Kate in Waiting by Becky Albertalli Book Review
“You always got mint Oreos,” he says to Andy. “I remember that.”
Gay people have to love Oreos now,” explains Anderson.
“Yeah, but mint.” I rest my hand on the back of Anderson’s seat.
“That’s like eating chocolate with toothpaste.”
“Kate, we’ve been through this. I like toothpaste.”
(pg. 229-30)
About
Author: Becky Albertalli
Genre: Young Adult Contemporary Romance
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Synopsis
Contrary to popular belief, best friends Kate Garfield and Anderson Walker are not codependent. Carpooling to and from theater rehearsals? Environmentally sound and efficient. Consulting each other on every single life decision? Basic good judgment. Pining for the same guys from afar? Shared crushes are more fun anyway.
But when Kate and Andy’s latest long-distance crush shows up at their school, everything goes off script. Matt Olsson is talented and sweet, and Kate likes him. She really likes him. The only problem? So does Anderson.
Turns out, communal crushes aren’t so fun when real feelings are involved. This one might even bring the curtains down on Kate and Anderson’s friendship.
Review
Spoilers Contained Below
To the theatre loving best friends,
I didn’t grow up as a theatre kid, I was more of a dance (ballet and jazz) kid, but I always loved the theatre. I would see people in the theatre and be like, “Wow, that’s something so magical.” I also watched school plays growing up because my sister had to watch them for school. But I genuinely enjoyed the sets, costumes, singing, and the utter magic that happened on stage. There’s no other word to describe theatre than magical . . . also very tough.
I give credit to anyone who grew up or who is in the theatre because that takes passion, dedication, time, commitment, and effort. It’s like the Super-bowl of the theatre, and each opening night or performance is the Super-bowl. Not me making a sports comparison when I am the least sporty person or sports interested person 🙃. But here we are.
Kate in Waiting was no less magical. It was super funny, a good time, filled with drama, and lots of friendship.
Okay, so I think I just want to say, I don’t know if I’m just not remembering correctly, but Becky Albertalli was on one with this book because I was CRACKING up wayyyyyy too much 😂.
It was soooo funny. There wasn’t a moment I didn’t laugh or a joke that I wasn’t completely in hysterics. I also loved the immature humor because this is YA we’re talking about, we should have the immature humor. Gosh, what it’s like to have dirty thoughts and laugh at it because we have corrupted brains. I remember in sixth grade, everyone already had dirty minds and sometimes they would tell jokes to me that would never land, but now they do. I appreciate it now.
Also, the more I kept reading, the more I laughed to myself at the INSANE amount of times Becky wrote f***boy or f-boy.
I was like, let’s start a drinking game every time we read the word f***boy or f-boy 😂.
Don’t actually do it because there’s an absurd amount of f***boy and f-boy language, like most pages have f***boy or f-boy on it, but I could not. Who hurt you Becky? Who hurt you?
She had some bone to pick with f-boys or something because no page didn’t mention f-boy hate.
“Unfortunately, Roswell Hill High School is f***boy ground zero. Mostly the suburban athletic subtype. F***boius jockus. No joke. Just stand in the hallway and put your arm out for two seconds, and you’ll hit a f***boy, right in his mesh athletic shorts.”
(pg. 6)
Becky and Kate’s distaste for f***boys just oozed through because I felt the anger and hate like it was my own. I know EXACTLY what she meant by f-boys because they are universal species at this point—-f-boius jockus is right. My middle and high school had f-boys, mostly high school. We had the jocks, and most of the jocks weren’t actually the f-boys, they were the big teddy bears because they looked scary, but they were super nice. They were probably the nicest people on campus because they were the ones who looked out for others and they always tried their best in school. They were also funny. No, the f-boys in our school were the ones who wore gold chains, sagged their pants, had a hat snapback on their sagging pants on their belt buckle because they thought lets wear a belt and sag my pants, they were the ones with the spiky hair, they carried around a gigantic speaker to make their presence known, and they always sat on the benches. Yes, the infamous “benches.” We all know people in high school and where they hang out. The f-boys were always by the benches in front of a building, f-ing it up. They were the people in certain academies because our school had academies in junior and senior year where you could be in graphics, fine arts, human services, health academies to gear towards an interest. You always knew which academy had the f-boys.
