LGBT YA Week - Almost Perfect by Brian Katcher

This review is part of the LGBT Teen Novels Week, hosted here.

For more information about the week, head over here.

SPOILER ALERT:

I read this book after reading the blurb, which specifies something in the book which you only discover a third through the story. I can't talk about this book without mentioning that something, so if you like starting a book without knowing anything about it - DO NOT read any further. I have loved this book with all my heart and I think it is a very beautiful story about acceptance, friendship and being yourself.

Summary from Amazon:

Logan Witherspoon recently discovered that his girlfriend of three years cheated on him. But things start to look up when a new student breezes through the halls of his small-town high school. Sage Hendricks befriends Logan at a time when he no longer trusts or believes in people. Sage has been homeschooled for a number of years and her parents have forbidden her to date anyone, but she won’t tell Logan why. One day, Logan acts on his growing feelings for Sage. Moments later, he wishes he never had. Sage finally discloses her big secret: she’s actually a boy. Enraged, frightened, and feeling betrayed, Logan lashes out at Sage and disowns her. But once Logan comes to terms with what happened, he reaches out to Sage in an attempt to understand her situation. But Logan has no idea how rocky the road back to friendship will be.

~~~

Wow. What a book! Reading Sage's story through Logan's eyes was a real emotional roller-coaster. I have only read one book about a transgender teen (Luna, by Julie Anne Peters) and from reading articles in the press, I knew it wasn't easy, but this book touches on so many subjects which transgender teens face every day that I think this book really is a must read. I loved it so much that I couldn't write anything about it for several days and I'm afraid I simply cannot give it justice.


Logan only has a year left in high school and then he can escape his small town trailer-life to build a future with his girlfriend of three years. The problem is, she cheats on him and he becomes a complete mess, unsure about his future. It's only when new girl Sage appears at school that he gets out of his hole. She is different from all the other girls and he can't help but be attracted to her. But Sage has been home-schooled for most of her teenage years and has very strict parents. There is also a secret she hides: Sage was born a boy. That's when their friendship really is put to the test.


Sage has realised that there was a difference between boys and girls when her sister was born. From then on, she has always acted as if she was a girl. Her parents, and her father in particular, tried to make her do "boy" things to make her change, as if she could. Years of self-hate, self-harm, suicide attempts and unhappiness follow, until she turns 18 and decides to go back to school for her last semester before graduating.


Despite the absence of his dad and his economic situation, Logan has had a happy life. He is conscious of the fact that he won't be able to go to a fantastic college and have a great job, but he doesn't let it make him feel down. He has only had one girlfriend and doesn't have a lot of experience with girls, but nothing could ever prepare him for Sage. 


Reading the story through Logan's eyes is one of the most interesting aspect of this book. He comes from a small town, he has never met an "actual gay" and feels that they're mostly perverse. He isn't a bad guy or anything, he is just influenced by his environment. A large part of the book is about Logan trying to understand Sage, but it's also about Sage learning from Logan. 


I felt the characters were brilliantly portrayed and full of flaws. Logan's reaction to Sage's secret is ugly, his prejudice and misconceptions are ugly too, but he tries. The very fact that we can see from Logan's point of view how hard it is to wrap one's head around this makes the story ring true. I did think that Sage is conveniently rich and independent enough to take illegal drugs which make her look truly feminine, but I guess the story wouldn't have worked otherwise.


There are many many themes presented in the book and I felt they were all sensitively done. Sage has to deal with the dichotomy between her outside and her inside, but also with what it means to be a woman now (lack of respect from men etc.). The book is beautifully written and the message is raw and powerful.


The last part of the book is really heart-breaking and I really loved where the story went. The author added some comments at the end which was really great to read.


This book is truly wonderful and an eye-opener in many respects. Read it.

LGBT YA Week - Guest Review of Beyond Evie by Rebecca Burton

This review is part of the LGBT Teen Novels Week, Hosted here.

For more information about the week, head over here.

