Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute

Talia Hibbert is a Black British author who is known for writing diverse romances in various forms. For example, Act Your Age, Eve Brown (2021) features two protagonists on the autism spectrum, each with different experiences of autism spectrum disorder. Hibbert has spoken in interviews about her own experiences as a woman with autism. Get a Life, Chloe Brown (2019) explores chronic illness and chronic pain, paralleling Hibbert’s experience with hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, a genetic condition that causes overly elastic joints and skin that bruises easily. In an essay about “chronic pain, invisible illness, and medical discrimination,” Hibbert writes about her experience seeking a diagnosis and using tattoos to reclaim ownership over her body (Hibbert, Talia. “Inking Against Invisibility.” Longreads, 2020). Her novels also focus on body diversity and explore deeper emotional issues, such as the aftermath of abuse in her 2018 The Princess Trap. Hibbert also has been diagnosed with OCD, which she credits as inspiration for the character of Brad in Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute, her first novel for young adults.

Hibbert’s catalogue features numerous LGTBQ+ characters, especially those who are in relationships that render their queerness “invisible.” In discussing her numerous novels with romances between a male and a female character wherein one or more of those characters are bisexual or pansexual, she says: