Book Review: "You're a Mean One, Matthew Prince"
Timothy Janovsky does it again, delivering a fun and frothy rom-com that's the perfect combination of Hallmark movie and "Schitt's Creek."
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Warning: Full spoilers for the book ahead.
I know that Christmas is over, but I’m still making my way through my reading list from 2024, so I decided to pick up Timothy Janovsky’s You’re a Mean One, Matthew Prince, a fun little romantic comedy that was the perfect choice for these post-Christmas/pre-New Year’s days. As one might gather from the title, it focuses on the title character as he is forced to spend Christmas with his grandparents as a result of his ill-judged decision to buy an island. Once there, however, he finds himself unexpectedly falling for Hector, the young boarder living with his grandparents.
I’ve seen this novel compared to Schitt’s Creek, and I think there’s something to that comparison. Matthew Prince is, in many ways, a David Schitt type character (with the difference that he’s an only child rather than one of a pair of siblings): he has two wealthy parents, one of whom is a businessman and the other of whom is a successful author; he flits around New York City like a pampered prince; he has no real friends to speak of; and he is drowning in designer clothes and credit cards.
As a result of all of this, he views his enforced sojourn with his small town grandparents as nothing more than a sojourn in Hell, something to be endured until he can get his credit cards back and return to his usual spoiled lifestyle in New York CIty. Once he starts falling in love with Hector, however, and once Hector starts returning those feelings–this, despite their early friction and their very different ways of looking at the world–he begins to see that his current ways of dealing with the world and the stresses in his life have been incredibly self-destructive.
Like many of Janovsky’s other heroes, Matthew is a bit of a dick at times: to his grandparents, to Hector, to the residents of the small town in which he finds himself. Some, I’m sure, might think that this makes him into a not particularly sympathetic or likable romantic lead but, to me at least, it’s Janovsky’s willingness to give us flawed heroes that really makes him such a spectacular romantic fiction writer. After all, part of the pleasure of romance as a genre is that it gives us people who grow and change, both in terms of their individual psychologies and in terms of their relationships with others.
Janovsky is also quite adept at conveying and capturing romantic and sexual tension. From the moment that Hector and Matthew meet, it’s clear that there’s something between the two of them, and I’m very glad that You’re a Mean One doesn’t shy away from the sexual components of gay love. I’ve written here before about how important it is that gay romance include sex scenes, since we are living in a moment in which such depictions are increasingly under attack from all directions. Moreover, Janovsky uses such sex scenes not just to titillate but instead to signify character growth, since it’s yet another moment in which Matthew learns to accept the happiness that is coming his way. And, while steamy, these scenes aren’t nearly as explicit as some of the others in Janovsky’s subsequent novels (though this makes sense, given that this is a Christmas romance).
Indeed, given the extent to which Matthew struggles with various aspects of his identity, including his own mind, Hector is like a breath of fresh air, bringing a balance to Matthew’s life that is sorely needed. Like many of Janovsky’s other heroes, Matthew struggles with GAD (generalized anxiety disorder), which structures and at times overwhelms his life. While it can sometimes be a bit taxing to spend a lot of time in the mind of someone so gripped with insecurity, I do give Janovsky credit for being willing and able to delve so deeply, and sensitively, into issues of mental health. Matthew’s story is a reminder that having a mental illness like GAD doesn’t have to mean that one can’t lead a happy and fulfilling life or that one can’t find love.
Overall, I quite enjoyed You’re A Mean One, Matthew Prince. It’s one of those fun little romances that Janovsky excels at writing. It’s filled with small town shenanigans and Christmas charm. I think it’s safe to say that the small Massachusetts town to which Matthew is banished is one of those fictional places that I would actually want to live, if such a place actually existed in the real world. It’s utopian in all of the best ways.
I’ve seen a lot of reviews compare this to a Hallmark movie, and I think there’s a lot of truth to that. While it may at times be difficult to sympathize with a rich brat who spends much of the book learning how to be a decent person, that’s also part of the charm, too. As we saw with Schitt’s Creek, the rich really do seem to live on another planet, utterly divorced from the lifestyles and concerns of those who aren’t fortunate enough to have a lot of money to burn. For this reason, though, it’s actually quite fun to watch Matthew become a better person, one more attuned to both his own actual needs and those of others. After all, it’s no fun reading a romance in which a person is awesome and impeccable from the beginning. There are few reading pleasures as great as seeing a person like Matthew discover new things about himself, becoming a better human being in the process.
By the time that the novel comes to a close, Matthew and Hector have managed to forge their own little slice of heaven. They’ve each found ways to change and grow as both individuals and as a couple. The power of a queer rom-com like this one is that it gives us a healthy dose of escapism, giving us a world in which both social and personal problems can be resolved through the remarkable power of gay love. The fact that it’s set during Christmas and focuses on the planning of a holiday fundraiser makes it the perfect reading for these dark and dreary winter days. With its small town setting and fun side characters, this is one holiday rom-com you won’t want to miss.