~~~

Please welcome Lauren from I Was A Teenage Book Geek who will be reviewing Beyond Evie by Aussie writer Rebecca Burton.

Summary from Amazon:

Charlotte has a good life. She′s a gifted athlete and she loves hanging out with her friends. It's true, she doesn′t talk much about how she feels since her father′s death -- but that′s just Charlotte. That′s the way she is. Now there′s something else she doesn′t talk about, either. How can she tell anyone about what happened last year? How can she tell anyone about Evie?

~~~

Beyond Evie is not your everyday YA coming out story. It’s the bittersweet tale of sixteen-year-old Charlotte’s first love, as narrated to her first love, the eponymous Evie. By turns frank and wistful, it’s a little like reading a love letter intended for someone else. You, Evie, Charlotte repeatedly addresses her audience, drawing the reader into her confidence with an intimacy both powerful and, at times, even uncomfortable.

Narrator Charlotte doesn’t think of herself as a storyteller; she prefers science to literature, fact to fiction, and she’s not a talker by nature. She’s not used to sharing her secrets, and we soon learn that she’s only doing so now because she’s realised it’s too late. Whatever happened between her and Evie is already over. She never really told her how she felt about her, and telling the story now is her way of working through everything she’s kept bottled up inside for so long.

Evie, in contrast, is an elusive character. She’s wily and impulsive and rebellious.  She’s an enigma for narrator and reader to puzzle out together, but she’s no manic pixie dream girl – Charlotte’s far too pragmatic for that. There’s an ordinariness to her, and that adds to her authenticity somehow; she’s real, and that enhances the realness of Charlotte’s feelings. It’s impossible to read the story without believing, wholeheartedly, in Charlotte’s every word.

Beyond Evie is the work of an Australian author, and she brings a real sense of place to the story. Charlotte’s connection to the world around her comes to life in a way that’s irresistible to the reader; the laugh of the kookaburra, the scent of the eucalyptus trees. It’s vivid and evocative and beautiful.

Although this is the story of one girl’s attraction to another, it doesn’t fit neatly into the category of lesbian fiction. Charlotte’s focus is on distilling the truth of her first love, rather than questioning her sexual orientation or trying to put a label on herself. It’s about her own feelings, not other people’s reaction to them – about love at its purest. It’s a coming-of-age story, and one that will touch the hearts of those who might usually avoid LGBT ‘issues’ in their reading.

Intense and poignant, Beyond Evie is the kind of book that will stay with you long after the last page. If you’re looking to read off-the-beaten-track YA, don’t miss this one.

~~~

Thank you for this review, Lauren! I really like the idea that the book isn't about "being gay" but what Charlotte feels. I'll definitely read this one!

LGBT YA Week - Guest review: Becoming Nancy by Terry Ronald

This review is part of the LGBT Teen Novels Week, hosted here.

For more information about the week, head over here.

Please welcome Kirsty from The Overflowing Library 

for this guest review of the Adult/YA crossover novel
Becoming Nancy!

Summary from Amazon:

For David Starr, being cast as Nancy in the upcoming school production of Oliver! is quite a shock. But David is up to the challenge. Living in a three-bedroom semi in 1970s' working-class East Dulwich, surrounded by his somewhat colourful relatives, he is bright, smart-mouthed, fanatical about pop music and ready to shine. Rehearsals begin, and he strikes up a friendship with the handsome yet enigmatic Maxie Boswell, captain of the school football team. As their alliance deepens it appears they might become more than just good friends, but that can't be right, can it?

Discovering a confidant in empathetic teacher, Hamish McClarnon, and spurred on by his no-nonsense best friend, Frances Bassey, David takes on the school bully, the National Front, and anyone else who threatens to stand in the way of true love.

