Sean O’Brien is the protagonist of Tim Manley’s 2026 coming-of-age YA novel, My Own Kind of Person. A high school senior and aspiring stand-up comedian, Sean is the funny guy. He loves making other people laugh, in part because he likes making other people happy and in part because their laughter helps him avoid his own complicated feelings. There’s a lot he doesn’t love about his life right now: things like failing to lose his virginity with his girlfriend Christy, and his struggles with social pressures around the “right” type of masculinity.
It’s only when Sean meets Elijah, a gay ballet dancer, that he begins to wonder what his life could look like if he spoke more freely instead of leaning so heavily on humor. What would happen if Sean was more honest, both with others and with himself? My Own Kind of Person deals with themes of growing up, heteronormativity, and the power of different kinds of storytelling.
Sean realizes that he’s bi during the course of the novel. He tries on a few different labels to best describe himself, ranging from bi to pan to queer. The only thing he knows, for certain, is that he’s neither entirely gay nor entirely straight. He discusses his confusion with multiple friends, to varying degrees of success.
Though Sean’s coming out isn’t the main focus of the novel, he does spend some page time dealing with issues of biphobia, including the assumption that bi men are secretly gay. He dates both women and men over the course of the novel, and his conversations with both of his partners help him better understand both himself and his sexuality.
That said, the novel doesn’t focus solely on Sean’s sexuality. Instead, My Own Kind of Person deals with issues of voice and self-acceptance across multiple topics as Sean tries to figure out what he believes versus what he’s been told to believe via stereotypes and societal pressures. He grapples with his sexuality, his comedy, his friendships, his relationships, and even, to some extent, gender stereotypes.
Comedy is where Sean feels safest. In fact, the word he himself uses is “palatable” — he feels the most acceptable to others when doing stand-up. Of his comedy, he narrates: “This is why I love performing. It transforms me into someone I’m not ashamed of.” At the start of the novel, Sean is anxious and constantly vying for other people’s approval, whether it’s the audience at his local comedy club, his friends Andi and Tony, or Christy.
As he grapples with issues of self-worth and self-acceptance, Sean learns to stay present in the moment, even when he’s anxious, an act that allows him to better understand what he really wants and who he wants to be. If you want to read more about this novel, check out our Bi Media entry on it here.