Review: "Nobody in Particular" by Sophie Gonzales

Nobody in Particular by Sophie Gonzales
Published June 2025 via Wednesday Books
★★★

Normally, Danni and Rosemary wouldn't meet. Danni is talented at music but otherwise an American commoner, nobody in particular, and Rosemary is a literal princess who has, historically, blown off the weight of her position. But in boarding school, they overlap—and they start to find that their circumstantial differences might mean less than they think, and also that staying together might cause insurmountable problems for them both.

Gonzales established herself as a "yes please" kind of author for me with the first book of hers that I read, and since I have a weakness for boarding school stories and princess stories (may these weaknesses never fade), this was not exactly a hard sell for me. It's about what you'd expect: cute and pretty light and with the occasional castle thrown in.

What really interests me, though, is the author's note at the beginning of the book. It's long enough that I won't quote, but Gonzales says that the first draft was written eleven years ago—but that at the time publishers told her, over and over again, that queer royal romance was too niche. This was of course wildly untrue, as many books published since have proven...and it wasn't all that long before Gonzales's draft went from too niche (according to the publishers) to something that had already been done, including with an unnamed, unrelated book that was especially similar.

Obviously we know this background only because both Gonzales and the folks at St. Martin's eventually went forward with publishing this book! But that author's note gave me so much food for thought throughout the book. Because: I am one of those readers who would have found this so valuable (and validating) a decade or more ago, when I was still struggling to find queer books that didn't hinge on violence and homophobia. Part of me is pretty annoyed that publishers didn't think there was a market for this book back then. And...I'm pretty sure I've read that unnamed, unrelated, similar book as well. Actually, I'm pretty sure I reread it—completely coincidentally—a few weeks before reading Nobody in Particular. (I am sometimes very consistent.)

Some parts of this book do feel a bit dated—there's a big to-do about one character coming out, for example, in a way that I associate more with less recent queer lit. (Although obviously coming-out stories are still valid and important, there's something of an arc to the way queer lit has told its stories over time—from queer characters meeting serious violence or being run out of town, to queer characters getting a happy or happy-of-sorts ending but only after lots of homophobia along the way, to extremely angsty coming-out stories, to much more matter-of-fact coming-out stories, and eventually to stories in which the characters are just comfortably queer to begin with and get on with their lives and romances. And then the whole thing started over with stories featuring trans characters...) Would I have been thinking that if I hadn't read the author's note, though, and also every piece of queer lit I could get my hands on in my teens and early twenties—perhaps not! I think I was both the right and the wrong reader for this: right, because (again) of that weakness for boarding school stories and princess stories and also Gonzales's books in general; wrong, because I do sometimes have such weird and specific tastes and because I know how much Gonzales has evolved as a writer in the past decade (as in: I know, because I have read her more recent books) and part of me wishes—unfairly!—that I could see what she might have done with this story today.

All of which is to say: if you're looking for a boarding school story, or a princess story, and want a fairly light, quick read, this is one for you! Rosemary and Danni can be absolute dummies at times, but that is not criticism; that is the state of teenagers and also YA lit in general. This isn't the most realistic of stories, but that's sort of the point; it's pure escapism at times, so buckle up and put on your plastic crowns and settle in for some princess fantasies.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.