Vibrant, warm, and full of life, this uproarious and touching coming-of-age novel, set against the backdrop of South-East London in the thrill of the late seventies, will transport you straight back to your first music obsession and the highs and lows of your first love.

~~~

I must admit this isn't a book I normally would pick up. I read very little adult fiction but was pitched it for review saying it was very much a cross over novel and I agreed to give it a go and I'm so glad I did.

I thought David was a brilliant character. We met him as he has just about come clear in his mind about his own sexuality and follow him as he comes out to his friends an family. I though he was really warm and geniune and loved the relationships he had with the people around him.

I loved David's teacher/gay role model Hamish. I loved that in him David saw the man he could become ... one that was both comfortable with his sexuality but also quite happy to take on anyone that dared to give him grief about it or harrass others. You can certainly see his influence as David grows as a character and becomes more comfortable in his own skin.

I loved this historical setting (yes I know people would disagree and say it isn't historical yet but I studied the time period as part of my History degree so I'm going with it). I liked seeing the attitudes and ideas that were prevalent at the time especially when you consider it is set about the same time as the brixton race riots and only a few years after homosexuality was no longer considered a crime in the UK.

What I loved about this book is that is was very much a book with a story to tell - teenage boy in the 1970s who after coming out as gay has to deal with a huge amount of grief from other parties who treat him horribly because of their bigoted and homophobic view points which it does well. However it does it in such a brilliant way that it doesn't come across as odd or patronising. 

As a word of warning to my younger followers who are considering reading this. There is a lot of swearing in this book and there are scenes with sexual content which are quite graphic so maybe not one for younger teens / tweens.

To sum in in short it's like a gay, less irritating and wittier Adrian Mole. I throughly enjoyed it as a heart-felt coming of age story with a brilliant morale and story to tell set in a modern history backdrop. Brilliant.

~~~

Thanks Kirsty for this wonderful review! 

LGBT YA Week - Dare Truth or Promise by Paula Boock

This review is part of the LGBT Teen Novels Week, hosted here.

For more information about the week, head over here.

Summary from the back cover:

When Louie and Willa first meet, they don't know that their lives will change forever.

Self-assured Louie is gearing up for another successful year of high school. Kicked out of her last school, and hurting from a past relationship, Willa just wants to graduate and become a chef.

But when Louie first sees Willa, it's like lightning strikes. Everything the girls are sure of - their plans, their faith, their families, their identities - is called into question.

Can two girls fall in love? The answer is yes, fast and frantically. 

Can two girls navigate the strange, uncertain, and devastating waters of love? That remains to be seen....

~~~

Oh this book! It had me crying my heart out for the characters and rooting for love to win. This is a beautiful love story set in New Zealand.

Louie and Willa meet in their last year of high school and they pretty much already know who they are and what they want to do in life. Louie is a confident and gifted girl raised in a liberal family and she wishes to be a lawyer whereas Willa knows she prefers girls and is toughening up after a relationship gone bad and preparing to become a chef. 

But then they meet. It's fireworks, an explosion of sensations and a deep connection. None of them knows exactly how it happens, but it just does, and neither of them will ever be the same person again. You don't only read about how much they love each other, you can nearly feel it through the page and see how they ache about each other and how they can hardly breathe when the other isn't around. In Louie's words: 

"I'm in love with that girl," she said out loud in amazement, because she knew that this was a life-changing thing and life-changing things should be said aloud, should have a moment in time, and a place in the air, some molecular structure to make them real. I'm in love with that girl, she heard as it reverberated inside her head. And it was truth, she realised, as things are which you don't think, but discover have always existed.

The girls are quite different in their personalities but they complete each other in such a way that it doesn't matter. Louie is outgoing and strong on the outside but quite doubting on the inside whereas Willa might appear vulnerable but has this silent strength in her. I loved both of them and how multidimensional they were. The girls' parents also play a part in the book and I felt that they weren't set out to be the meanies. Their reaction felt real and the story was really worth reading. 


Religion plays a big part of the story with Willa's ex Cathy and Louie's family being very religious and questioning homosexuality through this angle. It is heart-breaking to read how Willa is led to feel when she keeps getting the same reaction from people. She feels wrong, evil, unnatural even and her heart is heavy with the knowledge. I'm really glad that this angle is treated the way it is, with well-meaning people on one side wanting to "cure" Willa, and more accepting others who see God's message as one of love. 


The story is told in the third person and focuses either on Willa, either on Louie and at first I wondered whether this book might have been better alternating first person point of view of the two girls. But the style grew on me and by the time I reached the end, it didn't really seem to matter how the story was told as long as I knew what was happening!


This is a really beautiful book and hints at many subjects surrounding homosexuality without being too heavy. It can be seen as a coming out story but I feel that it is more a story of first love and how sometimes, you just know this person is special. The writing is beautiful and the characters all stand on their own. I am really happy to have discovered this book and if you want to read about love (real love), you should probably read this, I can guarantee you'll love it!

LGBT YA Week - Guest Post by James Dawson

This guest post is part of the LGBT Teen Novels Week, hosted here.

For more information about the week, please head over here.

Hello,

Please welcome James Dawson, author of Hollow Pike, who will talk to us today about queer characters in YA books.

