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haileyannereads's review
3.0
Trigger Warning: mental illness, trauma, homophobia, suicide
I liked this book. I think it gives a realistic and real look at mental illness. There's a lot of build-up to The Bad Thing That Happened and that's the point, but I still feel like there should have been a content warning.
I liked this book. I think it gives a realistic and real look at mental illness. There's a lot of build-up to The Bad Thing That Happened and that's the point, but I still feel like there should have been a content warning.
bemaxwell's review
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
sarahjolioli's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
cjoshuav's review
5.0
Baby and Solo is many books in one, and all of them are excellent.
At its most basic level, the novel is a finely-crafted time capsule of suburban adolescence in the mid-nineties. The characters are a few years younger than I was at that time, but Posthuma's extensive pop-culture references and sharp prose capture how I remember the period before the end of the millennium. The tone and pace of the book match the feel of the movies of that era. It zips by quickly - pulled along by witty dialogue and artful but simple descriptions.
But Baby and Solo is much more than an opportunity to put in an REM CD and grab some Brown Sugar Pop-Tarts. Posthuma also explores the worlds of mental illness, institutionalization, suicide, gender dysphoria, homosexuality, teen pregnancy, and divorce. Superficially, weaving all of these themes into an ensemble teen dramady might sound like it would harsh the John Hughes vibe. To the contrary, Posthuma's deft narration and honest characters are poignant reminders that these themes, and their struggles, are very much germane to the lives of teenagers then and now. Baby and Solo's first-person narrative centers our focus, not on the misty-colored memories of proms and class projects, but on the fears and failures that countless teens feel in the moment, as they are crushed by the collision of parental expectations and the exigencies of their world, a world which their parents refuse to see.
Posthuma sees it, and writes it as eloquently and honestly as anyone who has ever attempted the genre. Beyond the skill of her prose, Posthuma also brings the perspective of a wise and deeply reflective observer of families, outsiders, and the human condition. Even if it weren't a heart wrenching exploration of brokenness and healing, Baby and Solo would be worth reading simply to better understand how thoughtful people process the people and places around them. This is a wise and profound book, one that moved me to tears with the force of its insights.
Ultimately, though, Baby and Solo is more than a book about the Nineties, or mental health and trauma, or even wisdom; Baby and Solo is a book about what people will do for those they love - for better or for worse. By the end of the book you realize that there are no villains in it, just a lot of people loving each other in the best ways that they know how. I came to love them too.
As I read Baby and Solo, I reflected on Bowie's lyrics from two decades earlier: “And these children that you spit on as they try to change their worlds; are immune to your consultations, they are quite aware of what they are going through." Lisabeth Posthuma is also quite aware, and we are the better for it. Baby and Solo deserves to be at the top of everyone's reading list. After all, nobody puts Baby in a corner.
At its most basic level, the novel is a finely-crafted time capsule of suburban adolescence in the mid-nineties. The characters are a few years younger than I was at that time, but Posthuma's extensive pop-culture references and sharp prose capture how I remember the period before the end of the millennium. The tone and pace of the book match the feel of the movies of that era. It zips by quickly - pulled along by witty dialogue and artful but simple descriptions.
But Baby and Solo is much more than an opportunity to put in an REM CD and grab some Brown Sugar Pop-Tarts. Posthuma also explores the worlds of mental illness, institutionalization, suicide, gender dysphoria, homosexuality, teen pregnancy, and divorce. Superficially, weaving all of these themes into an ensemble teen dramady might sound like it would harsh the John Hughes vibe. To the contrary, Posthuma's deft narration and honest characters are poignant reminders that these themes, and their struggles, are very much germane to the lives of teenagers then and now. Baby and Solo's first-person narrative centers our focus, not on the misty-colored memories of proms and class projects, but on the fears and failures that countless teens feel in the moment, as they are crushed by the collision of parental expectations and the exigencies of their world, a world which their parents refuse to see.
Posthuma sees it, and writes it as eloquently and honestly as anyone who has ever attempted the genre. Beyond the skill of her prose, Posthuma also brings the perspective of a wise and deeply reflective observer of families, outsiders, and the human condition. Even if it weren't a heart wrenching exploration of brokenness and healing, Baby and Solo would be worth reading simply to better understand how thoughtful people process the people and places around them. This is a wise and profound book, one that moved me to tears with the force of its insights.
