Warning: This review contains spoilers.
Love is unpredictable and can be found in ways you least expect it. Jennifer Chen’s latest YA romance novel, Checking You Out, tells the story of Dylan and Lizzie, who find love in an unexpected way.
Lizzie knows a few things in her life are constants. Her healthy relationship with her parents, her long-lasting friendship with her four best friends, her adoration for kittens and volunteering at Best Friends animal shelter, and finally, her love of fantasy books. When she and her best friends graduate high school, they have their futures semi-planned out. They’ll each be going somewhere different for college, but they have summer vacation to spend together before parting ways. She will continue to volunteer at the animal shelter, and they’ll continue to meet up for their book club meetings, where they each read their own favorite genres and books in each others’ quiet company. They also have a road trip planned out to enjoy as one final hurrah together. Her plans are set, and they certainly don’t involve unexpectedly training a new volunteer at the shelter, or falling in love.
For Dylan, life hasn’t been so constant. Having been bullied through middle school and high school for his love of fantasy books, he is finally able to leave the toxic environment and transfer schools in the middle of his senior year. Transferring is never easy, but for him, it also means a way to start fresh. At his new school, he becomes Dylan, the star tennis player jock who doesn’t even glance at books. At home, he hides his fantasy books away, and becomes someone new, someone who can’t be bullied. He begins to volunteer at Best Friends animal shelter to complete his volunteer hours for graduation, he makes a new friend in Elektra, a confident star tennis player, and he keeps his love of fantasy books and kittens a secret.
When Lizzie and Dylan first meet, there’s a physical attraction that’s soon cut short. Dylan plays the part of dumb jock who has never touched a book, and his lack of interest in reading immediately sours Lizzie’s impression of him. The two continue to spend time training and working together at the shelter, but Lizzie continues to fight any positive feelings she feels towards him because of his disinterest in books. Dylan, on the other hand, is infatuated with Lizzie, but keeps a distance because he’s moving away to New York for college, where he can truly start anew.
What neither of them know is that they happen to be communicating in a secret manner as well; one where they don’t know who they’re speaking with. At the beginning of summer, Lizzie finds a check out book list inside of one of her favorite fantasy novels at the public library, and it lists all of her other favorites. With a little push from her friends, Lizzie leaves a letter to the mysterious person with the same taste in books. He writes back, and they become penpals of some sort, writing secret letters to each other to share their passion for fantasy books. The plot twist? Fellow Fantasy Reader is Dylan. When Lizzie finds out who it is, she feels betrayed by his lies. Will the two be able to make up before they head off to college?
To put it simply, Checking You Out is the ideal lighthearted read for a bit of whimsy in your day. It’s well-paced, though it does unfortunately end quite quickly, and it’s easily digestible. Dylan and Lizzie are imperfect, but that’s what makes them relatable and genuine. They make silly choices for the sake of validation from their peers, they make quick judgements of others, and they make impulsive decisions. They’re still searching for themselves, but it’s obvious that they’re learning and growing over the course of the novel.
Dylan and Lizzie’s relationship could be described as a few things—it’s a friends-to-lovers and a slow burn story. The feelings they develop for one another aren’t instantaneous and sudden, rather, they build up throughout the novel. The slower, more realistic pace of this development makes the book feel more relatable, and it will have you rooting for the two to finally get together.
More importantly, though, Checking You Out is a book full of love. Not only in the romantic sense, but through friendships and family, and even self-love as well. Lizzie is an assured and confident woman, in part due to her great friends. They each live within their own favorite book genres, but they support each other in everything they do. Her family is also supportive of her, helping her with fostered kittens, encouraging her love for reading, and allowing her to really be herself. Despite his past secrets, Dylan makes a great friend in Elektra. With her help, he finds himself becoming more confident and comfortable with his own interests. She helps him meet and bring closure to his past demons, and she encourages him to be himself and proudly show his love for kittens and fantasy novels. Having Elektra by his side truly helps Dylan find his sense of self again. And while he didn’t have the closest bond with his parents, one meaningful conversation with his mom pivots that, and his parents welcome his fantasy novel loving self with open arms.
All in all, author Jennifer Chen put together a story that’s full of small details, depicts a genuine and realistic romance, and also wraps it up with a coming-of-age theme of finding oneself. It’s a book easily finished in one go, and perhaps saved for another read later down the line, just like Dylan and Lizzie’s fantasy books.