Sorry for my f-boy tangent, but the whole book felt like an f-boy tangent after a while. I don’t say that in a bad way because it was funny, but it was a bit repetitive. Kate hated f-boys because she was hurt by f-boys, and frankly she fell in love with the wrong people. That’s not her fault because some f-boys look like nice boys when really they screw around and are douche canoes. But the f-boy hurt, HURTS , especially in high school. The ghosting, the games, the leaving you on read. It’s a lot, and it was why Kate didn’t trust being in a relationship because she was used to all these f-boys, that when the one nice guy actually showed up in her life, she naturally liked him.
Here’s the thing, I had absolutely no idea, no freaking clue why everyone liked this so called Matt?
Matt from camp. The guy who was so nice to Anderson/Andy, and Kate. The Coca Cola Matt. He seemed like a nice dude, but I didn’t understand the obsession over him. I mean, why was he so likable? Because he was the bare minimum of a decent human being 😅? We just never really knew Matt to understand why he was so likable and that made it hard for me to understand why Andy and Kate were fighting over him.
Andy was Kate’s best friend. I liked their friendship, and it was refreshing to see such a candid and funny relationship between them. I could feel their mutual love and respect, but they were really very dependent on each other in the beginning of the book—–doing everything together, being in the same classes or wanting to be in the same classes, sharing a toilet stall to secretly talk. I liked that they had a close relationship, but it just felt a bit too dependent because they couldn’t be separated or the other felt off/weird if they were. I think healthy time away from a friend to do your own thing is perfectly okay; you can still be best friends with someone and still do something by yourself. It just never seemed like they had a healthy time away from each other.
Also, liking the same person for so long and then both mutually deciding to not like that person was weird. Not to judge, but that didn’t sit right with me that they would share the same crush and not really do anything because they didn’t want to ruin their friendship. I respected that because don’t let a crush come between a good friendship, but at the same time, don’t go constantly crushing on the same dude because that’s just a disaster waiting to happen. And happened it did.
They really let Matt get in the middle of their friendship without setting clear boundaries.
We all knew their boundaries were shiz and meant nothing. I legit said in my notes that their plan sucked.
Their plan wasn’t really even a plan; I didn’t know what they were doing.
Both made it known to each other that they liked Matt and they actually wanted to be with Matt, but that couldn’t’ work because Matt probably would want to be with one of them. But it wasn’t like Andy or Kate were going to back down because they respected and loved each other to not let the other person not go after someone they like. But the plan was to just roll with what happens and see where things went. Then they screenshotted their agreement to be happy for each other to make their whole plan official. After they took that screenshot, I was like, this isn’t going to go well 🙈. Also, passively saying to be happy for someone, automatically makes you NOT happy for them.
Let the games begin.
They really went passive aggressive with their time with Matt to see who Matt liked. You could just feel the bitterness in the room.
“Matt is absolutely free to move closer to me and be cute and make cute Monty Python references, and I’m absolutely free to giggle and grin back at him.
And hey. Andersons’ free to feel happy for me.”
(pg. 169)
They truly tried to one-up each other with Matt.
First, it was the shared class that Andy and Matt naturally had together because Kate had to take Algebra instead of advanced theater. Then it was the inside jokes Andy and Matt had that made Kate feel angry, sorry “happy,” that Andy and Matt were so close and flirty.
But then when Matt’s mom (Ellen) asked Kate’s mom—because the mom’s were close friends—if she could stay over at their house because a tree fell on their house and crashed into Matt’s room, Andy got all tense and distant. I mean, where else was Matt and the mom supposed to go for that long? A hotel? I mean, sure, but Kate’s mom didn’t seem like she was going to let a close family friend stay at a hotel in their time of need. Of course, I could see why Andy was angry but it wasn’t like Kate’s fault. But gosh, I could imagine how happy Kate was with knowing Matt was just a few doors down. I freaking laughed when Andy was like, you can’t take a poop at your house because he might smell or hear it and then he offered Kate to come poop at his house whenever he needed it because, you know, he was a good friend.