Ultimately, though, Baby and Solo is more than a book about the Nineties, or mental health and trauma, or even wisdom; Baby and Solo is a book about what people will do for those they love - for better or for worse. By the end of the book you realize that there are no villains in it, just a lot of people loving each other in the best ways that they know how. I came to love them too.
As I read Baby and Solo, I reflected on Bowie's lyrics from two decades earlier: “And these children that you spit on as they try to change their worlds; are immune to your consultations, they are quite aware of what they are going through." Lisabeth Posthuma is also quite aware, and we are the better for it. Baby and Solo deserves to be at the top of everyone's reading list. After all, nobody puts Baby in a corner.
sharkray's review
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
katiey's review
emotional
funny
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
nick1805's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
missprint_'s review
4.0
This piece originally appeared in the Washington Independent Review of Books:
Royal Oaks, Michigan, 1996: After being in and out of mental hospitals for years, seventeen-year-old Joel Teague is almost Normal. He hasn't had any visible signs of What Was Wrong With Him since he was fifteen, he goes to therapy, and he even has a new prescription from his therapist: Get a part-time job. While Joel's overbearing mother is wary of the advice, Joel's father is hopeful. So is Joel, as he puts it, “Maybe all that remained between me and being Normal again was providing goods or services to my peers for minimum wage for a while. It was worth a try.”
Enter ROYO Video where Joel is soon working part-time and well on his way to becoming the “Doogie Howser of the video store corporate ladder.” In a store where every employee goes by the name of a movie character, Joel is more than ready to become Solo, short for Han Solo Star Wars—Joel’s favorite movie and a movie that’s been forbidden in his home since the Bad Thing Happened. With the new name, Joel also gets a tabula rasa (clean slate) to try making friends, working, and proving he is totally capable of being Normal.
At the store, Joel finds routine work surprisingly comforting as he gets to know his motley assortment of coworkers including sexy manager Jessica (Scarlet at the store) who claims “Scarlett O’Hara’s her favorite movie character” but lacks “the decency to spell her name with both t’s,” The Godfather—an Asian girl who “had presence in the way someone ballsy enough to call herself ‘The Godfather’ should,” and Nicole/Baby (from Dirty Dancing).
What starts as a routine job quickly becomes something more as Joel discovers the potential for real connection with his coworkers—especially Baby who is dealing with her own Something Wrong With Her while introducing Joel to the ins and outs of the video rental world and improving his film education one movie viewing at a time in Baby and Solo (2021) by Lisabeth Posthuma.
Find it on Bookshop.
As Joel becomes friendlier with Baby, he realizes that getting to know her might also involve letting her get to know him—including What Was Wrong With Him even after establishing his clean slate—a risk he isn't sure he's willing to take. As he notes, “It’s a lot of responsibility, knowing the entire truth about a person, and I was too busy trying to become what I might have been to get involved in What Was Wrong with someone else.”
This character-driven novel slowly unspools the intensely mutual (and notably platonic) friendship between Solo and Baby as they share their vulnerabilities and help each other through a tumultuous year including a pregnancy and continued mental health struggles. When new employee Maverick (Andres in real life) joins the ROYO video team, Joel is also forced to confront his own internalized homophobia courtesy of his mother and his family history with The Bad Thing That Happened and partially led to What Was Wrong with Joel.
Joel's first-person narration is wry and straight to the point with careful asides hinting at his years “in and out of the psych ward” and how they impacted him (one notable example being that Joel is “hard to scandalize” now) alongside practical advice from his years of therapy that he shares with both readers and other characters processing complex emotions including grief and loss. After years of keeping people at a remove, Joel is terrified of connection, even as he craves it—a push and pull that continues throughout the story as Joel begins to understand that “if you want to experience healthy intimacy in relationships, you’re going to have to be emotionally vulnerable with someone at some point.”
As the title suggests, Joel and Baby are the central point of this story but they are far from the only worthwhile characters. The mostly white cast is fully developed and well-realized. 1990s pop culture, movie references thanks to the video store setting and an in-theater viewing of Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet, and day-to-day retail struggles including quirky customers, a mandatory Secret Santa exchange, and more highlight Joel's new reality while he hints at The Bad Thing that happened and works to find closure with What Was Wrong.
Whether or not readers were around for the 1990s and the pre-streaming world of video rental, Baby and Solo is a universal and timeless story of friendship, growth, retail employment and the ups and downs of all three.
