Book Review: "Your Driver is Waiting" by Priya Guns

Your Driver is Waiting is a darkly satirical, thought-provoking look at our culture of protest and selfishness.

Damani is a rideshare (like Uber or Lyft) driver who lives in an unnamed city. Since her father died at his fast-food job, she’s been taking care of her mother, barely scraping by, living paycheck to paycheck. (In order to eke out a living, she has to drive constantly, despite the rules set by her employer.)

All throughout the city there are protests for every conceivable cause and issue. At the same time, the rideshare drivers are banding together to protest their pay constantly getting cut and other adverse conditions.

One day, Damani picks up Jolene, a beautiful white woman. Their attraction to one another is evident and their chemistry is palpable. Damani has never dated anyone with money before (especially a white woman), but Jolene seems to get her. They quickly fall into a relationship, which seems perfect—until Damani discovers that Jolene isn’t quite who she seems to be.

I’ve heard this book is a gender-flipped adaptation of Taxi Driver, but I didn’t feel that. It seemed to me like the book wanted to provide sharp social commentary but at the same time be a romance, and those two styles didn’t quite mesh. I’ll admit I don’t love when authors play coy with the locale of their book, so I found it difficult to completely settle into the culture.

I’ve seen some strong reviews of this, so it might just be me. Give it a shot if the description intrigues you.

Book Review: "Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me" by Mariko Tamaki and Rosemary Valero-O'Connell

First of all, it's Laura Dean, not Laura Dern, lol. But Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me is a beautifully drawn graphic novel about how all-consuming relationships can be when you’re young.

Freddy doesn’t know what to do. Her girlfriend, Laura Dean, is cool and super-popular, and Freddy is decidedly not. And while things between them are great sometimes, a lot of the time Laura isn’t a good girlfriend. (Or that good of a person, really.) She routinely doesn’t show up for things, cancels plans on a whim, and has this penchant for kissing other girls.

Oh, and they keep breaking up. (Well, Laura keeps breaking up with her; Freddy just whines and complains to her friends.) But every time Laura decides she wants Freddy back, she comes running.

Freddy’s friends are tired of the whole thing, so she writes to a noted advice columnist. But in the meantime, she starts to realize that while she’s in a bad relationship, it doesn’t give her an excuse to be a bad friend and/or a bad person, both of which she’s been lately. And maybe Laura Dean is the cause of all of that.

Will she find the backbone to do the right thing? How will she know what the right thing is? Will Laura Dean wise up and treat her right? Will Freddy’s friends forgive her?

This was so enjoyable and poignant. It so captured the myopia many of us have had in the midst of an intense relationship, particularly when it’s with someone who might not treat you well. It also reflected that our friends may be fighting their own battles and we don’t even notice.

I’ve really been loving graphic novels over the last year or so, particularly LGBTQ-related ones. There’s so much talent out there!