“It’s kind of scary if you think about it. Just how easy it is for a relationship to dissolve.”
(pg. 191)
The more they both tried to spend time with Matt to see if he liked one of them either more, the more distance you could feel between the friends. They weren’t used to sharing someone because they usually worked as a team—an inseparable pair. But they acted like they were each other’s competition because they both wanted to be with this so-called-cool dude Matt. I felt like—DUH–in the end they would realize their friendship was worth more than fighting over a dude, but they couldn’t see it yet. Also, as much as they acted or said they were happy for each other, they really were hurt, miserable, and angry. Andy was barely talking to Kate because he didn’t like how close Kate and Matt were. Kate wasn’t confiding in Andy because she didn’t want to tell him about all these moments she was having with Matt because it might hurt Andy.
But to her, it felt sort of good because she was forming something special with Matt.
But that’s the thing—at what cost does going after the same guy hurt someone you love?
“I’m doing that. I’m breaking his heart.”
(pg. 252)
No partner or crush is worth hurting a friend over. In my opinion. Friendship is worth more, especially if they have known you for a long time.
I just felt like they were in such new territory, not knowing how to like the same person and actively pursue said person. But again, they shouldn’t have both pursued Matt because that was already a bad idea and they knew it. They got lost in how great Matt was. I don’t know why 🤪.
I felt kind of awful for Andy because Kate got the opposite role from Matt where they share a kiss. That was already a red flag and a huge no no because if her best friend liked the same guy, I think it would feel wrong to knowingly kiss the said guy. If I were Kate, I would feel like I was rubbing it in my best friend’s face that I got to kiss Matt. If I was also Kate, I would also be like, “Well, I like him too.” And that’s another thing, when your identity or likes or dislikes is so wrapped up into someone else’s, there’s not really a line drawn, so we cross the fine line because we don’t know where it is. When Kate and Matt had their practice kiss scene, and she didn’t tell Andy, I could feel the rift that would create in her friendship with him. Keeping secrets from your best friend is a tell-tale sign to ourselves that we are doing something we know is wrong. I heard that once on the podcast Unsolicited Advice where I think Ashley was telling a story about a time in her life where she hid things from her sister and best friend because deep down she knew she was embarrassed or felt wrong for what she was doing and didn’t want the people she loved to judge her. This was a different situation, but the sentiment applies here because Kate was thinking about Andy, but how she could hide this kiss with Matt from him. That’s a sign that she knows she’s hurting him. It would have been interesting to get Andy’s perspective and how he felt—did he feel like he was hurting Kate too? Mutual hurt?
When Andy watched the second rehearsal where Matt and Kate kissed, I was like DARN.
First, he wasn’t invited 😅 to watch the kiss, nor did I think it was okay that he was there because what an invasion of privacy. But second, Andy knew that Kate and Matt shared a kiss and were practicing that scene, so he was masochistic in watching the scene play out. Was he trying to prove something to himself or have a reason to be “happy” for Matt and Kate? I don’t know what was going through his mind, but I wish I knew. We knew what was going through his face because he looked like the life got sucked out of him, but Kate didn’t even want him to know about their kiss because she knew it would hurt him. That wasn’t on her that he stuck around to watch.
But gosh, it was just a complete mess because they were BEST FRIENDS and I could only imagine how conflicted both felt in wanting to be with Matt but also wanting the other person to be happy (not in a passive aggressive way), but deep down they both felt they wanted the other person to be happy, just not with the person they liked. It wasn’t her fault and it wasn’t Andy’s fault, but they were both blinded by a love they both wanted to feel. They shared their hopeless romantic nature—no judgement here. But when you want to find love so badly and you find someone who fits your idea of a good partner, it’s hard not to want to chase that no matter what.
It just broke my heart how this was breaking their friendship 💔.
“It felt like standing on the doorstep without a key to your own house.”
(pg. 242)
I felt like this was an excellent metaphor for their friendship because they were each other’s home, and with this distance or issue between them, it felt like they couldn’t be open with each other—-they were at each other’s houses with no real way to get in.
