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Hattemer, Kate

The Feminist Agenda of Jemima Kincaid

293 pp. | Knopf | February, 2020 | Trade ISBN 978-1-9848-4912-0 $17.99 | Library ISBN 978-1-9848-4913-7 $20.99 | Ebook ISBN 978-1-9848-4914-4
(2) YA Jemima serves with the Senior Triumvirate at her ­tradition-steeped prep school, and though she's invested in her role, she's also eager to shake up some of the school's more outdated customs. Promposals create a power imbalance, so she devises a dating ­­app–like system to replace them. A well-connected student is running unopposed for next year's school chairperson position, so she tries to rustle up an ­opponent. But her failure to notice a perfect (­non-white, non-male) candidate, and then a major mishap with the prom date–matching system, lead the self-professed "feminist before it was trendy" Jemima to see some of her own failings. The witty first-person narration's frankness extends from Jemima's thoughts on the people around her ("Everyone qualified as Old and White and Dude") to honest description of sexual encounters ("I hate it when movies fade out...They make you think you'll feel different during the whatevering, like the light will get soft and your sensations will too, but you're still a body, you know?"). Via its flawed protagonist's growth, this entertaining, thoughtful, smash-the-patriarchy comedy sheds light on some of the ways feminism, and feminists, can be ­complicated.
Reviewer: Shoshana Flax | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2020

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