nikki ༗'s Reviews > Their Troublesome Crush

I can't believe I haven't had anyone mention this book before to me because this was such a delightful, thought-provoking, enlightening read. As someone who does not have very much education on the autism spectrum and is only a bit more educated on polyamory and kink, this book opened me up to whole new worlds.

Firstly, the representation really knocks it out of the park. A Jewish, fat, disabled, autistic, demiromantic, trans man Ernest realizes he's beginning to have feelings for one of his metamours, a Jewish, fat, disabled, femme cis woman Nora.

Their conversations about navigating communication with each other as friends, then as their own newly budding relationship, were exponentially insightful. I could see how West was demonstrating the language to use when communicating wants, needs, and feelings in really any type of relationship, but also coupled with how to learn to best understand an autistic friend, lover, family member, etc.

I loved the discussion about different types of attraction - romantic, sexual, aesthetic, sensual, kink, platonic, etc. - as well as how those all played out in Ernest's relationships. It gave me a new perspective on polyamory and all various relationships. Also do not expect a triad or throuple; these are two metamours creating their own separate relationship from their shared metamour, a reflection of the variety of polyamorous relationships that may or may not have couplings within them, varying degrees of involvement between parties.

Also I somehow never heard of the kink handkerchief system? So that prompted an incredibly informative Google search XD

I highly recommend anyone add this not only to their pride reading lists but to their main TBR even after pride month is over.

TWs: anxiety, meltdown occurrence, discussion of another character's depression, one brief reference to misgendering occurrence (off-page)
More specifics included in front pages.