Openly Straight

Openly Straight

by Bill Konigsberg

Rafe has never really been ashamed of being gay.  He came out when he was in 8th grade and his parents have supported him every step of the way.

The problem is that now, wherever he goes in his home town, he's the "gay kid".  No matter what he does, people relate it to him being gay.  His mom has pushed him to become a public speaker even has she has become the president of the local PFLAG chapter.

He doesn't want to be Rafe, the gay kid; he just wants to be Rafe, the teenaged boy.

So when Rafe gets the opportunity to go to an all-boys boarding school across the country, he takes it and he reinvents himself.  He pretends to be straight and finally finds out what it's like to hang out with the jocks and just be himself.

But being Rafe, the straight kid, is much harder than he ever thought, especially when he finally finds the guy who may be "the one".

Final thoughts:  LGBTQ novel with an interesting question about how much our sexual identity and preferences really tell us about who we are.  There's quite a bit of self-reflection by Rafe as he struggles to figure out how much of his identity is made up of his being gay.  Rafe's parents are a little odd, but I love his best friend in his home town; I wish she'd been in there more.  The English teacher in me kept getting distracted by Rafe's teacher's comments after each journal entry.  Overall, a good read.

Rating: 4/5

Promise Me Something

Promise Me Something

by Sara Kocek

Reyna Fey just can't seem to get a break.  Her mother died when Reyna was just seven years old. Her father was in a near-tragic accident that put him in a coma from which he's just starting to recover.  And she's been forced to go to a different high school from all of her middle school friends due to a redrawing of the district lines.

She's alone on the first day of school.  Until Olive Barton shows up in her life.

Olive is different from anyone she's ever known.  She's brash, loud, and speaks her mind no matter what.  She's also gay and Reyna's never known someone who was gay before.

Reyna was raised Catholic, so she has a difficult time dealing with Olive's admissions.

When a train accident changes Reyna's world, she must face many questions in her life head on.

Final thoughts:  Started one way and ended another, with a winding story that touched on many issues, but never settled any of them.  Reyna's Catholic and hates foul language in the beginning of the book, but her religious issues don't even come up with Olive's admission. Everything deals with how Reyna is trying to fit in with the crowd, but even that is barely covered.  Could have been so much more.

Rating: 2/5

When Love Comes to Town

When Love Comes to Town

by Tom Lennon

It's the 90's in Dublin, Ireland, and Neil Byrne is finally becoming who he was always meant to be.  He's finishing his exams and preparing for his future.

He's also preparing to live as a gay man instead of hiding as a gay teen.

For the first time in his life, Neil starts to go out and meet other gay men to try and figure out this society that's eluded him all this time, but in which he feels he belongs.

Surrounded by family and school friends who constantly disparage gays and tell off-color jokes, Neil's more than a little afraid of what will happen if the truth gets out.

But what will happen to his heart and soul if he never is true to himself?

Final thoughts:  Interesting take on the problems of one teen coming to grips with his own being, as well as the fears and prejudices of those around him.  Just twenty years after it was written, it's hard to imagine what it must have been like for a teen in heavily Catholic Ireland before social media and cell phones, let alone what it must have been like for a gay teen.  Sadly, Neil is never really a sympathetic character and the constant interior monologues, especially toward the end, become difficult to follow.  It felt more like the author didn't want to take the time to describe certain scenes, so he just had Neil stream-of-consciousness monologue those moments. OK for today's teens, but probably much more impactful when it was originally written in 1993.

Rating: 3/5

Beautiful Music for Ugly Children

Beautiful Music for Ugly Children

by Kirstin Cronn-Mills

Gabe may have been born a girl, but he's always been a boy at heart.

A lover of music spanning the decades and inspired by a DJ neighbor with a collection to rival that of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Gabe is on a quest to finish high school and finally be able to be the boy he feels he was always meant to be.

He starts his journey with a midnight radio show on a local station called "Beautiful Music for Ugly Children".

On his quest, he inspires people, gives them hope, leads them to crazy acts of bravery around the town, and he finally finds people who may actually accept him for who, and what, he is.

But no journey in life is without its potholes, and Gabe has a rough rode ahead.

Final thoughts: Immediately upon starting this book, I thought of a few students I've met over the years who could use a book like this.  It's realistic and gritty with moments of intense hate and real love.  Gabe's life changes aren't easy for everyone around him to accept, and even he struggles with the practical side of things, though he never even once thinks he might be wrong.  He's always known that though he was born with female parts, he's a male through and through.  His struggles are the struggles of many in the LGBTQ community, not just the transgenders, but it's good that trans teens finally have something to which they can read and relate.  It's not perfect, but it's a good start.