~~~

UKYALGBTOMGWTF!

I recently had the best email from a bookseller who had just finished Hollow Pike, my debut novel. she was thanking me for the inclusion of the three queer characters in the book. She said that when she was at school there weren’t any characters like her to relate to in books, and it was fantastic that today’s young adults were being represented in fiction.

If I may, allow me to introduce you to the characters she means. Hollow Pike sees a young Welsh girl called Lis arrive in the mysterious town of Hollow Pike where she is spellbound by the school outcasts Kitty, Delilah and Jack. Kitty and Delilah are a couple while Jack clearly hasn’t made his mind up whether he likes boys or girls yet.

The characters were vaguely based on people I knew at school, so their sexuality was a no-brainer. At my very ordinary school in West Yorkshire, a lot of young people were figuring it out. Those are experimental years. Some of us ended up gay, some ended up straight, a lot ended up somewhere in the middle, winding up in relationships with men and women – but then, as sixteen year olds, we were finding our way.

It makes sense to me, therefore, that a lot of young people are still finding their way and should be able to see themselves in the books they are reading. Something that I found hard back then was that LGBTQ relationships weren’t really presented as an option. You were straight or ‘wrong’. It would have been cool if there had been young gay or bi role models in films and TV shows and books for me to go, ‘ah he likes boys, so it’s probably OK that I do too.’ I have always been gay, but I might have figured it out sooner with more visible role models.

The main goal when writing Hollow Pike was to tell a cracking scary story, but I was determined that Kitty, Jack and Delilah would retain this element of ‘figuring it out’. These were never meant to be books about ‘coming out’. Issues books have their place, but I didn’t want it to be a sad, sad story about how hard it is to be young and queer. It is difficult, but being a teenager is always hard. In Hollow Pike, frankly, the characters have bigger things to worry about! What’s more, issues books often become ‘gay books’. I was gay and I wouldn’t have read a ‘gay book’ out of fear of having the shit kicked out of me. The hope is, that young readers will see Kitty, Jack and Delilah going about their business and simply think –‘ they’re OK, I’m OK too’.

But for this to really work, it needs to be on a much bigger scale than my lone book can achieve. We need more books, TV shows and films with queer characters front and centre. Not in a token, box-ticking way (no more sassy gay sidekicks, I implore you), but in presenting characters who are more than their sexuality.

 I can’t wait for you to get your hands on Book Two – Book One has only begun to scratch the surface of these complex characters! Writers shouldn’t be scared to reflect diversity – we live in diverse times so all we’re doing is painting an accurate picture. If it seems that young queer people are in a minority it’s probably because they aren’t empowered to be more visible in schools. We can help overcome that. I’m so thrilled that both Attitude and Diva magazines have chosen to review Hollow Pike alongside Bliss and SFX, this is recognition that a very mainstream release from a major publisher can feature queer characters without becoming niche gay fiction.

