A Place to be Understood: A Guest Post by Britnee Meiser
Britnee Meiser’s debut novel, All My Bests, is a heartfelt story about friendship, music, first crushes and high school. With different social circles and complicated family ties working against them, Jack and Immie wonder if their friendship can survive it — or turn into something more. Read on for Britnee Meiser’s exclusive essay on what made her want to write this book and why she loves YA stories.
Paperback $8.99
All My Bests
All My Bests
In Stock Online
Paperback $8.99
In the tradition of Hello, Goodbye, and Everything in Between, this smart and emotional romance told through playlists and memories follows two young teens struggling to hold onto each other as their friendship changes.
In the tradition of Hello, Goodbye, and Everything in Between, this smart and emotional romance told through playlists and memories follows two young teens struggling to hold onto each other as their friendship changes.
French fries and large Cokes at Friendly’s after a Friday night football game. Hanging out in the basement, watching Gossip Girl and talking about secret crushes. Driving around in circles, listening to Dashboard Confessional and waiting for real life to begin. These are scenes specific to my high school years in central Pennsylvania, but any teenager living in suburbia today can probably relate. I still remember it all so well. I wanted my life to begin so badly. I wanted to have capital-E Experiences, like the ones I read about in my Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants books. Most of all, I wanted someone to love me––to understand me. My longing was all-consuming.
Perhaps inevitably, my debut novel All My Bests has an undercurrent of teen longing. It’s a love story about two best friends, Immie and Jack, desperately wanting to be known by each other but struggling to say how they really feel. Because what teenager knows how to say how they really feel? Even I, by all appearances a full-grown adult, sometimes struggle to find the words! With Immie and Jack, there’s longing in every glance, every inside joke, every awkward silence. When I think about my early high school crushes, these are the moments that feel the most real to me. Having a crush turned the mundane act of walking down a hallway into a high-stakes event. Will I see him? Will he smile at me? Ohmigod he smiled at me! A two-second encounter could determine my mood for the rest of the day.
Teenagers feel things so deeply. It’s one of the reasons I love writing about them. Everything is new––friendships, romance, heartbreak––and everything is a big deal, but that doesn’t mean the problems are frivolous. Just the opposite: they’re formative. The unrequited crush I had for two years; the friendships I made, and then lost, for reasons I can’t even remember; those experiences shaped the person I am today. For Immie and Jack, something as simple as holding hands has the power to change everything. The rush of nerves, followed immediately by the tingle of excitement. The over-analyzing and second-guessing. The idea that nothing on earth could possibly be more important than this moment, right here. I wanted to capture that feeling and hold onto it for as long as I could. Naturally, I put it in writing.
When I was fourteen, I felt seen by contemporary YA writers who took teenagers seriously: Sarah Dessen, John Green, Jandy Nelson, the list goes on. Their characters might not be saving the world from evil, but they were thoughtful and resilient, with rich inner lives. What they experienced could just as easily have happened to me. That’s what I hope All My Bests can be for young teens today: a place to find joy amongst the monotony of adolescence. A place to be understood, and loved, for exactly who you are.
