The 99 Boyfriends of Micah Summers / Adam Sass / Book Review

Micah Summers: the boy with 99 boyfriends. Or, well, with 99 ex-boyfriends. Potential ex-boyfriends. Crushes.

Micah's real problem is that, as abundant as his crushes are, he's never had a successful relationship. In fact, he's never even successfully asked a boy out. All he has is InstaLoves, the Instagram account where he posts fantasy sketches of the boys who have captured his heart. Maybe someday, he keeps telling himself, he'll work up the nerve to ask one of them out. And with 99 crushes behind him, Micah knows that Boy 100 has to be special. Not just some random crush from class or the mall or the subway. Someone real.

And that's when Micah meets Grant. Yeah, sure, Grant is a train crush, but they hit it off. Micah even, almost, gets the chance to ask Grant out. But when a rushed departure means they get separated without exchanging contact info, Micah vows to find Grant--to find Boy 100--again. 

Thoughts

This book is cute. It is lighthearted and fun. It’s nothing particularly special. If you’re looking for a light read, definitely consider it, but don’t expect to be wowed with this one. 

Pros

• InstAdorable: I appreciate the creative ways contemporary YA authors devise to include social media in their writing. Social media is so ubiquitous that it is impossible to write a contemporary story that rings true without it. Micah posts sketches of his crushes on Insta, and these sketches are incorporated throughout the story. That makes this cute little romance stand out.  

• Fairytale Love: Micah is a believer in fairytale. He wants to find his One True Love. That’s his goal, and though he wrestles with that goal when it ultimately meets reality, he’s still a believer by the end of the book. And that’s different. That’s nice. 

• Fluff: Often when someone calls a piece “fluff,” they mean it as a bad thing. I definitely don’t mean that here. This piece is light reading, but sometimes light reading is good reading. There aren’t a lot of queer stories that can be called “fluff,” so this fluff piece is good representation, too. 

Cons

• White: Every character is first described by race and/or ethnicity. This, I think, was meant to be casual, but instead it placed an undue emphasis on race. To have so many characters, right off the bat, described as “white” felt a bit much. It was unintentional—perhaps well-intentioned, even—but it did make an impression in the end. 

• Insta-Love: I know what you're thinking. It's an Instagram romance, right? Of course there's some insta-love happening in it. That's just part of Micah's character. Even so, the pace here felt pretty quick--and the evolution of this romance was quick, too. If you're looking for "safe-space" YA summer love, I'd steer clear. They go hot and heavy, and their romance gets pretty explicit pretty quickly. 

• Obvious Match: Mr. Right and Mr. Wrong: it's a classic romance set-up, isn't it? That's the setup here, too. It was, unfortunately, incredibly obvious to me from the start that Micah's "One True Love" wasn't going to be his ultimate match--and the ultimate match was, in fact, already in the picture. Maybe the obviousness doesn't matter if you're just in it for the cutesy romance, but it was too much for me. 

Rating

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

7/10

Fans of Kevin Christopher Snipes's Milo and Marcos at the End of the World will like this new shy-boy-led romance. Those who enjoyed Ryan La Sala's Be Dazzled will love this new artsy duo. 

Details

Publisher: Viking Books for Young Readers
Date: September 20, 2022
Series: N/A

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Note: I was provided with an ARC by the publisher through Edelweiss+ in exchange for an honest review. All opinions here are my own.