'Rick's never questioned much. He's gone along with his best friend Jeff even when Jeff's acted like a bully and a jerk. He's let his father joke with him about which hot girls he might want to date even though that kind of talk always makes him uncomfortable. And he hasn't given his own identity much thought, because everyone else around him seemed to have figured it out.
'But now Rick's gotten to middle school, and new doors are opening. One of them leads to the school's Rainbow Spectrum club, where kids of many genders and identities congregate, including Melissa, the girl who sits in front of Rick in class and seems to have her life together. Rick wants his own life to be that ... understood. Even if it means breaking some old friendships and making some new ones.
'As they did in their groundbreaking novel George, in Rick, award-winning author Alex Gino explores what it means to search for your own place in the world ... and all the steps you and the people around you need to take in order to get where you need to be.'
I discovered the existence of Rick shortly after finishing Alex Gino's first book, George, and because of how much I loved that book I knew that I wanted to read this sequel novel. Whilst I had something of a personal connection to George, thanks to being trans and having dealt with a lot of the topics that book covered, I was excited to see what Gino would do with the character of Rick, who had briefly appeared in the previous book, and how they would cover the topic of asexuality.
The book follows the character of Rick, a young teen moving up to middle school and facing big changes in his life. Not only is he going to a new school with new routines, and potentially new friends, but his home life has changed too, with his older sister moving off to college making him the oldest child in the house. Rick is nervous about these new challenges, but is prepared to face them alongside his best friend, Jeff. The two of them have been friends forever, and Rick thinks the world of Jeff, but once they reach middle school Rick begins to see that Jeff isn't the nicest guy around.
Of course, the readers have already seen this, as Jeff was the bully who tormented Melissa in the previous book, and here Rick begins to realise that Jeff hasn't really changed since then either. This growing change in how Rick thinks about Jeff is exacerbated when Jeff begins to torment other students, and pick on the LGBTQ+ club within the school. This not only bothers Rick because it's wrong, but because he's been secretly attending the club, trying to figure out his own sexuality; or lack of one, as Rick begins to discover the term asexual, and thinks it might be something that applies to him.
Whilst I didn't love Rick as much as I did George, which made me cry a few times whilst reading it, I really liked this book, and wished that it was a lot longer than it was so that I could spend more time with these characters and their stories. Whilst George was about being yourself in relation to discovering and being true to your gender Rick is about being yourself in other ways. It seems to want to teach its readers that people change as they grow, and the plot of Rick and Jeff's changing relationship is a big part of this. It's telling its young readers that sometimes friendships you may have had for years can change, or even end, because who you are as people don't align any more; and there's nothing wrong with ending a friendship if it becomes toxic or damaging.
This is one of the main thrusts of the book, and the scenes where Rick is discovering that he doesn't really like Jeff anymore are some important ones; especially when the situation comes to a head and they have a confrontation. I'm sure that everyone reading this has had friendships drift apart or break over the years, sometimes because people we see as good friends become people harmful to us. It's something that anyone can experience, and it's good to teach young readers that there's nothing to say you have to keep toxic friendships, and that ending them can sometimes be a good thing.
The main plot of the book, however, is Rick learning more about himself. Over the course of the book Rick's parents are asking him if he's found any boys or girls at school that take his eye, if he's developed any crushes yet, or even wants to date anyone. They know he's coming to an age where kids start to gain an interest in dating and relationships, but it's not something that Rick himself seems to think about much. He even sees it happening at school, especially with Jeff ogling, half the girls in their class. Despite this, he realises he's just not interested in any of it.
Even though Rick is told that he's 'just a late bloomer', that he'll eventually come to realise that he's attracted to someone and will want to pursue them he's not too sure. He feels certain that it's something he's never going to be interested in. As such, he begins to research if there might be a reason for this, if there's something wrong with him. This leads him to discover asexuality, and over the course of the book Rick realises that this not only applies to him, but learns to open up about it with others.
His journey to self acceptance is a nice one, and he never worries about what this could mean for him in the future, if he'll end up alone because he's not attracted to other people. This is a plot point I've seen used in other books that deal with asexuality, where people will be told they'll be lonely if they don't find a partner; but Rick seems to understand from a early age that this isn't the case, and that his friendships mean that he won't be alone. And we get to see him make these new friendships through him joining the school queer society; where he meets a fun and varied bunch of kids.
The children in the school LGBTQ+ club help Rick to understand and accept himself, but are also a great gateway into talking about other parts of the queer society in this book. There are gay, lesbian, and bisexual kids, as well as trans and non-binary students. Gino is able to use this club to raise awareness of other parts of the rainbow family, as well as teaching about pronouns. They also bring back Melissa from the first book, and her relationship with Rick is one of the nicest parts of the story.
I really enjoyed Rick, I thought that it was a lovely exploration of an often overlooked part of the queer community, and it explained this and other parts of the LGBTQ+ community well to younger readers, and showed young queer kids that not only are they not alone in the world, but that they will be able to find decent friendships and community.
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