You know what I thought would have been rich? I thought this after a while, but if Matt was an actual f-boy and he was playing Andy and Kate the whole time—that he knew they both liked him and he had them pin after him in true f-boy nature. I mean, I wouldn’t have liked that for Andy or Kate, but it felt like it would have gone with the f-boy spiel we got 😂.
But no. Matt was a decent guy.
And he was gay.
He liked Andy. The entire time.
I freaking hurt for Kate when she thought that Matt really liked her and asked her out when Matt just really needed a friend and Kate felt like a good friend. Kate was also close with Andy. I really wanted to hug her 💕. She must have felt really foolish and dumb for reading Matt’s signals all wrong, but I am the queen of misreading signals. The thing that got me was how apparently Andy and Matt already were dating before Matt told her he was gay, so if Andy and Matt were in a relationship, why was Andy still avoiding or being petty with Kate or why didn’t they tell her sooner? From my understanding, I think it was because Andy didn’t want to hurt Kate by telling her, or that he thought Kate knew and that’s why he was avoiding her. Andy was giving her space to be angry or to process the hurt he thought she felt with Andy being the one Matt chose.
I will say, one thing I liked about Matt was how he respected Andy and Kate’s friendship and didn’t want to come between them. If your partner values your friendships as much as you do, then that’s a wonderful thing. Good for Matt. At least now I know he’s got his heart in the right place.
I liked how Kate and Andy made up and talked about their feelings because they truly did need to put it all out there. I laughed when Kate and Andy were in class and Kate just said Geronimo and fell over in her chair so Andy could take her to the nurse office. They actually ditched school and went to Target. Honestly, it’s a tradition at this point to go to Target in a Becky Albertalli book 😂.
“And maybe we’re going to have boyfriends sometimes, and yeah, we probably won’t tell each other everything. But that doesn’t mean you and I are less close. It just means we’re separate people and our lives are separate sometimes. And that’s good!”
(pg. 357)
That is good! More than good.
Being best friends does not mean you have to do anything and everything together or like the same things. You can be two different people, but when you come together, you have a great time. You share things you like, but it’s not so difficult to find the fine line between friendship and something else. I also liked that they recognized that distance was okay because in the beginning, it was weird how inseparable they were, it’s not a bad thing, just not a healthy thing. So, it was great that they were doing their own thing and being their own people while still enjoying each other’s company, still having inside jokes, and still telling each other important things. Friendships take work and it’s not always easy, but it’s so worth it.
Kate no longer had a crush on Matt—-funny how easy that dissipated 🤪.
“My love interest in the musical is my real life unrequited crush. Who’s now dating my best friend.”
(pg. 328)
Truly though, Matt was just the only decent person in the room, and once he was taken, he was no longer attractive to her.
But you know who I genuinely loved loved loved?
Freaking Noah 💗.
I freaking loved that due.
It almost felt sacrilegious to like him because he was mean to Kate in the past, and he was a notorious f-boy. Or he was at least known as one. I didn’t know if his whole funny and personable demeanor was his f-boy charm or I actually just liked him, but he was the best part of the book. At least I knew who he was and why he would be likable 🤪 **cough cough Matt****
Still don’t know what everyone saw in that guy.
When Kate was so busy infatuated with chasing Matt, I was over here rooting for her and Noah because he seemed like a good guy and he was super funny. Also, it was obvious he liked her as more than a friend by how he joked or flirted with her. There was also the fact that he wasn’t really a theater kid, but he wanted to be in the play anyway. He even asked Kate to give him singing lessons because he complimented her on her singing. He was obviously trying to spend time with her or get close to her to get to know her. Also, out of ALL the other things he could have done with a broken arm (he broke his arm “supposedly” from baseball practice), he CHOSE theater???? He was pulling a Troy Bolton on us 😆!
In all honesty, if a person or guy tries to spend time with you or makes excuses to be near me, I just need to say HE LIKES YOU 😅. Darn, I needed to tell myself this more in high school because I swear I had a gut intuition that these two guys liked me because one would always go out his way to say hi to me every time we had a class together and then he stopped all of a sudden and sat as far across the room from me as humanly possible, which I still don’t know why because I didn’t do anything to him. And then another guy was always in the same room as me and he teased me a lot, which I think he thought I took it the wrong way, and I did for one of his jokes, but I liked him back. Guess the world will never know, but it’s okay. But intuition says, if you feel like they like you and their actions align with that gut feeling, chances are, your intuition is not wrong.
