The Pros of Cons

Cherry, Alison. The Pros of Cons. Point, 2018.

Phoebe is a drummer and is really looking forward to this year's percussion conference and competition with her high school percussion group. Vanessa is excited about WTFcon, because she's attending as a fanfic writer and gets to meet her girlfriend IRL for the first time. Callie assists her father in his taxidermy business, and she agreed to go to the taxidermy convention with him in the hopes of having some father-daughter bonding time. These three conventions are happening at the same convention center, and the protagonists meet and get up to all sorts of hijinks and shenanigans.

This book is unbelievably hilarious. I started reading for the queer content, but they had me hooked when the Snape impersonator ran through the building in grey undies, twirling his robe above his head and screaming about putting a dark mark on Orlando. Each of the main characters has her own personal drama to deal with, and they end up becoming friends and helping each other (and a little pageant queen named Beige, but I don't want to spoil things for you). The characters are fun and relatable, the humor is splashed across every page, and once again I have found a book that my spouse and I each read in one sitting because it's just that good. Recommended.

Recommended for: teens
Red Flags: some language; discussion of sexual encounters; one main character is drunk at one point (she's possibly old enough to drink, but that isn't made clear)
Overall Rating: 5/5 stars

Read-Alikes: Queens of Geek, Ship It, Tash Hearts Tolstoy