Stephanie Yeboah grew up hating romcoms, but her new novel, Chaotic Energy, is just that: a romcom. “Growing up, I hated anything to do with romance because I never saw women who looked like me being represented. Seeing darker-skinned, larger plus-size women being the subject of desire was just so non-existent for me, and so I felt like somebody that existed in my body wasn’t worthy or deserving of love,” the author tells me over Zoom. However, Yeboah is determined to change that with Chaotic Energy, hoping to completely flip these ideals in romance for other women and girls.

In Yeboah’s new book, we follow Artemis (nicknamed Temz) as she thrives in every part of her life… apart from her love life. She has plenty of opportunities for hook-ups and one-night stands, but she can’t seem to make a relationship stick. So, when California-based tech entrepreneur Ruben slides into the DMs of her plant influencer Instagram account looking for advice, Temz doesn’t waste the opportunity. Soon, their long-distance digital flirtation grows into something more, but Temz commits the cardinal online sin and catfishes Ruben with pictures of a different woman.

Temz is suddenly navigating a web of deception as her relationship with Ruben gets more serious by the day. And when her job lands her the opportunity to visit his home in Oakland, could this be a chance for her to finally come clean? Or could it lead to utter chaos? Chaotic Energy is extremely warm, funny and unique. The catfishing element keeps the reader on their toes as you just don’t know what Temz’s next step will be throughout the story.

For Yeboah, the catfishing plot was loosely based on a very real experience she had when she was younger. “When I was 17, I was catfished on MySpace by someone in California, and this went on for three years. I was so in love and didn’t see the signs, but I eventually found out he was fake when I logged back in a few years later and came across a different profile with the same pictures.” Yeboah confronted the account, and the man messaged her back to apologise, saying that another person often used his pictures and even sent her a video to prove it.

“I confronted my so-called boyfriend with this but he blocked me immediately. The plot twist is, I did find out who it was, and to this day, he still doesn’t know that I know who he is.”

Because of this experience (and her love for the show Catfish), Yeboah has always wanted to explore catfishing in more detail, especially the murky grey areas of people’s motivations for doing it to another person. “I don’t necessarily think that the people who catfish are always villains or do it for malicious reasons. Some are doing it from a place of insecurity or wanting to feel loved by any means necessary. I have a lot of empathy for them,” explains Yeboah. And she wanted to bring that open-mindedness and empathy to Temz and explore the intricacies of this kind of behaviour.

In Yeboah’s hands, though, the catfishing element makes for a messy and hilarious love story. She masters the art of chaos in her writing, making the reader feel on edge and slightly stressed (but in a good way). In other parts of her work, Yeboah is meticulous and organised, but when it came to writing this book, there was no plan. “It went against every single bodily instinct, but I was intentionally erratic while writing Chaotic Energy. I thought that would be the right way to depict the amount of chaos that Temz was going through.”

A lot of this chaos was supported – encouraged, even – by Temz’s best friend, Jean. Their friendship is its very own love story in the book and it’s also one of Yeboah’s favourite parts about Chaotic Energy. Growing up, she was introverted and didn’t have many friends at school, but Yeboah would always see other people and their friendships and wanted what they had. Then, when she went to university, she met her best friend and was able to cultivate that kind of friendship for the first time, and it was an amazing experience. “Feeling important to someone outside of your family meant so much to me. So, I wanted Temz to have a similarly funny, no-holds-barred friendship too, and I just adored writing Temz and Jean.”

But there’s another, more complicated friendship in Chaotic Energy. Temz and Aneni went to school together and have been friends for years, but there is a resentment bubbling underneath the surface of the friendship between the two of them. “I wanted to include this kind of dynamic in the story to show both sides of the coin. There are a lot of people who feel that they have friends that consider them to be less than, but then you never really know what’s going on in the head of the other person either.”

It’s rare for a romcom to break new ground or avoid falling into predictable tropes, but Chaotic Energy does just that and so much more. Its wit and humour will make you laugh as if it’s a friend telling you a story of their wild night out. Its chaos will keep you on the edge of your seat and determined to read the next chapter. And its warmth will make you fall in love with Temz over and over again.

Chaotic Energy by Stephanie Yeboah (Orion, £19) is available to buy on 3 April.

Images: Stephanie Yeboah; courtesy of publisher