Me Three

Eleven-year-old Rodney is confused. His family has been uprooted from the great life they had in Las Vegas, a life filled with famous people, cool parties, a great best friend, and a father who is the perfect role model. Now, Rodney, his sister, Kate, and mom are hiding out at his mother’s cousin’s house in Stony Butte, Arizona, and using his mother’s maiden name because his father, Jeremy, has been falsely accused of some terrible things by a famous movie star! Rodney’s dad is in a treatment center while the lawyers try to resolve the issue, and his best friend won’t respond to his attempts to contact him.

Rodney decides to write letters, which he has no intention of mailing, to his best friend, Larry, so he will be able to share his experiences with him when they are able to connect again. These letters act as a diary for Rodney. They also give the reader a glimpse into how Rodney thinks and how he sees the world. Throughout the novel, the reader follows Rodney’s journey as he struggles to come to terms with the truth of his dad’s situation while creating a place for himself in this new world.

Rodney is trying to stay positive and focus on following his father’s rules to “Live a Lucky Life”, but he is a fish out of water – and he can’t use his celebrity connections to help smooth the transition. The kids in this Arizona town can’t even appreciate great style! In fact, on the first day of school, he is threatened with a beating because of a misunderstanding about a T-shirt and God – and because of a comment about his Olympic sized pool.

The author, Susan Juby, adeptly weaves a plot filled with unique secondary characters and painful revelations to create a novel about how sometimes a person must live with the consequences of other peoples’ poor choices. Me Three is a story set in a modern world filled with social media fame and cancel culture. In fact, much of the humour in the novel comes from an understanding of this world of privilege and reality TV mentality. In Me Three, Rodney meets a young man who is falsely accused of a sexual assault, has a friend who is beaten, and has another friend whose family has immigration issues. Kate also appears to have an eating disorder and runs away from home when reporters track the family down. Through all of this, the three of them also have people who support and stand with them as they struggle to live in the shadow of their father’s/husband’s legacy. Me Three could be a heavy novel, but Juby lightens the story with humour and a sense of optimism.

I have some reservations about this novel. Although it is clear by the end of Me Three that Rodney accepts that Jeremy, his father, has a history of sexual harassment, the topic is muddied because the father has not been convicted in the courts although he has been accused and convicted by the public. Jeremy does appear to have a history of poor choices in his relationship with women. For example, Rodney’s mother met Jeremy when he hired her as the fitness nanny for his first family. Rodney’s parents’ affair resulted in the breakup of Jeremy’s previous marriage.

I also have issues with some of the body image comments that are not explicitly addressed. There is a huge focus on the women of the family looking good. Jeremy, for example, says, “It doesn’t matter what you used to be as long as you look good now.” Later, Rodney says, “My dad would never act like a creep with women at work. He’s married to my mom, who wears cheetah tights and is very pretty.” Finally, there is a slippery slope between healthy eating and disordered eating that exists in the novel probably because of the emphasis on looking good. Kate, for example, may be developing an eating disorder, but the mom also is very focused on food. For example, in one of his letters, Rodney describes their dinner in passing to the reader; “My mom and sister were having salad with tofu and nuts but only the kind of nuts that have no carbs.” The fact that this is presented as normal suggests that food takes up a lot of space in this family. I have some concerns that a younger reader may not understand that some of the behaviors in the novel are questionable because Rodney doesn’t see anything wrong with the actions. A mature reader may understand the inferences, but a younger reader may need additional explicit explanation.

I applaud Susan Juby for taking on some difficult issues in a middle school novel. Me Three is best read in conjunction with conversation.