Hot dog girl was a really happy surprise for me, I definitely picked it up based on aesthetics and I saw that a lot of the featured reviews were more negative. I'm so glad I borrowed the audiobook on Libby and gave it a chance anyway. This is the kind of beautiful and believable young-adult romcom I wish I'd had a chance to read when I was in High School.
Elouise (Lou) is a teenage girl on a mission, to have the best summer ever, to get the boy she has a huge crush on (despite him being in a relationship) and to discover what really matters long term. When she learns the small town amusement park she work at is closing after this summer Lou immediately throws herself into trying to save the park even if she doesn't understand what her motivation for that really is. Elouise is going through a lot of relatable struggles that I don't think I could have appreciated as much if I had read it as a 16-18 year old. The relationship between Lou and her Mother is not a positive one, stemming from her mother abandoning the family when she was young. The postcards her mother sends add unnecessary pain and readers might relate to the narcissism and selfishness of her mother. I'm glad that we don't get to meet her as an active character in the story, but she is definitely a strong part of Lou's character development. The Author did a good job of making the narrator reliable and it felt like a story told by a young teen. Fake dating is not a trope for everybody but it works in this story and it's interesting the see the F/F aspect and yes there is a stereotype of being bi (dating same sex) to make a opposite sex person jealous. Elouise is in the wrong and the author didn't make it feel like dangerous promotion of the stereotype, just an acknowledgement that this happens. The best part of this book for me was seeing Elouise had so much platonic love for Seeley and the way she was always talking her up even when they were fighting. It is so much easier at that age to hype up your friend then yourself and the way Elouise's confidence(or lack) plays into her not thinking she's worthy of See.