We Are Mayhem

After 17-year-old Birdie is forced to move to her father’s Upstate New York hometown, she anticipates skating through her upcoming senior year of high school with the help of local bestie, Lexie. Birdie plans to join Lexie on the cheerleading squad; after all, Birdie is a former gymnast who only quit when her large, muscular frame made competing feel almost impossible. When Birdie flubs cheerleading tryouts and is subsequently caught breaking into a local oddities shop, she stumbles head-first into the world of amateur backyard wrestling. There, Birdie finds kindred spirits in Abigail Rose—a chronically ill wrestling super-fan ready to overturn her cousin’s men-only wrestling scene—and Abigail Rose’s nonbinary musician partner, Xena. Together, the trio envision a wrestling collective that is campy, cathartically inclusive, and gender-creative. But the deeper Birdie delves into the subculture, the further she seems to drift from the carefully laid Ivy League future she has planned. Rourke-Mooney’s snarky yet heartwarming prose propels the story and reveals Birdie’s inner struggles with body image, gender, and physical strength; the result is a captivating and offbeat debut that explores wrestling, gender nonconformity, femme friendships, and finding one’s bliss and true self. Protagonists are coded as white. Ages 14–up. (Mar.)