The State of Us

First of all, there is a book, published a year or so before this one, that offered the same basic plot but was FAR better written, more creative, emotionally complex, and was on the New York Times Best Seller list. You’d be far better off spending your money buying that book (“Red, White and Royal Blue”) than this one. This plot was predictable from the first chapter, the characters never developed very much, and it has an ending unworthy of the decent parts of the story. Too simplistic and contrite.

I do not want to accuse an author of copying another’s work, but at the same time this book has a lot in common with Casey McQuiston’s Red White & Royal Blue which came out last year. It’s very difficult to unsee several key plot points the two have in common. That said, I wasn’t as captivated as I was with RWARB, which I devoured in four days, whereas this book was read a lot more in dribs and drabs. It’s a perfectly fine book, but it has the misfortune of coming out too close to a remarkably similar work and not shining quite as bright.

In the wake of the post-election bizarroworld in late 2020, and particularly after the events of Epiphany 2021 (January 6), this book was a balm to my soul.

Shaun Hutchinsons books have all hit me in the heart, and have taken this sixty-five-year-old back to the early 1970s, when he was a teenager struggling with his identity. Hutchinson channels the voice of teen angst with both great humor and razor edge that sometimes hurts.

This books premise was uncannily timely. The story focuses on the reluctant meeting of Andre (Dre) Rosario, the seventeen-year-old son of the nations first Mexican-American presidential candidate, and Dean Arnault, the seventeen-year-old son of the conservative Republican woman running against him. Forced to spend time together during a security blip in the course of a public event, the two boys, so different from each other, find that they actually share a lotmostly the annoyance of being dragged into their parents presidential aspirations during their senior years in high school.

These boys are a study in contrasts, however, the only congruity being their attractiveness and charm. Dre is a free spirit, openly gay, and deeply into Dungeons & Dragons. Hes the right kind of son for his father, a dark-horse candidate reminiscent of Barak Obama. Dean, on the other hand, is the ultimate Wasp boy, combed and buttoned-up and preppy as one would expect of the son of a woman who brings to mind Amy Coney Barrett, our newest Supreme Court Justice.

The whole point of YA novels is to focus on emotional development, and here we have these two boys, who live on opposite sides of the country (Colorado and Florida) building a friendship over a secure app known as Promethean. Triggered by their initial enforced proximity, Dean and Dre discover a friendship based on words and ideas, sharing themselves in messages and jokes across thousands of miles. During chance meetings when their candidate parents paths cross, they discover other thingsthings that make both of their lives even more awkward than simply being teenagers. There is important stuff here, which I will not delve into to preserve the pleasure for anyone who reads this book.

Two critical pressure points are the love each boy feels for his candidate parent. Dre is very close to his father, and misses that closeness as hes dragged constantly into the harsh spotlight of politics. He feels that hes losing his father, and that his feelings toward Dean will only damage his fathers hopes for the White House. Dean is very close to his mother, devoted to making her happy, making her proud of him, her perfect son. And, obviously, you know thats a problem. It also hit me in the gut, because when I was seventeen, I was totally caught up in the Best Little Boy in the World syndrome (for which read John Reid, aka Andrew Tobiass fictionalized memoir of that name, published in 1973. I kept it under my pillow at college).

And, just to make it all crazier and more fun/painful: theres a spoiler candidate, a billionaire entrepreneur named Jackson McCann, who threatens both candidates and horrifies both Democrat and Republican boys equally. Yeah, theres some wishful thinking here, but Im so glad to see this in a novel, especially, as I noted, given the events of the first week of 2021 in Washington, DC

Interestingly, the denouement of the book is a bit anticlimactic, and after pondering it a while, I came to understand why the author did this. There really isnt a way to give teenagers the kind of Happy Ever After that older protagonists get. You want to believe in high-school sweethearts, but you also kind of know that to assume it would be disingenuous. Hutchinson handles this deftly, and left me feeling unsettled but hopeful. He also does something at the end that is obvious, but surprisingly subtleand of course I cant talk about it because I want you all to experience it.

This book was a great way to start 2021.

What with today’s divisive political climate in the United States, I bought this book hoping for a more lighthearted approach to politics. I was both rewarded (because of the presidential candidates sons) and made more aware of current events (the third party candidate for president bore an uncanny resemblance to the current – for a few more days – resident of the White House).

Hutchinson wrote an excellent story! The relationship between the candidate’s sons, Dre and Dean, was very enjoyable. The boys are very different, but also have some things in common. How many kids have presidential candidates for parents? I felt the boys were the perfect age, on the cusp of adulthood, but still under their parents’ authority. They couldn’t just do what they wanted and get away with it, especially with the scrutiny of the press and the campaign staffs. But they had fun trying…

“Us” is skillfully written in first person, from the perspectives of both Dre and Dean. I thoroughly enjoyed both their characters. The plot includes plenty of drama (both personal and situational) and conflict. The politicians views are stereotypical, which suits this book fine. I liked that the Republican candidate was a woman and the Democrat, latino.

In some ways, this is a good vs evil story. It is also about David slaying Goliath. But underneath it all, it is about finding love under the most unlikely circumstances.

I’m not one to usually post negative reviews but this book was pretty disappointing. It was like a watered down high school version of Red, White, and Royal Blue. Not exactly the same but similar…

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