I’ve said this before, but it bears repeating – presenting young gay characters in the media is the best way to make being young and gay normal. Because it is.

~~~

Thank you James for this fantastic post - I can't agree more on the media needing to include the diversity which exists in real life!

Hollow Pike is already out in the UK

Find James on:

His website

Facebook

Twitter

LGBT Teen Novels Week - 27th Feb to 4th March 2012

Hi book lovers,

For LGBT History Month, I am organising a LGBT Teen Novels Week where I will review a few books with some guest reviews and there will also be a guest post by James Dawson, author of Hollow Pike.


Our societies take for a given that everyone is born either male or female and that a male is attracted to a female and vice versa. Not everyone agrees, but that's roughly how most of the societies work.

Now there is a whole lot of people in the world who just don't fit in any of these categories. They don't relate to any gender, or they're born in the wrong one, or they're against what everyone thinks their gender is. Then some are not attracted to the opposite sex, they're attracted to their own, to both or even to none. The whole LGBT movement is not a bunch of stereotypical gay and lesbians being fabulous and wanting to get married. It's a whole bunch of people who do not feel male, female or heterosexual and think they are not any less of a human being for being so. There are so many different people that you could add the entire alphabet after LGBT and start over again and you wouldn't have put a label onto everyone. Identity, gender and sexuality are at the heart of the debate and the more you talk about it, the more you realise that the world isn't black and white but every shade of the rainbow (yes, I just made that pun).

When you haven't gone through this identity or sexuality crisis, it is hard to even wrap your head around the idea. But reading about it and talking about it helps, especially the people who feel left out from all main media. This is even more important for teenagers to read about this because they already go through so many emotions during their adolescence and when they feel things to which they can't put a name on or find an explanation, it is even harder to cope with it. How can you feel ok if you are born a girl but feel like a boy inside and all you can see around you and in the media are people who are specifically male or female and who mainly see transgender people as unnatural? Raising awareness on these identity and sexuality issues is fundamental, especially to teenagers who might not be able to talk freely about this at home or at school because of social and peer pressure.


The good thing about books is that you can read someone else's experience and make it your own. You can read about a person coming to terms with his or her homosexuality and realise that maybe, what you are feeling on the inside, is not something weird and there may be other people who are feeling it too. I only started reading lesbian novels when I had already pretty much figured out that whatever it was that was wrong with me was not a genetic disease or anything wrong at all but a simple attraction to the same sex and I wish there was something, anything, in my life (home, school, media, friends...) which could have helped. Talking about having more LGBT-themed books published and talked about in the media is not some kind of affirmative action where we need a "queer quota" in each story, it is only a willingness to want reality to be described how it actually is, full of beauty and diversity.

You can visit the official website of LGBT History Month [here] - they have some great articles/posts on there and a great number of events being organised, so do go and have a look!

You can also re-visit my Lesbian Teen Novels Week [here] if you are so inclined!

Thank you to the lovely Nina from Death Books and Tea who designed this brilliant logo for the week!

~~~

The Week:

Monday - Intro post which is what you are reading ;)

Tuesday - Guest Post by Hollow Pike author, James Dawson, about queer characters in books

Wednesday - Review of Dare, Truth or Promise by Paula Boock

Thursday - Guest review by Kirsty at The Overflowing Library of Becoming Nancy by Terry Ronald

Friday - Review of How Beautiful the Ordinary (short stories) by Beth over at Thoughts from the Hearthfire

Saturday - Guest review by Lauren at I Was A Teenage Book Geek of Beyond Evie by Rebecca Burton

Sunday - Review of Almost Perfect by Brian Katcher

~~~

Here are a few links for book recommendations:

Gay YA

Let's Get Beyond Tolerance

Malinda Lo's blog

I'm Here. I'm Queer. What the Hell do I read?

I have also read this weekend a fantastic article about people talking about being asexual on the Guardian [link here]




If you have any more links to be added, please email/tweet me and I'll add them!


I hope you'll enjoy the week!


Caroline x