Tag Archives: LGBT

Review: Little & Lion by Brandy Colbert

Book Review and Content, Contemporary, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , ,

Little & Lion
Brandy Colbert
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Published August 8, 2017

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

About Little & Lion

When Suzette comes home to Los Angeles from her boarding school in New England, she isn’t sure if she’ll ever want to go back. L.A. is where her friends and family are (along with her crush, Emil). And her stepbrother, Lionel, who has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, needs her emotional support.

But as she settles into her old life, Suzette finds herself falling for someone new…the same girl her brother is in love with. When Lionel’s disorder spirals out of control, Suzette is forced to confront her past mistakes and find a way to help her brother before he hurts himself–or worse.

My Review

My favorite thing about this book has to be the relationship between Suzette and her stepbrother, Lionel. My household is a blended family, and we spend a lot of time talking about how family isn’t always only people related to you by blood. Sometimes life puts other people into your path and they become part of your family, too. I’ve read lots of young adult and middle grade books about the difficulty of transitioning to a blended family home and how hard it can be to develop those relationships. Those stories are important, too, but it’s nice to see books that present other parts of the family journey. So reading a book in which the family had already forged those complex bonds with step-members was awesome.

I liked and appreciated the diversity in the story. Little & Lion creates a community with members across varied orientations and has characters with physical and mental health issues. It could be said that perhaps some of the handling of Lionel’s illness gets a little stereotypical in that he decides to throw out his medication at one point. (I’m not sure I can think of a story about someone with bipolar disorder which doesn’t involve throwing out meds.) But it’s not the focus of the story, and Lionel never felt defined by his illness, especially not to Suzette, who longs for the kind of close relationship they had before she left for boarding school.

On the whole, I thought the storytelling and the writing were strong. I found it easy to connect with the characters emotionally. I struggled with some of the casual attitudes about teen drinking and some of the sexual content. See the content notes below for more specifics.

Readers who liked Jess, Chunk and the Road Trip to Infinity will enjoy Suzette’s journey toward self-understanding and the diverse cast of characters.

Recommended for Ages 16 up.

Cultural Elements
Very diverse cast of characters. Suzette is bisexual. Her best friend is a lesbian. Her brother has bipolar disorder. Her mom is black, her stepdad and brother white. They are also Jewish. Suzette begins dating a boy who’s black and Korean and diagnosed with Meniere’s disease.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used fairly frequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Some references and brief descriptions of sexual situations—making out and touching. In one scene a boy and girl have sex. Other scenes reference two girls in a sexual exchange.

Spiritual Content
Suzette meets a girl whose mother kicked her out of her home for religious reasons when she got an abortion.

Violent Content
A couple of boys get into a fist fight.

Drug Content
Teens drinking alcohol. Suzette worries about her brother drinking because she feels he doesn’t know his limits. Both are underage.

Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Review: Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli

Book Review and Content, Contemporary, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , ,

Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda
Becky Albertalli
Balzer + Bray
Published on April 7, 2015

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

About Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda

Sixteen-year-old and not-so-openly gay Simon Spier prefers to save his drama for the school musical. But when an email falls into the wrong hands, his secret is at risk of being thrust into the spotlight. Now Simon is actually being blackmailed: if he doesn’t play wingman for class clown Martin, his sexual identity will become everyone’s business. Worse, the privacy of Blue, the pen name of the boy he’s been emailing, will be compromised.

With some messy dynamics emerging in his once tight-knit group of friends, and his email correspondence with Blue growing more flirtatious every day, Simon’s junior year has suddenly gotten all kinds of complicated. Now, change-averse Simon has to find a way to step out of his comfort zone before he’s pushed out—without alienating his friends, compromising himself, or fumbling a shot at happiness with the most confusing, adorable guy he’s never met.

My Review

I’d heard a lot of buzz about this book and how great it is, which always makes me a little scared to read a book. I worry that I’ll be the weirdo who just doesn’t get the book or doesn’t like it. And while there were some things in this book that I struggled with (lots of swearing for instance) there were a lot of things I liked. Simon is the kind of narrator who draws you straight into the story.

