A review by babbity_rabbity
The Importance of Being Wilde at Heart by R. Zamora Linmark

3.0

"Maybe I'm the D in the Multiple Choice of Sexuality, as in D) All of the above.
Or E) A new category.
Yes, E.
I, Ken Z, as my own category."

In order to get to a story about love being “worth the price of heartbreak,” The Importance of Being Wilde at Heart is going to ask you to make a long journey. “Multi-format” doesn’t begin to cover it; there are haikus and lists and message transcripts and prose sections and strange italicized tangents and entire scenes written as just dialogue. R. Zamora Linmark will pull you down rabbit hole after rabbit hole, wringing every drop of thematic resonance he can out of penguins and Cole Porter and Catcher in the Rye references. By the time Oscar Wilde himself inexplicably shows up in this contemporary, shifting the whole thing into a new postmodern gear, the tangled mess is far removed from what I think of as the “novel.”

But I really can’t fault it too much, because this is YA, after all, and this book is such a teenager.

I don’t mean the characters or voice seem like teenagers. I mean the book itself feels like a teenager. It’s a hot mess that’s trying to do way too much. It frantically flits from topic to topic, searching for a way to put overwhelming feelings into words.

Because those feelings are so big, so raw and earnest (Earnest?) that a simple story of boy-meets-boy seems insufficient. The book is bursting with desperation to communicate the joy and terror of Ken’s existence. The messiness and lack of focus only make the emotion feel more real.

All that said, a messy, unfocused book is still a messy, unfocused book, and The Importance of Being Wilde at Heart's disconnect from reality isn't always a good thing.

My full review is here. Three stars.

I received an eARC of this title from the publisher via NetGalley in expectation of an honest review. No money changed hands for this review. All opinions my own.