This ‘slice of life’ novel is one of the most honest and open stories I’ve ever read. Girl Mans Up follows Pen through her junior year as she struggles to figure out how she can be who she wants to be, date who she wants to date, and be her own best advocate with her friends and family. Colby is getting more and more demanding about Pen’s loyalty, warning her not to get too involved with Blake, and definitely not to listen to Olivia telling stories about him. Big brother Johnny is Pen’s constant defender and supporter, but he’s just gotten into a fight with Mom and Dad and gotten kicked out of the house, leaving Pen alone. They want her to be a ‘nice girl’ who wears dresses and finds a good husband. This could be Pen’s first real romance, but can she figured out how to make it work? Her parents don’t understand her. When Pen gets to know Olivia, one of Colby’s exes, and finds out just how badly Colby messed her up, Pen starts to question her loyalty to her old friend, no matter how much they like hanging out and playing video games together.Īlso complicating things: Pen’s crush on her super-hot classmate Blake, who is just coming out of a relationship with a guy in her rock band, but who seems to be into the idea of dating Pen. She hangs out with Colby, who has never made a big deal out of her sexuality and treats her with a measure of acceptance, but their relationship begins to fray as Colby continues to use Pen as his ‘scout’ for girls that he likes – making Pen vouch for him and lead those girls to Colby so he can use them and discard them. She’s used to being mistaken for a boy and has learned to put up with crap from her less understanding peers (read: most of them). She likes to wear her brother’s old clothes.

Pen has always just wanted to be the kind of girl that she is – not a girly girl, not a guy, but a girl who likes girls, and who presents as what is sometimes called ‘butch,’ though this isn’t a term Pen herself uses.

Peter’s Catholic School, she’s got a lot more on her mind than just grades. Pen (don’t call her Penelope) Oliveira lives in a small Ontario town with her Old-World Portuguese parents and her big brother Johnny. YA contemporary fiction, own voices queer rep.

Girl Mans Up by M.E. Girard