My intuition was strong with Noah.
He gave good vibes. Okay, maybe the only bad vibe I got was when he was macking on that girl at the party near the fridge. That was too wild for my granny heart 😂. If he was trying to impress her or something, kissing someone against a place of food, isn’t the way to do it. But other than that, I really liked how we see Noah be a kind f-boy.
I liked how comfortable he made her or how he was there for Kate to talk to when she didn’t have Andy to talk to. It was funny how he would joke to her about not knowing football games, so he asked her to go to a football game. I thought it would be cool if we saw more of their interaction and how he told her more about the game as if she were actually interested. There was also this one time he went to Kate’s house like he wanted to tell her something, which we all knew he was going to tell her he liked her, but then Kate got distracted and busy and Noah didn’t tell her and I just wanted him to tell HER 😩.
What a sweetie.
He was also SOOO freaking funny. When he first asked Kate to that block party as a thanks for hanging out with Kate, I was like, he’s so funny. And don’t even get me started on his obsession with Daniel Tiger 😂. I CACKLED the entire time, and I kid you not, I had to look up what Daniel Tiger’s dad looked like because I had no clue this dude didn’t wear pants 😂.
“He wears. No pants,” says Noah.
“Who, Daniel Tiger? Isn’t he a child? And a cartoon?”
“His dad’s not a child.”
“So Daniel Tiger’s dad is the perv.”
“Kate, he’s a grown man. A father. Wearing no pants.”
“He is a cartoon tiger,” I say . . . “I hate to break it to you, but sometimes cartoons don’t wear clothes.”
“Then riddle me this. Why is he wearing the hoodie?”
“Did you just say ‘riddle me this’?”
“Don’t change the subject.” Noah looks at me sidelong, grinning.”
(pg. 180)
I mean, he’s not wrong 😂..
Let me just put this here for reference 🤪.
I’m going to go off topic, but Noah made me go off topic. So the dad’s not wearing pants, and Daniel’s not wearing pants sooooooo, like father like son 😂??? And if the mom is wearing pants, why can’t the dad or Daniel wear pants??? Why are they in commando?????? These are the thoughts Becky Albertalli and Noah had forced me into.
Maybe it’s like a progressive thing to say the women wear the pants in the relationship because it looks like Daniel’s little sister is also wearing pants. I know in a different image I looked up, the sister also wears a dress, so that covers her, but it. It is a curious thing why the mom wears pants and the boys don’t. I mean they wear socks with their shoes, so why not some pantaloons. Or maybe it’s an oversized hoodie look, you know, what most people do these days and they wear Spanx or biker shorts underneath. I don’t see any Spanx or biker shorts on those tiger legs.
ANYWAY, sorry to get off topic, but that was too funny not to talk about because it was one of my favorite things about Noah—-his natural curiosity for random things.
He also was really kind in caring about her well-being at parties. There was this one party they went to towards the end of the book, it was more of a low-key party like he promised, but what I loved was how Noah found an excuse to walk home from the party. That was such a gentlemanly thing to do, and I loved how they just talked because it helped me fall in love with both of them. They had such easy and funny banter. It was so cute. I also loved that Kate was getting the sparkles or the butterfly, if you will over Noah. It was hard not to see how he treated her like a princess.Speaking of princess, I LOVED LOVED LOVED the TANGLED references. If there’s one thing you should know about me, it is that I am a Tangled fanatic. I have the DVD, yes, the DVD, I had phone cases growing up, I had the whole shebang. I used to watch the DVD whenever I was bored or sad. I know the Flower Gleam and Glow song. If you ask me to sing it for you, I can sing 😆. I can go through the whole internal Rapunzel monologue after she leaves the tower and is running through the grass one moment and then planted head first the next. I’m a SUCKER for the lantern scene. I felt Becky Albertalli and I had a true connection with this book 😂. We love Tangled.
