Review: "Trade Me" by Courtney Milan

Trade Me by Courtney Milan
Published January 2015
★★★

Between her punishing course load and the jobs she works to keep the electricity on at her parents', Tina is barely squeaking by. Blake has no such worries—as the heir to the hottest tech company around, he's already worth a billion or so dollars and stands to inherit many more billions. And when Tina challenges Blake's assumptions in class and tells him to live a few days in her shoes, she never expects that he'll take her up on it.

What works for me: the characterization is great. This isn't a story in which Blake is an arrogant rich kid who learns the true meaning of life through artificial poverty. It takes him a moment to adjust, but then he gets on with it. This is clearly a very intentional choice—Tina and Blake have conversations about this (Tina does not want to hear any woe-is-me-my-temporarily-broke-by-choice-life-is-hard from Blake, and nor does she want any poor-you-you're-so-poor), and although Blake was clearly born with a platinum spoon in his mouth, he's pretty emotionally savvy. (How realistic this is, I don't know, but it's way better than a love interest who has to spend half the book learning to not be an asshole.) Perhaps for the same reason, although Tina has her moments of stress over driving Blake's expensive car, we don't see her reacting to living in sudden (temporary) wealth; we see her relaxing a tiny bit more but knowing it can't last, which honestly...I love that, because it feels realistic for someone who has had to be responsible for so long and still has to be responsible once this trade is over.

What doesn't work so well: the cover. It's generally fine (if dated), but it features a well-fed muscular dude, not a runner with an eating disorder. I don't need Blake's physique highlighted on the cover, but this is not it. (The German cover is a little better, if also dated.) And...more generally, the book was published a decade ago, and it shows. I suspect Milan would not have name-dropped a Tesla in the book if she'd written it today. The climax, too, hinges on money and privilege as get-out-of-jail-free cards, and in a way that's pretty uncritical of that. Again, I think the book would probably be different if written today.

On the whole, though I might pick up something more recent next time, I see why Milan is popular as an author—this was a quick and mostly satisfying read.