"The Rules of Us"

Jennifer Nissley (she/her/hers) is the author of the queer young adult novels The Mythic Koda Rose and the newly released The Rules of Us. Although her first love is writing, she is powerfully attracted to video games, horses, and pretty much any piece of clothing or interior design with an animal on it.

She received her MFA in Fiction from Stony Brook Southampton and lives in Queens with her spouse and their pets, but sadly no horses.

Nissley applied the Page 69 Test to The Rules of Us and reported the following:

Page 69 of The Rules of Us features a pivotal conversation between the protagonist, Jillian, and her ex-boyfriend, Henry. Not only have Jillian and Henry recently both come out as gay, and broken up as a result — they’ve also just learned that their plan to remain best friends, and attend the same college together on a prestigious scholarship, is in serious jeopardy. Despite their meticulous planning, they’ve failed to meet all the scholarship criteria, and must now enroll in a summer class to demonstrate “academic well-roundedness.” Now, on page 69, the two unexpectedly find themselves at odds as they grapple with that mistake.

Nobody was more surprised than me to discover that page 69 is, in fact, quite representative of the book! At its heart, The Rules of Us is about how Jillian and Henry coming out, and breaking up, shatters their view of themselves and their relationship—platonically, romantically, and every shade in between—which leads to messy but necessary growing pains for both of them. Page 69 represents the beginnings of that tension. Readers also get to see the differences between Jillian’s and Henry’s mindsets here, and catch glimmers of how that will lead to more intense conflict later on.

Henry approaches the problem pragmatically, attempting to explain to Jillian what “academic well-roundedness” means according to the scholarship’s website and how they can correct their mistake. But Jillian is letting her fixation on the fact that they misinterpreted the criteria at all get in the way of moving forward to a solution. She’s also still reeling from the revelation that she and Henry are both queer, and nursing a not-so-very-secret infatuation on Carla, a cool girl at school. In a matter of days, the boundaries and structure she reveled in with Henry were upended. This unexpected scholarship trouble only throws her further off balance.

So, when Henry tells Jillian, “If we want to get this scholarship, we need to play by their rules,” Jillian doesn’t hear this as a plea for flexibility. Instead, she digs in harder, telling readers, “I hear what he’s saying, and I get it, but honestly, this well-roundedness requirement doesn’t feel like playing by any sort of rule at all. It feels like kissing Henry with a head full of Carla, every rule you’ve ever stuck to switched up midgame.” Perceptive readers might sense that Henry’s becoming a bit frustrated with Jillian’s rigidity in his quest to define himself beyond her. And they might also see that Jillian, for as much as she insists on knowing Henry inside and out, isn’t picking up on these clues at all.

Visit Jennifer Nissley's website.

Q&A with Jennifer Nissley.

--Marshal Zeringue