“Those paper lanterns. And the boat. And the song.
It’s my favorite part of the movie, the part I most know by heart. It’s almost unbearably romantic—and I don’t even mean the hand-holding part or the almost-kiss or the massive amounts of mutual eyegasming. It’s before that. It’s the part when Rapunzel catches that first glimpse of a lantern, and that’s it. She’s totally lost. She almost knocks the boat over, scrambling to get a better viewpoint. And for the entire first verse of the song, the screen doesn’t even cut to Flynn Rider, because she’s complexity forgotten about him. It’s just Rapunzel and the lanterns. She’s standing there, clutching the prow of the boat, and at one point, she does this exhale. Like the world’s so beautiful, she can’t take it.
And then she suddenly remembers Flynn, who’s been quietly watching her the whole time. Holding back, not intruding. He’s just there for her when she’s ready. Anderson thinks it’s hilarious that my number one romantic fantasy involves me forgetting the boy exists, but to me, it just shows how safe Rapunzel feels with Flynn. Her brain doesn’t even have to remember he’s there, because some bone-deep part of her knows it. And there’s that beautiful obvious contradiction. The way being wrapped up in someone can make you feel more free. The wide-open safety of home.”
(pg. 234)
Spoken and psychoanalyzed like a true Tangled fanatic.
No one can write something that deep about one of the most under appreciated animated movies without genuinely believing in each word 💗. Gosh, I FELT each word.
In all honesty, Becky Albertalli wrote something so beautiful there because I never saw the scene the way she did, but after reading how, yes, Rapunzel was so focused on the lanterns because that was her dream. For the longest time, she wanted to see those floating lanterns gleam, and I loved that Flynn was there to experience that with her, but I also loved that he let her experience it without ruining the moment for her. This was not about him, this was her moment to live out her dream and you could feel he was happy to be a part of it. But I loved how Becky described that Rapunzel wasn’t focused on Flynn because she felt safe and comfortable with him to live out her dream—-that being close to someone can make you feel free and at home all at the same time. It can also make you feel strong or confident enough to be on your own or focus on yourself. There’s so much power to that—that even if you do love someone, they will support you while you do you/ live out your dream.
Keep the Tangled references coming 💗.
“He smiles down at me. And then before I can entirely process what’s happening, he reaches forward with his right hand, trailing his fingertips along my cheekbone.
Like a Disney movie. Like Rapunzel.”
(pg. 308)
He made her feel like Rapunzel 🥺. I could already feel like Noah and Kate were Flynn and Rapunzel because it felt like this entire book, Noah was on the side, supporting Kate while also letting her go free. He let her shine and chase her dream while still being there, which I loved. Also, it helped that Noah was a ragtag muffin like Flynn. Flynn Ryder wasn’t an f-boy if you ask me, more like a try-hard to be cool boy 😂.
It was sweet how Noah told Kate how he got off his cast—-that he wanted to tell her the first thing when something happened. When he said he was going to give her a ride in her car, my immature brain was like, “Yea, he wanted to give her a ride” 🤪. F-boy it up, if you know what I mean. Joking, Noah wasn’t like that.
But you know what else gave me the glittery butterflies with Noah, was how nervous he was. I heard somewhere that if someone is too confident—-cocky—that’s a red flag. We like a humble person. I remember Noah said somewhere (pg. 336) that he actually broke his arm running away from hot girls or something because he was overwhelmed about not knowing what to talk about. He was at camp that weekend, and he ran in the forest, away from the situation, but then he fell and tripped. Thus, the broken arm. He converted the story with baseball, but he was actually really just a normal person who got uncomfortable and nervous in a social situation. I could completely understand that, and it made me think about how sometimes we see super confident people and we don’t know if they are faking it until they are making it—how they really feel. So it was just entirely sweet how human and honest he was when he wasn’t trying to be someone he wasn’t. But it wasn’t’ like Noah was entirely someone he wasn’t, you know. I mean, how could you not like Noah? Noah was so humble and sweet and he was soooo nervous about being with Kate because you could tell he didn’t want to mess things up.
