Dungeons & Dragons (or in the case of Christen Randall's The No-Girlfriend Rule, Secrets & Sorcery), has been one of my favorite hobbies since I started playing in middle school. Because of this, I love reading stories about people falling in love with the magic of Dungeons & Dragons! The only thing that made this reading experience even better was buddy reading The No-Girlfriend Rule with my girlfriend, who I recently started playing Dungeons & Dragons with. I absolutely loved this book and it has definitely become one of my new favorites!
The No-Girlfriend Rule follows a high school senior, Hollis, who is struggling to connect with her long time best friend turned boyfriend, Chris. To try to get closer with Chris, Hollis decides to try to get into his favorite hobby, Secrets & Sorcery. The only problem is that Chris's Secret & Sorcery group has a rule that girlfriends, including Hollis, are not allowed to attend their sessions. After a disastrous public session at a gaming store, Hollis ends up joining a queer, all girls Secrets & Sorcery group. Through playing Secrets & Sorcery with her new friend group, Hollis starts to accept her identity as a fat, neurodivergent, queer girl and begins to question if her relationship with Chris is what she wants or deserves.
My favorite part of this book was definitely how Christen Randall portrayed how impactful getting into a table top role playing game like Secrets & Sorcery can be. When I was in middle school and high school, the group of friends I played Dungeons & Dragons with were the people I was the closest with. Dungeons & Dragons allowed my friends and I to process difficult emotions, express our queer identities before we had even come to terms with them ourselves, and have a fun, creative way to bond with each other each week. Hollis was also able to do all of these things with her Secrets & Sorcery group, which I related to a lot.
Another aspect of the books that I loved was how Christen Randall captured nerd culture and all the wonderful things that come along with falling in love with table top role playing games. Over the course of the book, Hollis communicated with her Secrets & Sorcery group via Discord, became obsessed with collecting dice, drew fan art of her party, cosplayed as her character, and made snacks for her gaming sessions, which I have also done as a player. I'm not sure if Christen Randall plays Dungeons & Dragons or just did a lot of research, but either way, her passion and knowledge for the game really shone through.
The last aspect of this book that I wanted to touch on is the crucial representation it provided for individuals who are fat, queer, and neurodivergent. I don't think I've ever read a book that had a girl who was of a similar body type to my own on the cover or took her anxiety medicine on page! I didn't realize how much I needed this type of representation until reading The No-Girlfriend Rule, but I'm so glad Christen Randall was able to provide it.
I would definitely recommend this book to people who are fans of tabletop role playing games like Dungeons & Dragons, but I think that this book can impact people whether or not they have an interest in the game. At its core, The No-Girlfriend Rule is a beautiful coming of age story of self discovery with an adorable sapphic romance along the way!