Anything Could Happen follows Tretch on his winter break when he realizes that he can no longer keep his sexuality a secret from his friends and family. He’s in love with his best friend Matt Goodby and while he’s happy for Matt when the girl he likes starts to show interest in him, he can’t help but feel a little jealous. Over Christmas, Tretch grapples with some hard news from his family and from Matt. The running theme song of the novel is Anything Could Happen by Ellie Goulding.

Will Walton is definitely in touch with the culture of teenagers of this time, and he regularly drops in sayings and goofy little exchanges that will resonate. The book is refreshing in its presentation of a character who is in the closet, but with no visible reason why. His life is not threatened by his sexuality. Though he is bullied in school, Matt sticks up for him. The novel focuses on the struggle of coming out and overcoming internal fears rather than external ones.

© 2015 Catia Cunha

Catia Cunha has a BA in Theater Arts and English from Mount Holyoke College. She won Young Playwrights Inc.’s 2013 National Playwriting Competition where her short play “Legs” was presented as a staged reading at the Lucille Lortel Theatre at the culmination of the Conference. In the spring of 2013 she produced and acted in her first full-length play, ____space, which was presented at Mount Holyoke. Catia’s senior project, Disinsemination, a play about feminist lesbians and aliens, was presented as a staged reading at Smith College and Mount Holyoke in Fall 2013. Mount Holyoke’s Rooke Theatre produced it in March 2014. In October 2014 Catia participated in the Grex Group’s Insomniacs 24-hour play festival. She is currently working on a play about sea monsters in the subway.