Social Queue is the second novel by Australian author, Kay Kerr. Eighteen-year-old Zoe Kelly is one of three interns at Bubble, a website featuring news and pop culture, and has so far written horoscopes and compiled the events calendar. But, after some rather unsatisfactory experiences with online dating apps, she has written an article about navigating modern romance.

Zoe is autistic, something that attracted relentless bullying during high school, and her difficulty with reading social cues means that her dating history is non-existent. She is navigating the newness of her internship and her first year of Uni, studying Journalism, and her article is funny and candid. Apart from the inevitable negative or abusive comments, the reaction is mostly encouraging and enthusiastic, particularly from other autistic women, who appreciate Zoe’s perspective.

What is most surprising are five comments indicating that in her recent past there may have been potential for dates of which she was unaware. Her editor suggests that further articles might expand on the theme if Zoe is willing to connect with these five and explore any signs of attraction she may have missed, and why.

Of the five, she is most apprehensive about meeting with the high school bully; with the Uni classmate, the co-worker in her vacation job and the high school classmate with anxiety problems, Zoe is still nervous, but they present less of a problem; the one she can virtually dismiss immediately is the twin brother of her currently-absent best friend, who confesses to a Year Seven crush.

Zoe is lucky to have plenty of support: her parents are understanding; her extroverted sister, Harriet is a font of information about both clothing and interpreting social cues; her best friend is generous with long-distance advice; her boss is ready to accommodate her needs; and her senior colleague takes a bit of a mentoring role which turns reciprocal. All of that means she can write about each encounter with honesty and often humour.

Kerr’s characters are mostly appealing, and certainly realistic. Being autistic herself naturally gives authenticity to all of Zoe’s thoughts, feelings and reactions, and gives the neurotypical reader valuable insight into the world of an autistic person. Kerr also highlights the need for better training of police to deal with the neuro-diverse population, and the media for reporting on this population, and the disabled generally, in a non-offensive manner. Kerr’s second novel is funny, insightful and thought-provoking.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Text Publishing.