I liked the email exchanges between him and Blue and loved the mystery of piecing together Blue’s real identity. The pressure of the whole blackmail situation definitely made the story more intense than if it were simply sort of a You’ve-Got-Mail-but-with-two-boys kind of story. Even with that complication, though, it’s still a pretty lighthearted story ultimately about first love and coming out.

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Cultural Elements
Simon is gay. He learns one classmate is bisexual. He meets another who is Jewish. One of his close friends is black.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used frequently throughout the book.

Romance/Sexual Content
Simon’s pretty frank about his personal life. One scene shows him lying in bed fantasizing about the mysterious Blue while he masturbates. (He only really states that his hand is “busy” but we get the idea.) Another scene shows him lying in bed with another boy kissing. He mentions that both of them have erections. (They’re still fully clothed.)

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
None.

Drug Content
Simon’s friends take him to a bar to eat, and a college student mistakes him for an older boy and buys him several drinks, which Simon eagerly drinks. He shows up home very drunk. His parents punish him by grounding him and taking away his phone.

Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Review: It Looks Like This by Rafi Mittlefehldt

Book Review and Content, Contemporary, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , ,

It Looks Like This
Rafi Mittlefehldt
Candlewick Press
Published September 6, 2016

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

About It Looks Like This
A new state, a new city, a new high school. Mike’s father has already found a new evangelical church for the family to attend, even if Mike and his plainspoken little sister, Toby, don’t want to go. Dad wants Mike to ditch art for sports, to toughen up, but there’s something uneasy behind his demands.

Then Mike meets Sean, the new kid, and “hey” becomes games of basketball, partnering on a French project, hanging out after school. A night at the beach. The fierce colors of sunrise. But Mike’s father is always watching. And so is Victor from school, cell phone in hand.

My Review
I devoured this book in a single sitting. The inside front flap warned me that it would be a heartbreaking read (which meant that before I started, I flipped to the back and read the last chapter, because I’m a total pansy for this stuff, and I need some warning if an author is going to make me fall head over heels for someone and then suddenly/tragically kill them off.) Spoiler: it’s a heartbreaking read. More spoiler: but it’s also got a huge amount of justice in its conclusion.

Emotionally, I feel like to call this one a roller coaster doesn’t even cover it. Someone once described my review content notes as “potential triggers” for readers, a sentiment that I really like, and reading this book made me realize I have a lot of my own triggers that don’t always make it into the list below (and don’t always need to).

I felt a connection with the kind of community where Mike lived in Virginia. It reminded me of my own small southern town, and even though my experience growing up in church felt very different than what Mike experienced, it made me revisit those days and think about the friends I had who struggled to make the same kind of spiritual connection and felt like outsiders in the midst of those services and events. I don’t think I was really sympathetic or aware of what they were experiencing, to be honest, and I hate that, but I feel like it’s important to realize it now, so I can behave differently.

Mike’s dad puts a lot of pressure on him to act in certain ways—it’s clear he’s very concerned about his son’s interests and masculinity, and Mike tries like crazy to please his dad. When his dad finds out that Mike’s been in a relationship with another boy, he sends Mike to InnerPeace, a Christian camp for teens who’ve had gay urges or experiences.

So, conversion therapy.

We see, from Mike’s point-of-view, what this is like and how much more pressure it is, how ineffective it is in terms of changing his feelings, how damaging it could be if he stayed there. Mike’s friend’s mom harshly criticizes his parents for sending Mike there and for their feelings of shame about their son.

On the one hand, the story doesn’t shy away from strong statements and some preachiness. On the other hand, it’s Mike’s internal experience which makes those moments powerful and meaningful. I also really liked the emphasis on Mike’s artistic ability and the way he used art to convey what was meaningful to him, things he struggled to put into words.

I talked about the story having a lot of justice in its conclusion. It’s not a perfect ending. Remember: heartbreak. But in other ways, things go very right. Mike’s mom, who spends much of the story being a bit of a doormat, becomes Mike’s advocate and strongly supports him. He gets good counsel from a therapist, which motivates him to challenge the people who’d been crushing him. A bully who’d been picking on Mike apologizes and seems deeply genuine.

