Break Your Heart

Helms’s tale of a black math major’s grand passion for her Asian cryptography professor, a loose sequel to Scratch, feels like a flashback to 1950s category romance with a multicultural veneer. Megan Porter is obsessed with going to parties and sleeping with cute boys; she’s never noticed the connection between math and cryptoanalysis, and she’s unaware of the hottie in her own department, professor Nick Muramoto, until he walks into class. As a portrayal of an overachiever, this setup is unconvincing. Megan makes some gestures to escape her inappropriate attraction to her professor—thinking of dropping the class, redirecting her attention to guys her own age, seeking the support of friends —but just can’t help herself. Nick, meanwhile, groans, “No. Absolutely not,” and “God, I shouldn’t,” even as he most enthusiastically does. Why? Well, Megan is hot too. Apparently, no more justification is needed. The portrayal of Megan as promiscuous, sassy, and clueless will leave women in STEM fields gritting their teeth. Agent: Courtney Miller-Callihan, Sanford J. Greenburger Associates. (Aug.)