Passing a student on campus with patches on his jacket, Natalie wonders “if I should buy a more specific jacket. She perceives these signs of self-confidence and inner knowledge everywhere. Like many anxious people, she assumes that everyone else has it all figured out. Natalie is in desperate and fumbling search of models for how she should be (there are echoes of Sheila Heti’s debut novel here). Now enrolled at the University of Toronto, living in a campus dorm among strangers, she struggles to find her footing, constantly getting tripped up by overanalyzing everything, from minor interpersonal interactions, to her own emotional reactions to her experiences. At the book’s opening, she has just arrived in Toronto from Temagami, a small community in northern Ontario, where she grew up helping her parents run the family inn, avoiding the need to have much of a social life. Contrary to her assertion, Natalie does not “think about almost nothing.” In fact, she is so aware of the people and environments that surround her that, if anything, she thinks too much. This confident, perceptive novel follows 18-year-old Natalie as she navigates her first queer relationship, as well as her growing relationship to poetry and to herself as a writer. The Adult is a masterful debut from Bronwyn Fischer, a graduate of the University of Guelph’s MFA program, who now lives in Toronto.

These queer age-gap relationships hold a lasting fascination-three of these titles were made into blockbuster films within the last decade.

There is a risk and a discomfort to these age-imbalanced relationships (which appear in literature about young gay men as well- Call Me by Your Name, anyone?).

Patricia Highsmith’s The Price of Salt comes immediately to mind, of course, as do more recent classics like Mariko and Jillian Tamaki’s hit graphic novel Skim and, though the age gap involved is smaller, Julie Maroh’s Blue Is the Warmest Colour. “It’s odd that there’s so much more to you than there is to me Compared to you, I think about almost nothing.” The uncertain young lesbian is a common and often compelling character in fiction, especially when her uncertainty and need for validation lead her to enter into a relationship with an older, more experienced woman. “I think it’s odd that you like me,” Natalie, the 18-year-old protagonist of The Adult tells Nora, her 30-something lover.

The adult bronwyn fischer