supporting sapphics, in addition to lots of achilleans. And I mean lots of achilleans, which we love to see. This book is YA and tackles a lot of Messy Teenage Feels. Blaine is not the perfect boy and he messes up sometimes. Okay, a lot, but he is learning how to not quit on things and holding onto his passion. Sure, he probably didn’t get enough retaliation of all the mistakes he made, but I did get nervous and worried for him throughout the book, which is saying something about the realness of Couch’s storytelling.
The supporting cast is wonderful. Trish is amazing, and at one point, I wondered if she would become that BIPOC character who is just there to support the white main character without having her own story, but I think Couch did a pretty good job at giving her agency and power, too (you have to finish the whole book though). Camilla is mainly there to support Trish as the dinosaur-loving girlfriend. And Danny, the plant-loving sweet boy Danny. Even though his backstory was mentioned pretty early on in the book, I felt emotional, too.
There are little to no homophobia in BFTW and many achillean characters that I am sure would mean a lot to young readers. I love that there are beautiful family relationships: Blaine and his aunt Starr, Danny and his father Bao, and even Zach Chesterton (the egotistical but popular candidate, also achillean) and his parents. And while the Olivers are not as great, their issues have nothing to do with Joey being gay, either. Another plus side is that Blaine’s dog Fudge did not gradually disappear as the story went on (I find it very common that fictional pets just sort of fades into the background when the story is not centered around animals).
As much as I liked the book, it did bother me a little that one character felt out-of-character toward the end, which was plot-convenient. But it didn’t hinder my enjoyment by much.
BFTW is a mostly light-hearted story about the disaster queer that is Blaine, but it also touches upon some heavier topics like mental health and grief and unemployment. Overall, this book is a winner, and I’m already looking forward to future books by Couch.
content warnings: talks about mental health, anxiety, loss of family member (side character), unemployment
I received an advanced digital copy from Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers via NetGalley and am voluntarily leaving a review.
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