And the fact that he asked Kate to kiss her?
A GENTLEMAN 👏🏼.
And we called him an f-boy 😆.
“This is actually about to happen. Noah Kaplan’s about to kiss me. . . Then his lips are on mine, and I’m not Rapunzel at all.
I’m a paper lantern.
I’m floating, lit up from the inside.”
(pg. 366)
I FREAKING LOVED THAT 💗
Get you someone who makes you feel like a lantern 😂. No, seriously.
And after he kissed her, he texted her that he would see her tomorrow, which was just sugar inducing already. Gosh, I loved this dude. I loved how when they kissed more in the future, they had such a natural relationship because of all these romantic and fun conversations they had before. They also had mutual trust and care for each other. But what I love most about their relationship was how they stuck true to who they were. Cute, a bit awkward, and funny.see you Becky, I see what you did there. Gosh I love a running metaphor.
“I like that when we’re kissing, we don’t once stop being us.”
(pg. 377)
And of course, I caught Kate’s costume reference to Rapunzel.
Before I get more into the play, I wanted to talk about Kate’s brother because she also deemed Ryan an f-boy. Or others deemed Ryan an f-boy when he was actually such a good person and a fabulous brother. I don’t read a lot about nice brothers or awesome brothers, so it was refreshing seeing a healthy and amicable brother-sister relationship.
I loved how supportive Ryan was of Kate. I also loved hearing the stories about how Ryan got Kate into music and theater in the first place; it’s beautiful that he inspired her. I also liked how he invited her to parties or gave her rides to things. Not a lot of older brothers would be fond of or even want to spend time with their little sister, so whenever Ryan included Kate in his life or wanted to support Kate, I just melted 💗. I laughed when Ryan and Kate ganged up on Noah when Noah was in the back seat of Ryan’s car with the dogs. Kate and Ryan had such a good relationship.
Ryan found out that Kate and her friends thought he was an f-boy.
“Like, how am I not a fu**boy?”
I narrow my eyes. “Do you want to be one?”
“It’s just a question.”
“I think the real question is, why are you friends with f***boys,” I say breezily.
. . . The doorbell rings, and I practically leap from my chair. “Oh! That’s Brandie.”
“Just Brandie? Where’s the rest of the geek squad?”
“Geek squad?”
He tilts his palms up, spoon in hand. “What about g-squad? Is that classier?”
(pg. 274)
To be honest, I agree that being an f-boy is just another label we give people. We stereotype people because it’s easier to understand people if we have this image or idea about them. But we don’t really know people at all or their hearts. I am not perfect and had these images of what a jock, f-boy, nerd, or popular person looks like, but anyone can be anything and just because someone fits an image or idea of what you have, doesn’t mean it’s true. Ryan and Noah proved that to Kate, and she stopped raging at all the f-boys in the world—-she slowly let go of her anger and judgment. That doesn’t mean that, sure, there aren’t f-boys and certain types, but it’s not everyone, and it’s not fair to judge someone based on a whole group of people.
I didn’t think Ryan spent more time with Kate because he liked her friend, Brandie. I think that was just a reason Kate wanted to believe because she didn’t think Ryan actually cared about his little sister. But he did. And I loved that. He spent time with Kate because he was going to go to college soon and he didn’t want to miss spending time with her 🥺💗. I could completely understand that because when my brother and sister both left for college, I remember wanting to spend more time with them than I did with my friends because I knew I was going to miss them too much. it was more important for me to make memories with my brother and sister while they were still here than away and I didn’t see them everyday. It’s tough being the youngest because you also grow the loneliest when everyone leaves. It just really touched me that Ryan loved his sister so much that he chose her over his friends. That’s love 💗.
Can we also just talk about how endearing Ryan was to get Kate flowers on her opening night????? Now that’s brother of the year, right there.
We stan Ryan.
As talked about earlier, theater was a big part of the book. Ryan got her into music and theater. I kind of wondered why else Kate liked theater? Did she see herself professionally doing theater? I kind of wanted more theater moments—theater bonding, practice moments, more drama, and backstory of the play. I did feel the community and sense of drama, I don’t know, but I wanted more.
