Making It

(by Laura Kay)

Well this was the sapphic rom-com I didn’t know I needed. I started reading this on vacation because a) it was the pick for Pride book club at work b) I had it on the Kindle app and c) I tried to pack the book for nonfiction book club, but it’s a big hardcover and my backpack wouldn’t close. Anyway, this turned out to be a good thing because this book was a great vacation read.

Making It is about Issy, a twenty-eight year old who, at the start of the book, is leaving home for the first time: she’s going to London because she has an internship with an artist who went to the same school she did. We learn that Issy entered a contest that the artist, Elizabeth, was running—and that while her entry (The Abigail Project, made up mostly of knitted, crocheted, and felted chinchillas, modeled on her beloved pet) didn’t win, Elizabeth did end up hiring her because of it. So we get Issy in London, and her new job, and her new housemates, and her grumpy neighbor who also turns out to work for Elizabeth. We learn that Issy was depressed in high school and didn’t go to university; she’s never kissed anyone and when her housemates ask about her “gay awakening” there’s a moment of awkwardness when she says she’s never actually come out, though she’s never said she’s straight either. It seems like she’s known she’s queer, though, and being in London lets her have that gay awakening moment. Without saying too much about the details of the rom-com part of the plot, it’s totally sweet and I was 100% there for all of it. But it’s not all hearts and kisses: Issy finds herself struggling with her mental health, and part of the book is about her finding her balance again after slipping into depression.

I really like the narrative voice of this book and I think that Laura Kay did indeed manage to write, as she puts it in her author’s note, “a fun and sexy rom-com about depression and anxiety.” And now I definitely want to read more by her!