Indestructible Object

**As an Amazon associate I earn from qualifying purchases. 

Indestructible Object

Mary McCoy

Perfect for fans of What If It’s Us and Mary H. K. Choi, this stunning coming-of-age novel from Printz Honor author Mary McCoy follows a Memphis teen whose quest to uncover the secrets of love reveals new truths about herself.

For the past two years, Lee has been laser-focused on two things: her job as a sound tech at a local coffee shop and her podcast “Artists in Love,” which she cohosts with her boyfriend Vincent.

Until he breaks up with her on the air right after graduation.

When their unexpected split, the loss of her job, and her parent’s announcement that they’re separating coincide, Lee’s plans, her art, and her life are thrown into turmoil. Searching for a new purpose, Lee recruits her old friend Max and new friend Risa to produce a podcast called “Objects of Destruction,” where they investigate whether love actually exists at all.

But the deeper they get into the love stories around them, the more Lee realizes that she’s the one who’s been holding love at arm’s length. And when she starts to fall for Risa, she finds she’ll have to be more honest with herself and the people in her life to create a new love story of her own.

Funny, romantic, and heartfelt, this is a story about secrets, lies, friendship, found family, an expired passport, a hidden VHS tape, fried pickles, the weird and wild city of Memphis, and, most of all, love.

-Excerpt taken from Goodreads

Check Goodreads to see the book’s ratings.

My Opinion

“…when you want someone to like you, there’s this thing where you start being YOU as hard as you can, like you’re trying to push your essential being at this person, but cramming it through a pinhole of human interaction, and it builds and builds, until suddenly, it comes exploding out in a messy, unexpected spray.”

(3 / 5) Lee has graduated high school and is in that awkward yet endearing stage of life where you’re trying to figure yourself out and what direction to go. 

Lee is a very ingenuine person who is selfish and is too self aware without watching what her actions do to others. She’s not a very likeable person and I had a hard time with her as the POV. Ultimately, the story just didn’t grab me. There was not enough going on to keep me interested. The drama she was going through felt trite and I was not interested.

Contemporary YA is hit and miss with me and while the writing was done well, this was a miss.

Content Summary: The main character is 18 or so and heading off to college. For this reason, I’d categorize it more as New Adult. She is sexually active but also exploring that sexuality and where she resides. She has sexual experiences with young men and young women. The language was high with 29 F words and language throughout. Her parents are going through a divorce and there is question to who is her biological father.

Thank you to Simon Teen for the gifted copy in exchange for an honest review.

The book releases June 15, 2021.

Detailed Content Review

Language 

F***- 29

H***- 5

S***- 40

A**- 11

B****- 1

D***- 6

Bas****-

Religious Cursing

J****-

Chr***-

G**- 9

L***-

Derogatory terms etc-

Dick 

Alcohol, Drugs, Smoking

Adults previously got together and would drink and smoke weed. 

A group of adults drink bourbon.

A group of adults are very drunk. Half a bottle of bourbon is empty. They try to hide it from some teens how drunk they are. 

Adults drink champagne. 

A group of adults have been drinking beer. 

Intimacy, Sex, Immodesty

*Mild/moderate LGBTQ+ aspects included* 

Two women in a relationship adopt one of their nephews when his parents die. One identifies as non-binary and the other as queer. 

A young woman kisses a young man. She thinks he’s a sloppy kisser so invites him to kiss in her car. She later buttons her shirt back up and says it’s not working. He asks her to “take care of him” so he can get some “relief.” She says to do it himself, “Don’t let the specter of blue balls hang needlessly over my car.”

A young woman notes she’s had sex with others but not her previous boyfriend. She stopped asking him to touch her or offer to touch him cause all he wanted to do was kiss. 

A young woman and young man snuggle in bed (clothes on). They kiss and fall asleep. 

A young man only dates men. 

A young woman cheats on her boyfriend and “hooks up” with a young woman. 

As a child, a young woman walked in on her friend with his hands down his pants. 

Two young women kiss. One takes her shirt off, the other takes her dress off. At one point, one of their bras is taken off. They kiss on a bed then put clothes on and kiss more. 

A young man says he wants to do “boyfriend stuff” then takes off his shirt. A young woman takes off her shirt and bra. She kisses him then straddles him. She thinks about the ways she touches herself when she’s alone. 

A young woman remembers when her boyfriends parents talk to them about “remaining pure” in their relationship. 

A young woman and young man (friends) sleep in the same bed a few times. 

Two young women kiss. 

Violence, Weapons, Crime, Blood

None.

Potentially Intense Themes

A young woman’s parents are separating. 

A young woman is trying to learn if her father is biological. 

**Any quotes from the book are taken from the advance copy and therefore may not be fully accurate or correctly compare to the final copy of the book.

**As an Amazon associate I earn from qualifying purchases.