There was Vivian who Andy used to be friends with but they drifted as friends or weren’t as close as friends. There was miscommunication between Vivian and Andy because it was said that Andy told Vivian’s secret or something when that wasn’t his place. So Andy was careful not to tell Kate’s secrets or something because he didn’t want a repeat of a friendship breakup with Vivian. I wanted more resolution with Vivian and Andy because maybe they could have at least been more amicable with each other if they talked to one another. Or maybe Vivian could have had a better relationship with Andy if they reconciled what an f-boy was because of the hurt she felt. Vivian seemed like a decent person, maybe just someone that was hurt and misunderstood.
I mean, she got the lead part in the play, which cool for her.
I also loved how supportive Noah was of Kate with the show.
“Noah hugs me again. “Break a wrist.”
(pg. 379)
That was grade-A humor 👌🏼.
But I also loved when Andy and Kate saw each other before the performance.
“It’s fine. Go do your thing.”
“I did.” I step back onstage, grinning. “And I am.”
(pg. 383)
It just really wholesome how Kate was doing her own thing and Andy was doing his own thing and they were still close, maybe closer than ever.
“But it feels so much less like a night, and so much more like an opening.”
(pg. 384)
I loved that because it had so much possibility, like this was the start of the rest of her life. She had a better relationship with her best friend, a boy who loved her, two good friends, and a brother who cared immensely about her too. She had so much love and joy around her, and it was impossible not to feel that energy.
What I really loved too was how Kate actually got her license. The entire book, she had Ryan or someone else drive her around. I remember when I was a junior and senior in high school, I wasn’t in a rush to get my license either. I had people to drive me around, and also I was terrified to drive. But I really loved that Kate was in the driver’s seat in her life because she no longer was relying on anybody to be herself. She was in full control of her happiness, and I loved that for her 💗. Gosh, and the infamous driver’s license picture? I wonder who actually has a decent driver’s license picture they like 😆? I mean, do they really tell you not to smile for your picture these days because that’s bonkers. I say smile anyway.
I really enjoyed the funny, the cute, and overall joy Kate in Waiting was. It was definitely worth the wait to read 💗.
Just some things I would have liked more on: more about how the Once Upon a Mattress play actually went because we didn’t really get many scenes about the play or how they were doing. I have never even heard about Once Upon a Mattress before, so I would have liked some background about the play. I could have looked it up, but you know, Daniel Tiger priorities.I also would have liked to learn more about Ryan because he was an interesting character. He was such a cool brother, so I wanted to know how his life was doing or where he was going. I think he would make a good story. I also wanted to delve a bit deeper into Noah’s anxieties and honest emotions because those things made Noah who he was. I wondered how he developed those overwhelming feelings or what his home was like. Was he nervous around people because of the expectations everyone had for him? I also wanted to know more about—DUH—Matt. Did they ever fix his house 🤪???? I hope they do because I don’t think Kate would want to poop at Andy’s house for the rest of her life.
The last thing I would have wanted more of is Kate conquering her life and finding more independence. I liked that in the end, we get a taste for Kate stepping out into the spotlight by herself, getting behind the wheel, and all these other metaphors, but I would have loved to see her really come into herself without relying on others. She seems like she’s a strong and free woman and I’m excited for her.
“I’m standing right at the edge of my happy ending. I just know it.”
(pg. 211)
I think she truly was 💗.
Anyway, what was your favorite part of the book? Least favorite part?
What did you think of the book? Let me know below in the comments as I love hearing from you all 💕
What is your favorite play or theatre performance?
I hope you have a beautiful day whenever and wherever you might be reading this 😊.
And as always, with love,
Rating
5 Full Bloom Flowers
Characters: Kate and Andy had such a rare and real friendship. And gosh I loved Noah.
Plot: I liked that Kate In Waiting wasn’t focused so much on romance, but more so friendship because friendship is another powerful relationship not many people explore in books.
Writing: Becky Albertalli gets me 👌🏼💗. We fun on the same wavelength.
Romance: I loved the love between Kate and Andy and how their friendship mattered more to them, but I also loved Noah and Kate as the Flynn and Rapunzel