We Could Be Something by Will Kostakis

Title: We Could Be Something

Author: Will Kostakis

Genre: Fiction

Publisher: Allen and Unwin

Published: 2^nd May 2023

Format: Paperback

Pages: 416

Price: $19.99

Synopsis: A wonderful emotional rollercoaster of a novel about two young men, each on a journey of discovery. It’s part coming-out story, part falling-in-love story, part relationship breakdown story, part extended Greek family story. It’s warm and funny, a little bit heartbreaking, and completely satisfying.

Part coming-out story.

Part falling-in-love story.

Part falling-apart story.

Harvey’s dads are splitting up. It’s been on the cards for a while, but it’s still sudden. Woken-by-his-father-to-catch-a-red-eye sudden. Now he’s restarting his life in a new city, living above a cafe with the extended Greek family he barely knows.

Sotiris is a rising star. At seventeen, he’s already achieved his dream of publishing a novel. When his career falters, a cute, wise-cracking bookseller named Jem upends his world.

Harvey and Sotiris’s stories converge on the same street in Darlinghurst, in this beautifully heartfelt novel about how our dreams shape us, and what they cost us.

~*~

Harvey has grown up with his dads in Perth, but now that they’re separating, he’s moving to Sydney with Ba in the middle of the night to live above the family café with Gina, his yiayia, and Proyiayia, who needs care. But he barely knows them – yet heading to Sydney means a new direction in his life, like leaving school and finding out what he wants to do with his life. His Ba once wrote a novel as well, but that was years ago, and he hasn’t written again since, despite trying.

Sotiris is seventeen and already published – his published novel, Young, seems to be going well, but when he finds out his career is faltering, he’s ashamed to tell his Mum, and wants to get rid of every copy in existence. Yet a chance meeting with a bookseller named Jem changes things, and Sotiris starts to understand more about himself, his talents, and what he could do in his life. But Sotiris also comes from a traditional family, and he’s not sure if his Mum will understand that he is gay.

Sotiris and Harvey’s stories both take place in Darlinghurst, Sydney, and slowly, their stories will converge and come together as they alternate telling the story with clever section headings, delightful first-person present narrative, and an openness with the reader that is welcoming and evocative. Sotiris and Harvey are on their own journeys of discovery – about family, about life, about love, about sexuality, about friendship, and about their talents and skills, and how these can shape us or determine what we do with our lives. At its heart, it is also about identity of all kinds, with a sense that these two characters are trying to accept and understand their own identities as they navigate the world around them in Sydney. I loved that Sotiris and Harvey were also accepting – at first of those around them amidst conflict, as they tried to understand why everyone was the way they were and what motivated them whilst they grappled with their own identities and feelings and what this meant, and where they were going to fit into the world around them.

The book is divided into ten parts – five for Sotiris, and five for Harvey, and slowly, we learn how they are linked, and it wasn’t in the way I thought when I first started reading, which I really loved. It was a cool surprise to see how Will linked these two characters, and I think it was a really effective way to tell this story, because this is more than a coming-out story – it is this, but it is also a story of identity – who you are, whether that is gender, sexuality, cultural background, nationality, and so many other things that make us who we are. It is about finding out who you love – your boyfriend, your girlfriend, your family, your parents, your grandparents – about all kinds of love, because it is all these forms of love that make us who we are and teach us what love is. I think this was important because we get so few books that celebrate the spectrum of love – most celebrate romantic love only, and I really love the ones that look at love beyond romantic love, that show loving family and friends is just as important and formative as love of a partner. And I loved that this showed the different ways coming out can occur and what happens when you fall out of love, because that happens too. Very rarely do we get to see what happens after the happily ever after – whereas this book navigates the ups and downs of all these kinds of love, and everything in between. The importance of connection with people of all kinds in our lives, and the influence that these people can have on our lives.

The convergence of all these types of love, relationships, and aspects of identity were what made this book really special for me – I loved the focus on the family as well, especially Proyiayia – I think she was my favourite, I wanted to reach into the book and hug her. I loved all the characters of course and felt all their frustrations – even the teen characters had frustrations that we can all relate to – telling people the truth, jobs, family – so many things that are universal yet at the same time, can also be unique to teens or an individual – we all may have similar experience, but they manifest themselves in different ways. This is delightful, so everyone who reads this can find something in these characters to relate to or love, and I loved the incorporation of Greek for Proyiayia especially. Will has a beautiful authentic voice that evokes so many emotions in his characters and readers, giving us a genuine and delightful reading experience, and inviting us into worlds we want to know more about in an open and joyous way.