Constant Reader October 2025 YA Something Like Possible by Miel Moreland

 

 

I've read my share of YA novels over the years and I've seen a lot of impressive characters telling their stories. Some are basically good, some are more complicated, some are actually evil.  Madison, the narrator at the center of Something Like Possible the incredible second novel of Miel Moreland, is the first one I've actually wanted to clone and put in every state of the union as well as every high school.

It's not just that she's so likeable and unsure of herself, or even that's she's focused so much on politics the way quite a few YA novels in the last decade. It's how she's political that won me over. Far too many of even the best YA novels that deal with politics center on the kind of performative demonstration that while it raises awareness doesn't change much beyond it. Madison is uniquely, remarkably special. She is a political animal and I mean in the best sense of the word.

Madison attends local board meetings in her home town of Minnesota and became convinced at the age of ten that getting involved politics even at a local level can make changes. That's almost revolutionary particularly in the era of gridlocked government led by the conservatives on one side and the progressives who care more about activism then policy. Madison has the same desire to change the world but she understands the only way that matters is through politics and that's at the grass roots level.

I think the reason that solidified the place in my heart Madison will occupy forever is when she made it clear who her political idol is – and its someone that most people, myself included, have almost certainly never heard of.

Mindy Myers was the woman who was the official campaign manager of Elizabeth Warren and helped her win her first Senate campaign in 2012. I don't know how many die-hard political junkies know who she is. So the fact that Madison not only does but has a picture of her taped in her locker during her sophomore year absolutely made my far too cynical heart grow three sizes. That her idol is not Ilhan Omar – who lives in her state and is name-checked, or AOC or even Warren herself, but a campaign manager?  Even the fact she wants to be this woman and is building the action of the novel around becoming her, well that's special.

And it's this kind of devotion to politics that makes Madison wonderful because it's not a one-off. To be sure, she admires Ohmar and AOC and is a fan of Bernie but she's also knows who David Plouffe is, the man who played a role in Obama's first run for the White House before going to college. She doesn't watch MSNBC but rather C-Span when she has trouble falling asleep but she also does it to relax.  When she was growing up her family would DVR Madame Secretary on Sunday nights so she could watch it the next morning and look at the political parts of it. There's no indication she's watched The West Wing but I could see it being more her kind of show than Scandal or House of Cards – this was a show about pragmatic idealism more than anything.

And it's clear there's a part of her that loves the process. She spends her Saturdays volunteer and working in voter drives to the point she's a regular, albeit the youngest person there.  She's mentions thrill when fifty-one Senators agree on passing a bill or a Democratic nominee getting their 1991^st delegate. And she wants to be called 'Madison' not 'Maddie'. "Madison is a very important city in a crucial swing state' she says at one point. I mean, how could I not love her after that?

Now I must tell you that Madison is also fifteen and an out lesbian. However it's very clear that this part of her life is less important though significant to who she is. West Plymouth Charter High, the school she attends, is clearly a pretty safe environment for the LGBTQ+  community. Much of Madison's time is spent at that Gay-Straight Alliance which she relies on for support. She is out but is far more concerned with privacy then most people in that community: she wants to be very careful how important is not to out someone before they are ready to do so. She was comfortable with her sexuality at a very young age but no doubt because she is so politically aware of her surroundings she knows how important it is, even in one of the most progressive states in the union, that this level of consent is important. That said, she has the same desire to be loved as anyone and she felt incredibly fortunate to end up dating Jade, one year older than her the previous summer. We actually meet her when her life is at its nadir. This is how the novel begins:

On the worst day of my life, my girlfriend breaks up with me.

Then she fires me as her campaign manager.

And then I rear-end Mr. Braun's red Chevy Malibu while trying to exit the West Plymouth Charter High School parking lot.

It's telling that at the start of the novel Madison seems far more concerned about the second and third thing then the first. Mr. Braun (we never learn his first name) told Madison about the Youth Politics Boot Camp in October. As Madison says: "YBPC is the elite summer program of all my election-map inspired dreams." It's a training ground for everything that Madison worships especially campaign managers.

This becomes part of The Plan (always capitalized) which ends with her electing the second female President by the time I'm forty. (I don't think this book was finished until the spring of 2024 which may mean that Madison had someone other than Kamala Harris in mind for number one – or maybe she was assuming, well, let's not get into her head.) Mr. Braun had written the recommendation letter, which is bad enough, he's party of the school's student board, another problem and perhaps most troubling outside of this, there's the possibility of repair bills that Madison's parents very gently tell her she has to pay some of them. Her parents are clearly middle class at best.

Madison's plan was to manage Jade's campaign for Student Body President for her application to YBPC which would get her foot in the door. It's been clear for awhile this was never the most balanced relationship, in part because it was Madison's first and Jade is older. There's also the fact that Madison is, as she knows full well, a lot. Her best friend (and basically one of her only ones) Amrita is aware of the sensitivity and personality she has but its clear the two of them have moved through it after a lot of time. Madison was stunned by the breakup because she never saw it coming and the fact Jade argued she was more focused on her campaign for student body president then their relationship.

After this Madison figures out she needs a Plan B and goes through the remaining candidates to try and figure out who's campaign she can manage. She decides to set up a whiteboard to talk about the potential candidates the week before the intent petition is signed.  Amrita helps her go through the process with calm and hysterical asides. Madison clearly knows her high school very well even if she isn't popular. It is this quality that might very well make her a good campaign manager. Eventually she settles on Victoria Ferrand, a theater techie, the parliamentarian who has a simple goal: she wants to get a new catwalk for the theater. It's not thrilling but it’s the nuts and bolts kind of thing Madison likes and eventually she settles on it.