Possible Pairings: Tales of the Madman Underground by John Barnes, The Great American Whatever by Tim Federle, Nice Try Jane Sinner by Lianne Oelke, History is All You Left Me by Adam Silvera, Challenger Deep by Neal Shusterman, Rayne and Delilah's Midnite Matinee by Jeff Zentner
Royal Oaks, Michigan, 1996: After being in and out of mental hospitals for years, seventeen-year-old Joel Teague is almost Normal. He hasn't had any visible signs of What Was Wrong With Him since he was fifteen, he goes to therapy, and he even has a new prescription from his therapist: Get a part-time job. While Joel's overbearing mother is wary of the advice, Joel's father is hopeful. So is Joel, as he puts it, “Maybe all that remained between me and being Normal again was providing goods or services to my peers for minimum wage for a while. It was worth a try.”
Enter ROYO Video where Joel is soon working part-time and well on his way to becoming the “Doogie Howser of the video store corporate ladder.” In a store where every employee goes by the name of a movie character, Joel is more than ready to become Solo, short for Han Solo Star Wars—Joel’s favorite movie and a movie that’s been forbidden in his home since the Bad Thing Happened. With the new name, Joel also gets a tabula rasa (clean slate) to try making friends, working, and proving he is totally capable of being Normal.
At the store, Joel finds routine work surprisingly comforting as he gets to know his motley assortment of coworkers including sexy manager Jessica (Scarlet at the store) who claims “Scarlett O’Hara’s her favorite movie character” but lacks “the decency to spell her name with both t’s,” The Godfather—an Asian girl who “had presence in the way someone ballsy enough to call herself ‘The Godfather’ should,” and Nicole/Baby (from Dirty Dancing).
What starts as a routine job quickly becomes something more as Joel discovers the potential for real connection with his coworkers—especially Baby who is dealing with her own Something Wrong With Her while introducing Joel to the ins and outs of the video rental world and improving his film education one movie viewing at a time in Baby and Solo (2021) by Lisabeth Posthuma.
Find it on Bookshop.
As Joel becomes friendlier with Baby, he realizes that getting to know her might also involve letting her get to know him—including What Was Wrong With Him even after establishing his clean slate—a risk he isn't sure he's willing to take. As he notes, “It’s a lot of responsibility, knowing the entire truth about a person, and I was too busy trying to become what I might have been to get involved in What Was Wrong with someone else.”
This character-driven novel slowly unspools the intensely mutual (and notably platonic) friendship between Solo and Baby as they share their vulnerabilities and help each other through a tumultuous year including a pregnancy and continued mental health struggles. When new employee Maverick (Andres in real life) joins the ROYO video team, Joel is also forced to confront his own internalized homophobia courtesy of his mother and his family history with The Bad Thing That Happened and partially led to What Was Wrong with Joel.
Joel's first-person narration is wry and straight to the point with careful asides hinting at his years “in and out of the psych ward” and how they impacted him (one notable example being that Joel is “hard to scandalize” now) alongside practical advice from his years of therapy that he shares with both readers and other characters processing complex emotions including grief and loss. After years of keeping people at a remove, Joel is terrified of connection, even as he craves it—a push and pull that continues throughout the story as Joel begins to understand that “if you want to experience healthy intimacy in relationships, you’re going to have to be emotionally vulnerable with someone at some point.”
As the title suggests, Joel and Baby are the central point of this story but they are far from the only worthwhile characters. The mostly white cast is fully developed and well-realized. 1990s pop culture, movie references thanks to the video store setting and an in-theater viewing of Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet, and day-to-day retail struggles including quirky customers, a mandatory Secret Santa exchange, and more highlight Joel's new reality while he hints at The Bad Thing that happened and works to find closure with What Was Wrong.
Whether or not readers were around for the 1990s and the pre-streaming world of video rental, Baby and Solo is a universal and timeless story of friendship, growth, retail employment and the ups and downs of all three.
Possible Pairings: Tales of the Madman Underground by John Barnes, The Great American Whatever by Tim Federle, Nice Try Jane Sinner by Lianne Oelke, History is All You Left Me by Adam Silvera, Challenger Deep by Neal Shusterman, Rayne and Delilah's Midnite Matinee by Jeff Zentner
dylan0747382's review
challenging
emotional
funny
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0