Upcoming adaptations of Casey McQuiston's Red, White & Royal Blue and Taylor Jenkins Reid's The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, prove that TikTok's literary boom has provided a ripe breeding ground for Hollywood projects. However, when it comes to the increasingly popular subgenre of young adult romantic comedies, sapphic titles such as Kelly Quindlen's She Drives Me Crazy have gone overlooked for too long.
TikTok's bibliophile sub-community, known as Booktok, has ushered in a veritable renaissance of literary romance, particularly trope-fueled rom-coms. Though Red, White, & Royal Blue occupies the realm of New Adult fiction, young adult romances such as To All the Boys I Loved Before and The Kissing Booth have proven successful in the streaming era. The pages of Quindlen's She Drives Me Crazy burst with the classic tropes and misunderstandings that rom-com fans adore, making it the perfect candidate for a film adaptation.
She Drives Me Crazy Capitalizes on Rom-Com's Best Tropes
She Drives Me Crazy introduces readers to driven high-school basketball player Scottie Zajac, who's as hung up on her ex-girlfriend Tally as she is on winning the Christmas Classic basketball game. When Scottie gets in an unlikely fender-bender with Irene Abraham, a popular cheerleader whom she holds a long-standing grudge toward, the two strike an unusual bargain. Quindlen thus bakes two popular rom-com tropes -- fake dating and enemies to lovers -- into her novel's premise, all while establishing a crucial misunderstanding at the heart of the girl's initial rivalry.
The holiday season has long served as a popular backdrop for romantic stories, and She Drives Me Crazy amplifies this concept uniquely. Scottie and Irene live and attend public high school in the quirky and fictional Christmas-themed town of Grandma Earl, Georgia. The rivalry between Grandma Earl's Fighting Reindeer and the adjoining Candlehawk Prep basketball team is set up to culminate in the Christmas Classic. Aside from providing a memorable backdrop to set the novel's romantic action, the rivalry between the two towns delves beneath the aesthetic and touches on issues of class and privilege.
Though Scottie and Irene are both residents of the poorer in-comparison town of Grandma Earl, the two have their own differences in background that inform elements of their tension and dynamic. Irene's intersectional identities as a lesbian and South Asian teen lead her to approach conflicts differently than Scottie, but both are fueled by a passion for their respective sport. Aside from underlying themes of race, class, and sexuality that subtly inform the world of Quindlen's book, confronting the underrepresentation of women's athletics proves a driving mission of both romantic leads.
She Drives Me Crazy Can Fill a Sapphic Void in Mainstream Media
Sapphic YA rom-coms, from cult hits like But I’m a Cheerleader to contemporary entries such as Crush, have long held a place in the queer media landscape. However, fans of the literary subgenre are still clamoring to see adaptations of their favorite stories and be given a mainstream spotlight akin to Love, Simon and Heartstopper. Netflix specifically has received mounting criticism for its string of canceled Sapphic YA series and adaptations such as Everything Sucks, I Am Not Okay with This, First Kill and Warrior Nun.
There are so many queer stories yet to be told in mainstream media that have led audiences to satiate their desire for representation within the pages of books, web comics and even fan fiction. The rise in popularity of these mediums has consequentially inspired adaptation and the YA rom-com space in particular could benefit from a slam dunk like She Drives Me Crazy.