I wish It Looks Like This didn’t have the graphic sexual content and the depiction of kids drinking alcohol that it does. I know, kids do it, even as young as Mike is (he’s fourteen for most of the story). But I find content like that narrows the audience a bit and makes it harder to recommend the story, especially to younger readers. The emotional journey is incredibly compelling, and the characters realistic and moving.

Be warned– the story doesn’t use a lot of quotation marks for dialogue. It’s a style thing, but it seemed to bother some of the other reviewers I’ve seen who posted about this book. I didn’t find it bothersome, but I know some people do.

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Cultural Elements
Sean’s mom is black and his dad is white. Mike’s other friends are white. He describes Victor as naturally tanned. Mike and Sean are both gay.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Mike is keenly aware of his proximity to Sean, and doesn’t at first recognize his feelings for attraction. In one scene, Mike draws Sean, and becomes embarrassed when Sean makes a joke about how he should have posed nude. The boys swim naked in the ocean. In a couple of scenes, they kiss and touch each other. In one scene, one of Mike’s friends confesses that he looks at porn, though he believes it’s a sin and doesn’t want to do it. Later, he shows Mike a couple pages of a magazine he’s hiding in his room, showing a man and woman having sex.

Spiritual Content
Mike’s family attends church regularly. His parents seem pretty committed and like it’s a meaningful experience, though it’s hard to say whether Mike’s dad is more concerned about himself and his family having a good appearance in the church community. Mike and his sister hate going.

When Mike’s parents realize he’s gay, they send him to a Christian camp to deal with his feelings. It’s clear the goal of the camp is for Mike to come home straight. There are a couple of preachy moments where others at camp recite information or reasons against homosexual behavior. For Mike, the experience feels much less about any sort of spirituality and more about pleasing those in authority around him, the same issue he faces at home.

Violent Content
Mike and his friends play Halo together. There are some descriptions of players killing other players. A boy at school repeatedly slams his shoulder into Mike as he walks past. A man punches a teenager and drags him away. One of Mike’s friends tells Mike he punched the boy who was bullying him.

Drug Content
Sean offers Mike beer, and they drink together at his house. Later they drink some wine together. See spoilers below for other information.

Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SPOILER

A local boy is killed in a drunk driving accident after he drinks eight beers and gets behind the wheel of his car.

 

 

 

Review and Giveaway: The Swan Riders by Erin Bow

Book Review and Content, Dystopian or Post-Apocalyptic, Sci-Fi, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , ,

I’m today’s stop on the Swan Riders Blog Tour with Irish Banana Blog Tours. Yay! Check out my review of The Swan Riders, learn about author Erin Bow and stick around for the giveaway information so you can enter to win one of three copies of the book!

The Swan Riders
Erin Bow
Margaret K. McElderry Books
Available September 20,2016

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

About The Swan Riders

Greta Stuart had always known her future: die young. She was her country’s crown princess, and also its hostage, destined to be the first casualty in an inevitable war. But when the war came it broke all the rules, and Greta forged a different path.

She is no longer princess. No longer hostage. No longer human. Greta Stuart has become an AI.

If she can survive the transition, Greta will earn a place alongside Talis, the AI who rules the world. Talis is a big believer in peace through superior firepower. But some problems are too personal to obliterate from orbit, and for those there are the Swan Riders: a small band of humans who serve the AIs as part army, part cult.

Now two of the Swan Riders are escorting Talis and Greta across post-apocalyptic Saskatchewan. But Greta’s fate has stirred her nation into open rebellion, and the dry grassland may hide insurgents who want to rescue her – or see her killed. Including Elian, the boy she saved—the boy who wants to change the world, with a knife if necessary. Even the infinitely loyal Swan Riders may not be everything they seem.

Greta’s fate—and the fate of her world—are balanced on the edge of a knife in this smart, sly, electrifying adventure.

My Review

As soon as I finished The Scorpion Rules (book one in the series) I wanted to read this book. I loved the sweeping view of the world and its complex politics and advanced science. Totally different spin on what-if-AI-ruled-the-world? I loved it.

In the first book, the Swan Riders are these terrifying warriors-slash-messengers. Now that Greta has become AI, the Swan Riders are her soldiers, too. The fact that she had such a complex past with them made her journey with them really intense, too. This is definitely one of those books with lots of layers, and with such tight storytelling that every time I thought I knew how things were going to go, some new conflict entered the picture, ratcheting the stakes up even higher.

Just as in the first book, the writing is deep and often poetic. Love is often star-crossed at best. The story explores the question of what makes us human, and are those qualities assets or liabilities? As one character faces death, others rally to show love and support. It’s such a powerful, human moment. What is more human than to gather with a loved one and do what you can to ease their transition into death and grieve for them? Powerful stuff, and well-incorporated into the story.

The technology elements are well-developed, too, and play an important role in the story. I wouldn’t call this light sci-fi. But it has vibrant characters and a lot of action as well, so I’d venture to say even readers who aren’t super keen on sci-fi would still find plenty about it to enjoy.

If you haven’t read the first book, you’ll want to start there. So much is already in play by the beginning of the second story, I think it’d be hard to catch up. You can find my review of The Scorpion Rules with my notes on content here.

Cultural Elements
Characters represent diverse backgrounds. Greta herself is white. Her lover, Xie, is Asian. Greta and her lover are lesbians. She has African and Asian companions.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Mild, used infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Greta dreams about her experiences with Xie, a girl she left behind in her old life. The dreams are vague but sexual. It’s clear she’s still in love with her. There’s a girl/girl kiss later in the story. Two of the Swan Riders have been in a relationship. One, a girl named Rachel, spends the bulk of the story being controlled by Talis, an AI who was once a man. So some of the pronouns get a little confusing there. Usually the pronoun represents who’s speaking, without regard to the gender of the vessel or body that the AI is using.

Spiritual Content
Xie is considered a goddess by her people.

Violent Content
Brief battle scenes. A boy stabs a Swan Rider. Greta remembers being tortured with an apple press. There are other threats of torture. At one point, a Rider who is terminally ill asks another Rider to end her life in a ceremonial way.

Drug Content
None.

Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

About Erin Bow

Web Site | Twitter | Facebook | Tumblr

Hi! My name is Erin Bow — physicist turned poet turned author of young adult novels that will make you cry on the bus. I’m a white girl, forty-something, feminist, geeky enough to do the Vulcan salute with both hands — in public. I live in Canada. I love to cook, hate to clean, and yes, I do own a cat.

In the beginning, I was a city girl from farm country—born in Des Moines and raised in Omaha—where I was fond of tromping through wood lots and reading books by flashlight. In high school I captained the debate team, founded the math club, and didn’t date much.

In university I studied particle physics, and worked briefly at the European Centre for Nuclear Research (CERN) near Geneva, Switzerland. Physics was awesome, but graduate school kind of sucked, and at some point I remembered that I wanted to write books.

Books: I have six of them — three novels, and two volumes of poetry and a memoir (the poetry under my maiden name, Erin Noteboom). My poetry has won the CBC Canadian Literary Award, and several other awards. My two novels, Plain Kate and Sorrow’s Knot, also have a fistful of awards, including Canada’s top award for children’s literature, the TD. The third novel, The Scorpion Rules, still faces its award season. No one read the memoir.

Right now I’m looking forward to the publication of my fourth novel, a companion piece to The Scorpion Rules called The Swan Riders, which will be out September 20 from Simon & Schuster. I’m at work on an new an entirely different novel, and a book of poetry about science.

Did you notice I got to Canada in there somewhere? Yeah, that was true love. I’m married to a Canadian boy, James Bow, who also writes young adult novels. We have two small daughters, both of whom want to be scientists.

Visit the Other Stops on the Swan Riders Tour

Week 1:

9/12: Fangs and Fur Fantasy Book Review – Review
9/13: The Cover Contessa – Guest Post
9/14: Live to Read – Review
9/15: Such A Novel Idea – Q&A
9/16: Intellectual Recreation – Review

Week 2:

9/19: Novel Ink – Q&A
9/20: The Story Sanctuary – Review – You are here!
9/21: Book Stacks Amber – Playlist
9/22: Lisa Loves Literature – Review
9/23: A Backwards Story – Q&A

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