Wednesday, January 5, 2022

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Heartbreak Bakery by A.R. Capetta

 




The Heartbreak Bakery is the latest young adult novel by author A.R. Capetta, known for writing really well done queer YA fiction (I really enjoyed Capetta's The Brilliant Death, and their co-written Queer SF retelling of the King Arthur story with their spouse, Once & Future/Sword in the Stars).  Capetta's prior solo work that I've read has dealt with genderfluid protagonists (The Brilliant Death duology) in ways that were really well done, and so I was unsurprised to find from a review I read that this one stars an agender protagonist, and was excited to see what Capetta would do with this story.  

And well....I almost DNFed The Heartbreak Bakery, for reasons that are mainly not the book's fault.  The book does a wonderful job portraying its agender protagonist Syd, a 16 year old baker who works at a queer bakery but still feels at times like people don't understand what it means for Syd to be "agender", and struggles with relationships as a result.  The book also includes very cutesy recipes which probably work, even as they're plot relevant and carry snippets related to the plot.  At the same time, the book focuses very much on Syd's need to be in a romantic relationship (and Syd's breakup at the beginning) as a 16 year old, and well....I very much had trouble relating to that.  Others will have less problems with that and if you're queer and looking for affirmation, this book will be great for you, so that is less a problem with this book than my own.  

More after the Jump:
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Despite being 16 and in high school, Syd spends most of Syd's free time at the Proud Muffin, Austin's premier Queer Bakery.  Syd is agender, and the Muffin gives Syd a chance to be active in the city's queer community, even if Syd often feels like even the queer community - and especially Syd's family - doesn't quite understand what being agender means (or to not have pronouns).  But otherwise Syd loves the job, loves life, and loves W, Syd's girlfriend for years, who Syd feels destined to be with forever.  

Until the day they have a fight, and Syd realizes that W has ended the relationship.  

Not knowing what to do, Syd resorts to the one thing Syd can do when in emotional turmoil - bake.  But Syd soon discovers that the brownies Syd baked in heartbreak carry a magical power...the power to break people up, and those brownies were eaten by queer people all over Austin.  Soon Syd, aided by a trans bike messenger Harley Syd finds it surprisingly easy to flirt with, will have more than Syd's own heartbreak to mend, and to make up for the mistake, Syd will have to master the magical power of emotional baking....even if Syd's own emotions are a total mess.  
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The Heartbreak Bakery is told from Syd's first person viewpoint, as Syd struggles throughout the book to deal with emotions, relationships, making people understand what it means to be agender, and of course Syd's newfound dangerous ability to magically bake Syd's emotions into baked goods.  Syd is an incredibly likable protagonist - Syd's problems of making family (who are otherwise loving and accepting - just not quite understanding as to what being agender and not feeling comfortable with any pronouns means) and friends understand how Syd feels uncomfortable with any gender are very well done; Syd's teenage misunderstanding of how adult relationships work is incredibly charming; and well Syd's struggle to understand themself forms a really strong core of this book. 

And well Syd's relationship with Harley - as well as Syd's quest to undo the mistakes made by making the breakup brownies - is incredibly adorable and fun to read.  It's really fun and heartwarming to see how much Syd cares about everything and how much they try to make things right, even when a more mature reader - and honestly, even much of the YA audience for this book will be more mature that Syd - can see how Syd is misunderstanding and doing things in clearly the wrong way.  And then there's the way this book captures a really lovely queer community in Austin, and well again I keep using the word charming, but it's absolutely what this book is in many ways.  It also takes a bunch of swerves which make total sense but also keep this book from really being predictable for its short length.  And it's all topped off by Syd's adorable baking recipes, which Capetta's acknowledgements suggest actually work, but also more importantly feature Syd's own asides that contribute to the plot and the emotions of the story. 

Still - I had problems for myself with one aspect of the story which I found impossible to relate to, which is that Syd basically feels as a 16 year old that Syd HAS to be in a relationship....and the book gives Syd an immediate successor relationship in Harley the moment Syd's relationship with W breaks down.  And well look, what the book does in making it clear that truly loving relationships require people to be all of themselves around each other, and that fights are a natural part of such relationships, is good stuff!  But well, as a person who basically didn't feel the need for a relationship till well after college, it just felt wrong that the book never stopped to address the fact that Syd could also learn that it would be okay for Syd not to necessarily find a new relationship for a while because Harley is RIGHT there immediately. (and well, the fact that I don't exactly bounce back from my own adult relationships immediately also makes this immediate bounce back a bit offputting).  Again, this is my problem, and other readers, especially teens, certainly may find no problem with this.  And Queer readers, especially anyone else who thinks they may be agender or have issues with being any kind of gender, will really appreciate the journey Syd makes.  But this one part threw me out and made it hard for me to finish this one.  

So yeah, it's a good book, but one that I had an issue with due to my own personal experiences and feelings.  I have no idea how to write this review without making that clear, but well, I'll be back for Capetta's next work since I assume this issue is unique to this one.  *shrug*.

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