Late to the Party is a young adult novel that revolves around Codi Teller, who is not the typical teen you see depicted on TV. She’s never been to a party, she’s never stayed out late, and she’s definitely never been kissed. Her limited social network is made up solely of her best friends since Kindergarten, Maritza and JaKory. They spend their time observing others’ lives rather than living their own. This all changes when they decide to be more adventurous the summer before their Senior year.
Codi, nervous about the unknown, steps back instead of forward, until she is accidentally thrust into the world of another teenager –football star and popular kid, Ricky –who lives in her neighborhood and also happens to be gay and hiding it from his own group of friends. So, when Codi stumbles upon Ricky with another boy, she agrees to keep his secret. When Ricky realizes they have a lot more in common than he originally thought, Codi becomes his confidante, and Codi starts keeping secrets of her own.
“There was something about hanging out with Ricky that made me feel like a newer, better version of myself, and I wasn’t ready to share that version with anyone else, not even—maybe especially not—my two best friends.”
I picked up this book because of its allusions to mystery, its diverse characters, and its exploration of identity. But attempts to create a diverse and inclusive group of teens regrettably result in a motley crew of one-dimensional characters. It’s as if the author wrote out hobbies and attributes on sticky notes, then just stuck those to cardboard cutouts of teens for inspiration. The characters, with all their potential, mostly come across as flat or dull. They are like John Hughes’ Breakfast Club but far less compelling.
The themes in this book remain, however, very complex. These kids are working themselves out, their lives becoming intertwined, as lives in Suburbia easily do. There were flashes of brilliance in its pages, though, with paragraphs of dialogue and inner monologue that really get to (what I think is meant to be) the heart of the novel: fear and shame, wanting to be brave but standing in your own way, longing to share a meaningful experience but being too afraid or selfish to open up to it, arguments and reparations on the journey to finding oneself, how hard and fast adulthood sneaks up on you, and how quickly your high school years are in the rearview mirror.
“How much of that stuff is actually you, Codi, and how much of it is you thinking that it’s you? It’s not like you’re some defective, half-alive seventeen-year-old…”
Ultimately, the plot of the story is actually very tender and real. Kids trying to be the best versions of themselves but not really knowing who they actually are or want to be. Kids who are confident in their statements but not in their actions. Kids who argue with their friends and family because they feel misunderstood. Kids who want to be included and popular but also want something they can call their own. Kids who, at the end of the day, are still just kids, standing on the ledge of adulthood, preparing their parachutes to jump off into the unknown.
“Are you sure you haven’t been sabotaging yourself this entire time with these stupid f---ing ideas of how you’re supposed to be?”
If you’ve ever missed out because of fear, especially in your formative years, then this may be the book for you. It teaches the importance of seizing every opportunity while you can. Because things change so quickly and so seldom as you expect them to when you are young. If this novel has one takeaway message it’s this: don’t doubt yourself, hold fast to your friends, and never compromise who you truly are for the sake of others.
“You don’t have to be just one version of yourself. You’re far more dynamic than that.”
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