Their initial conversation takes on something of a meet-cute as Victoria knows from the start Madison's priorities: "I want to be clear this is ASB. Aren't you already working on, I don't know, real campaigns?" When she jokingly asks for a resume and Madison gives her one, its hysterical. There's also an incident in Madison's past that speaks it to her. I won't go into it here but it shows that Victoria is a warm human being something that Madison, not the best at picking up social cues, notices.

Now eventually we learn that Victoria is a lesbian but not out yet. Madison doesn't want to do so. She also makes an effort to win over Madison's friends, many of whom are also LGBTQ+ and not quite as committed to Victoria winning as Madison is. There's a fair about of nice humor as it becomes clear that the two of them are attracting to each other and Victoria's friends do a lot of work to 'vet Madison' for that job even as she's vetting them for political office.

Usually novels that have to do with student body politics turn into popularity contest. In a rarity for the genre West Plymouth has a political system that actually mirrors so much of certain progressive politics today. The voting is ranked choice and it eventually ends in a runoff setting where the top two candidates face off a week later. I have my issues about ranked-choice as an effective to way in national politics but I'm all in favor of any work of fiction that not only explains but has it an integral part of the plot. Much of the campaign strategy is based on how Victoria is not going to be the first choice of many of the students but rather second or third.

More keeping with the genre is how dirty the politics get. One of the candidates actively sabotages Victoria's rally minutes before it happens and there is an almost CNN like nature trying to figure out who did it. However there's actually debate as to whether a rival campaign should do so against a popular appointment for their own benefit. Even if that's just done to prove that Madison doesn't want to be Karl Rove or Lee Atwater (both of whom she not only would know but loathe with a passion) it's refreshing to see it debated.

As you'd expect eventually Victoria and Madison start circling around each other and trying to deal with the attraction. Madison has the problem of being burned already as well as wanting to concentrate on the campaign first. But of course Madison is a hormonal teenager and does eventually find herself giving into her yearnings.

Now I must tell you that there is something must darker at the center of Possible. There is a trigger warning at the start of the novel describing what it will be but since that's not the same as a spoiler warning I think I will stand clear of it. Some of the metrics will be familiar not just from YA fiction but real life: a trusted adult taking advantage to engage in a pattern of harassment of much younger people. Eventually there comes a point when Madison has to decide whether it is in the interest of the victims to come forward.

What I find refreshing, if sad, is how clear eyed Moreland is about it. We've seen too many movies and TV show where the sheer act of exposing the sexual predator is a complicated decision where the victims have been hiding it. In this the debate of coming forward and not coming forward is given equal weight by every single participant and notably none of them are thrilled about having to do so either way. And Moreland makes it clear just how difficult this is in reality: they are all aware their accusations may not be believed, the endless work they will have to do to get the administration to act on their complaints, that they will become public figures as a result and how badly that will upturn their lives, and that even if this works, their lives will never be the same and they may never truly recover from it. Even the best YA novels on this subject – which sadly are becoming more constant as the realities of the toxic world we live in become clear – usually end at this point or at the very least argue the characters lives will be better. Moreland is too good a writer for that.

She makes all of this clear in a riveting section at the end of the novel. One of the critical parts of so many LGBTQ+ movements is the Day of Silence. In it Moreland through Madison makes a very clear point:

When it comes to harassment, silence is isolating. Today I'm connected to people I've never spoken to. We trade glances and nods; we thumbs-up each other's outfits and button selection. We set ourselves laugh, loud, in the courtyard at lunch. It's a day when I remember how much bigger this all is. How many people came before me. How far we have to go, even hear at West Plymouth, where I dated a girl openly without (much) fear and where two varsity hockey teams are racing each other in silence at one edge of the courtyard.

In a world where so much activism is about shouting at the top of your lungs and making a spectacle, I find it striking that Moreland chooses to make the one politically activist movement one of complete silence. It is through that thinking that Madison figures out what to do on two important decisions in her life that may conflict.

This is Miel Moreland's second novel. I loved and now own a copy of her first novel It Goes Like This, the story of all queer girl teen rock band that dissolved four years ago and reunites when a natural disaster strikes their hometown of Minnesota. Moreland was born and raised in Minneapolis but has revealed very little about herself (in her author's photo at the back of the book her face is turned away from the camera.) In both books are helplines for people who struggle with their sexuality and sexual abuse but since in this book she makes it clear how wrong it is to out people unless they want to be I won't even speculate. What I know is that Moreland clearly has a grasp on so much of how queer girls live in this world and how ambitious they try to be despite everything against them. She also makes it clear in both books that it is just as important to work behind the scenes as in front of them and to have a good support system from the people who love you.

In a world where so many YA novels are centered on woman and minorities being loud and (justifiably) defiant and angry towards the world, I admire Moreland because of the positions she takes with her characters. This is particularly clear in Something Like Possible which is as much a story of an introvert and Type-A personality but who wants to do good in the world, not just look like she's doing good in the world. Madison is a character who believes in the system when justifiably so many of the younger generation think its irreparably broken.  Most of them want to make a scene and call it a solution. Madison wants to fix it and she understands politics is the only way to do so.

I have no doubt Madison knows that old line of Churchill 'Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others." These days I suspect too many people will drop the part after the common. Looking at Madison both at the start of the novel and at the end of it, I'm pretty sure that not only does she disagree with it completely – because in her mind democracy is the best form of government. I don't know if there are real life girls like here out there, but to paraphrase a campaign slogan I know the protagonist knows I still believe in a girl called  Madison.