Freshmen

Phoebe is a first-year student at a British university, and while she’s excited for the new opportunities that come with being a freshman, she’s also excited that someone from her past is attending the same school: Luke, her long-time crush with a long-time girlfriend. Told in chapters alternately narrated by Phoebe and Luke, Freshmen follows the tumultuous, embarrassing, and often funny trials and triumphs of their first semester of university.

Though the book is slow to start, the plot picks up pace as Phoebe and Luke adjust to the novelty of university and settle into friendships and routines. Freshmen benefits from a wide cast of characters that builds a realistic social background for Phoebe and Luke’s lives and provides the ready supply of humor and quirky wisdom that keeps the novel going. The novel’s hilarious twists and turns are complemented by its realistic depiction of life in the transition period Phoebe and Luke find themselves in. Authors Tom Ellen and Lucy Ivison admirably opt for displaying messy and authentic realities rather than yielding to an easier, idealized depiction of friendship, young adulthood, and love.