Wavelength / Cale Plett / Book Review

WAVELENGTH

Everyone in the world knows Admirer, a pop duo that's taken the world by storm. As one half of Admirer, Alexander Ash is one of the most famous teenagers in the world. But when the other half of this duo gets into some legal trouble, Alexander Ash vanishes... and Sasha is born.

Sasha has wanted a way out of the spotlight for years. The only thing that saved their sanity was the fact that Alexander Ash only appears in public in a mask. With their brother on trial, the pressure to unmask was too much. It's the perfect time to vanish. Setting themself up in some nowhere midwestern town, Sasha plans to finish senior year in peace. But their plans for a quiet senior year falter when they meet Wavelength, a local alt-rock band with a lead singer right up Sasha's alley.

Lillian has been struggling to keep Wavelength together even since she broke up with her ex-girlfriend (who's also an ex-bandmember). Inviting Sasha to be a new singer for the band is for the best. Any feelings for Sasha have to be put to the side. And Sasha wants to join the band. They want music in their life again... even if that means risking their real identity getting out.

THOUGHTS

I adored this story. It was fun to read. It was quick to read. It was voice-y in the best way possible. And it's also pretty niche. Because it's queer, very queer, and it doesn't hide that. It doesn't try to make it's queerness palatable for the average reader, and I adored that. But it's not a market-wide read, though it's cutesy and fun enough that it should be. In a better world, it would be.

PROS

Unabashedly Queer	Sometimes you read a book with a queer cast of characters that feels like it was written with a general audience in mind. And other times, you know the book was written for a queer audience, for queer kids to see themselves and know there's hope for the future. And that second category is where this book falls. It's a book about breaking out of gendered restrictions, a book about exploring who you are and who you want to be. It's about having fun experimenting and not being afraid to try something different (even if it doesn't work for you).
Great POVs	I really, really liked both Sasha and Lillian as narrative leads. Their voices are distinct and full of color. They feel real as they're narrating their experiences. And they're wildly different from each other while feeling like they would get along, like they could both lead this band together. And I loved that. I loved hearing their stories how they wanted to tell them.
Real Messy	This book is rife with messy relationships, from friends to families to ex-romances. And as messy as these entanglements are, those messes don't rely on melodrama or miscommunication or any other irksome trope to add "drama" to a story. They just feel, well, complicated. Complicated in a way that's very real. It gets messy, but no secondhand embarrassment will be triggered by those messes. And that's nice.

CONS

The one part of this book that I really didn't like was that the main romance is a rebound romance. Was it the worst thing I could read? No, definitely not. This critique is more of a personal style thing: rebound romances aren't my cup of tea.	Rebound Ick
As much as I loved the story that unfolds here, I do kind of wish, on a personal level (like, you know, if I knew Sasha for real) that Sasha would have had a chance to explore something new when it came to hobbies. They might be embracing their gender identity for the first time in their life, but they do fall right back into music. And they love it. And I love that for them. But growing up with music such a large part of their life, I just kind of wish they had gotten a chance to explore other outlets. I also think this book feels restricted in some areas by the characters being young. I wish they had been aged up (maybe 19 or so, just at the verge of college-life). Then what they're doing in the book would make much more sense (though note that it still makes sense within the context given; this isn't a critique saying "these characters are too young to do any of this!" because they're not). If they were aged slightly up, there would have been much, much more room for experimentation. The characters feel older as it is, and in a different publishing landscape, this could have made a real difference with older characters, for an older audience.	Full Potential?
Obviously, I don't have any major drawbacks to this book (not with a 9/10 rating). But there were some little things that felt less-than-perfect. The ending felt shoehorned in, for example. The idea was there. The execution, not so much. Other little details throughout the book feel this way, too: fine enough, but not perfect.	Little Foibles

Rating

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
9/10

Anyone who loved Jake Maia Arlow's Leaving the Station will love this whirlwind romance of experimenting and learning you don't know who you are quite yet (and that's okay). Those who love the Disney Channel classic Hannah Montana will feel nostalgic reading this undercover popstar story.

Details Publisher: Groundwood Books Date: October 7, 2025 Series: N/A Add to Goodreads Buy it HERE

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