You Should Be So Lucky by Cat Sebastian

Publication date: May 2024
Series: Same universe as We Could Be So Good (read in any order)
LGBTQ+ author? Queer
Setting: Midcentury NYC
Content warnings: Homophobia, loss of partner

I really don’t like sports, but I loved this book. It really isn’t about baseball even though every chapter has baseball in it. Cat Sebastian has a real talent for writing characters and dialogue that suck you in, whatever the setting.

Eddie O’Leary is a pro baseball player who was just traded to a losing team in 1960s New York City. And thus begins Eddie’s slump. He can’t seem to hit a ball. He’s gone from top of the league to one of the worst overnight.

Mark Bailey works for The Chronicle. He is not a sports reporter but has been assigned to write a series of articles about Eddie’s slump. Mark is in his own slump of sorts. He is grieving the unexpected loss of his long-time partner to a heart attack a year and a half ago. Except how do you grieve when being queer is illegal and no one knows you are a widower? Mark’s barely restrained grief is everywhere in this book.

This book is typical Sabastian which she calls “more vibes, less plot” in that very little happens. But through the course of this book, I get to know Eddie and Mark so well that they feel like real people.

The one thing I don’t love about this book is the huge role that homophobia plays in the characters’ lives. It was the same for the other book in this universe, We Could Be So Good.

Mark lost his family when they found out he was queer. That loss makes him sort of give up being closeted in the boldest ways he can think of. He has told a handful of friends at work, he speaks in what he calls a “camp” voice, and has a book collection proudly displayed of queer books.

But it’s also made him paranoid about Eddie suffering how he has. Mark doesn’t think Eddie’s career as a baseball player can survive being publicly outed, which he is probably right. Mark keeps putting up walls between them in the name of protecting Eddie. Eddie keeps chipping away at them with his sunshine personality, assuring Mark he understands the risks and it’s worth it.

I don’t mean to diminish the fear and pain that queer people feel when living in a society where being queer is illegal and socially unacceptable. (Which as we know, is still true for the majority of queer people around the world!) But I also I am not super interested in that story. Perhaps because I’m old enough that I don’t need the reminder. I remember!

What else could Mark and Eddie have gotten up to without homophobia taking up so much space on the page? Sebastian manages this in her 1800s historical romances. Why not the 1950s?

I am still giving this four stars because Sebastian is a beautiful writer and I did enjoy every moment that I listened to this audiobook! The story of overcoming slumps really touched me, perhaps because I am coming out of one myself. I also loved the messy and deeply personal portrayal of grief and how Mark started finding his way out of it.