Honestly, in a year that has so many great books with queer main characters, we hope none of these win, no matter how much we love them. But here’s a shout-out to 2017’s books with queer supporting characters.
Month: December 2017
Honestly Ben & Looking for Group
Honestly Ben by Bill Konigsberg
Arthur A. Levine, March 2017
Reviewed from ARC
Looking for Group by Rory Harrison
Harper Teen, April 2017
Reviewed from ARC
I’m not going to lie: I’ve had a really hard time figuring out how to write this post. The books I’m talking about today are COMPLICATED, and so are my feelings about them. I also feel like, despite being a polysexual/polyromantic person (not to be confused with polyamorous), I’m not the most qualified to write about the quality of representation in these texts. Both Honestly Ben and Looking for Group feature teenage boys who move from monosexual identities (straight and gay, respectively) to a more complicated understanding of their sexualities as they experience for the first time profound sexual and romantic attraction to a single person who doesn’t fit into their previous sexual orientation. However, for both boys class and masculinity intersect to shape their own responses to their shifting sexual and romantic identities, and this is something I can’t speak to as a middle class woman (it’s also not something I’m going to touch on in detail here, but it’s an undercurrent that’s always present in the texts). So please bear with me as I try to parse out my thoughts and feelings about these complicated books!
Like Water
Like Water by Rebecca Podos
Balzer + Bray, Oct 2017
Reviewed from ARC
It’s a rare treat to find a work of YA contemporary realism that has such a distinct sense of place and is so full of emotion. Podos’s prose has an effortless beauty, and more than anything else, the characters shine. I adored Vanni and Leigh and the ways they push against gender roles and the gender binary.
Medal on My Mind 