Many (Ice Cream) Flavours of Queer Métis Representation: Review of Jen Ferguson's The Summer of Bitter and Sweet

Abstract

In demisexual Métis author Jen Ferguson’s debut 2022 young adult (YA) novel The Summer of Bitter and Sweet, Lou, a demisexual Métis eighteen-year-old girl navigates the complexities of family, romantic, and unwanted biological relationships all while working at her family’s ice cream shop for the summer with her best friend Florence, her ex-friend King, and ex-boyfriend Wyatt. Though this novel has all the fixings of a typical YA romance—forced proximity trope, ice cream shop trope, and friends-to-lovers trope—Ferguson turns romance into the sub-plot, and instead prioritizes Lou’s queer Métis identity and the importance of living your truth.