Rating: 4/5

Speechless

Speechless

by Hannah Harrington

Chelsea Knot is horrible at keeping secrets.  She blabs everything she knows to pretty much everyone she knows.  No secret is safe.  Making out with your best friend's boyfriend? Wearing something hideous?  Shopping at the wrong store? Gay?

While drunk at a party, Chelsea reveals a secret and it leads to disastrous results.  

For the first time, she realizes that there are true consequences when she speaks.  After she reports what has happened to the police, she becomes the prime target of the very crowd who used to be her friends.  They begin a very deliberate campaign to punish her for telling the truth.

Because she can't trust her own words, she stops using them.  The school's biggest gossip takes a vow of silence.  And even though it upsets her parents and teachers, she is determined to keep her mouth shut.  She won't even defend herself from the slander and lies being thrown around about her.

Now Chelsea must fend off her former friends and try to find out who her real friends are, while also making peace with herself and her own past.

Final thoughts: Chelsea is familiar as a teen gossip who only does what she does because she hopes to keep her place with the "in crowd".  When she drunkenly outs a classmate and he is horribly beaten as a consequence, her personal path to redemption and forgiveness is interesting to follow.  While some of the moments seem forced and some things that happen seem a little too perfect, the overall story is done well and gives hope to readers who may be having difficulties speaking up and/or out.

Rating: 4/5

me@you.com

me@you.com

by KE Payne

Imogen Summers has a great boyfriend; everyone thinks so... except Imogen herself.  Recently, Immy has been thinking that there might be more than just hanging out, the occasional kissing, and the nightly walk home.  

Isn't dating supposed to be exciting?

Things change when Immy finds an online site about her favorite TV show, which includes two lesbian characters as the leads.  In the chat room and forums, Immy finally feels free to say what she wants and she finally feels like maybe she's not completely different than all the other people around her.

When Imogen meets a girl in the forum named Fickle, she also feels that she may finally get what everyone else is talking about when they use the word "love".

Could it be that Immy isn't the straight girl she always thought she was?  Could it be that her thoughts have never been with the guys she's dated because she's never really wanted to date them?

Final thoughts:  This was an OK book about coming out, both herself and to others (though never to her family, which is disappointing).  However, it was a little stilted and Immy's self-discovery was awkward.  There is definitely a struggle for those who are dealing with this issue, but Immy's emotions seemed strangely controlled most of the time and then extremely wild at odd times.  This book is a good conversation starter for those who are trying to figure themselves out, but there are other, better books out there for LGBTQ kids.  My other struggle is that this is set in England, so the English is a little different.  It didn't completely detract from the book, but having to translate slang like Soz (sorry... which is used on almost every page) and words like trainer (shoes) and jumper (sweater), got a little distracting.

Rating: 3/5

Say the Word

Say the Word

by Jeannine Garsee

Shawna Gallagher has always tried to be the perfect daughter, even when her life hasn't been so perfect.  She gets perfect grades, has perfect attendance, and obeys her father's rules perfectly.  She's also going to the right college (her father's), going into pre-med (to be a doctor, like her father), and dating the right boys (the ones her father approves).

But Shawna's entire world turns upside-down when the mother who left her for her lesbian partner when she was seven, dies of a sudden stroke.  Her mother, a free-spirited photographer who hated rules and forms, left no new will for her partner and her partner's two boys, so Shawna's dad gets everything after her death.

As Shawna tries to understand the consequences of these new circumstances, she also comes to understand her father's hold on her life.

Can she face the secrets she's been keeping?  Can she face the secrets that everyone else has been hiding from her?

Final thoughts: It feels like the author started with one idea and then ended with another.  While this is a decent read, the ending feels almost like the collage that Shawna's working on throughout the book; it's a lot of ideas pasted together, but not in a cohesive fashion.

Rating: 3/5

Ash

Ash

by Malinda Lo

In this GLBT version of the classic Cinderella fairy tale, Aisling (a.k.a. Ash) has lost her mother, and with her, the last magic that her family had.

Because magic is fading and that means that there are fewer greenwitches to cure the sick, fewer fairies, and fewer encounters with the fairy world.

However, there is no shortage of fairy tales.  And after Ash's father dies, leaving her the poor servant of her stepmother, all Ash has is her fairy tales.

Years later, she finds a path of magic, a fairy, and a huntress.  And now she must make a choice between honoring the bargain made, or following her heart.