If you’re looking for a book full of action and adventure, or fantasy fun, this isn’t the book for you. This fits squarely into the category of slice-of-life. Sometimes, that’s a nice thing to read. It’s not usually my jam, but as you may know, I will try anything once (with the exception of a certain illegal drug). I think this book was as enjoyable as it was because of the characters.
Once again, this book is set at a boarding school - this one all girls. While our main character is a day student, we do get to see the inside of a couple of boarding rooms, and experience the rules and regulations that the girls are subjected to. Having been a day student at a boarding school, it did feel like being back there! Our MC has been sent to this new school because she got caught drinking at her last school, and her parents wanted to get her back on track. She has been sent to live with her grandmother, who is a teacher at the school. For the beginning of the book, June is very upset, as she has been taken away from her best friend, Jess. June doesn’t want to move on, or interact with her new classmates, or her grandmother; she just wants to message Jess, and speed through the time in order to get back to her. Obviously, things change, and her mindset adjusts slowly over the book. Sarah Van Name has done a fantastic job of character development here; it felt so incredibly genuine. Most of us don’t wake up one day and see all of the things wrong with ourselves and our lives, we tend to come to this realisation slowly, as things outside of ourselves change. In this book, the photography class that June takes acts as a parallel metaphor of how her view changes, and it’s done so very well. It’s not heavy handed, doesn’t force itself down your throat. The relationships of June with the people around her also change, and it too feels natural. LGBT+ rep in this book was good too! Two of our main characters are in a same sex relationship - one is a lesbian, the other bisexual, and it’s really great to see characters like this where the coming out isn’t the main focus of the story - it’s just how they are, and that’s that! There’s not a lot left to say about this book, it honestly speaks for itself. I found myself highlighting multiple passages and sending them to my flatmate, it was that well written that I needed to share it. There’s not a lot of content warnings needed, other than underage alcohol consumption and discussions of PDA. Overall Rating: 5 stars
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When CeCe’s boyfriend dumps her after sex, telling her he needs to focus on himself and his relationship with God, she decides that the best way to change his mind is to follow him to Church Camp – surely if she spends her summer pretending to get closer to God, Ethan will take her back, right? But then she meets his “Summer Girlfriend”, and, yes, you guessed it, decides to fake a relationship of her own in order to make him jealous…
I’m not going to lie. I picked up this book expecting to absolutely hate it. It had all the signs of being a fluffy, terrible story, where the main character ends up back with someone who clearly doesn’t deserve them. Y’all, I. Was. WRONG! This books turned out to be hilarious, wholesome, informative, sex-positive, consent-positive, LGBT friendly (or, at least, not homophobic despite being set at a born-again Jesus Camp), female-friendship positive, self-care focused and basically just amazing. If you’re looking for an honest, funny, surprisingly-light-despite-the-topics YA read, this one is for you! When I saw that it was set at a Christian camp, I was a little worried. It’s actually one of the reasons I picked it up, because I was worried that it might be a contentious pick for my YA section - something I might get complaints about. Well, I may, but not for the reasons I thought! Our main character, CeCe, goes to Church camp for all the wrong reasons. She had sex with her boyfriend, and he dumped her, for God. At least, that’s what he told her. So she went to convince him that she is religious and godly, and that he should rethink the breakup. Turns out, he wasn’t the greatest person. I have been seeing a lot of flawed characters in YA lately, and when it’s done well - problematic behaviour discussed and corrected or at least thought about comprehensively - it’s great. We as humans are flawed, and it’s good to have a break from the never-had-a-flyaway-always-got-the-boy/girl/friends/money type. (I will add a caveat here. If you want an example of a flawed YA character that DOESN’T get redeemed… try Sierra Burgess is a Loser on Netflix. Not great.) This book actually allows CeCe to examine her own flaws and failings, and work to overcome them. While she doesn't necessarily become a perfect person over night, she does actually try, and she manages this without giving up a huge part of her personality. So why might I get complaints? Well, in a camp specifically for Christian kids, where the “lessons” are more about waiting for marriage and following the teachings of the church to the letter, no thinking required… CeCe ends up holding unofficial sessions that talk about masterbation, sex, consent, homosexuality and more. While she goes into the camp experience thinking Christians are al brainwashed and stupid, as she learns more about her bunk mates (read: future friends), she realises that the stereotypical, waiting-for-marriage, gays-are-bad etc Christian is no longer as fitting as it once might have been. We also get some wonderful discussions about religion as well - not conversion-y type conversations (although some of the counsellors may be) - more about how different people can worship in different methods, and that THAT’S OKAY! There are minor characters who hint at being LGBT+, though we don;t learn a lot about them, but I am including this book as LGBT+ because they discuss religion in a way that may over helpful thoughts to those who are struggling to reconcile their faith with their sexual identity. Oh, and Paul. Our wonderful, male but active female-ally leads some important conversations about consent. Seriously? Just read it. I can’t sum it up well enough in one post, or as well as the author has written it. Content Warning: descriptions of sex and genitals, Christian themes (camp is quite conservative but it doesn’t get forced down your throat!) Overall Rating: 4.5 stars Simone is a Black teenager who was born with HIV. With two fathers (Black and Latinx), she’s already different from most of her peers. After being outed at her old school as HIV+, Simone is keen to keep things under wraps at her new school – dealing with the fallout once was enough. But then she begins to fall for Miles, and starts dating him, someone begins leaving notes in her locker – Tell him, or I’ll tell everyone.
This book was complex. I did have a feeling at the beginning of the book that the author may have been trying a little too hard to get as many diverse characters into the story as fast as possible, though I do understand that this is in fact how life works! It just seemed as if we were getting “diverse placeholders” instead of actual people with personalities we could root for. I did eventually become invested in most of the characters, so that was good. The storyline was simple, in that it was a slice of life, and I knew who the person leaving the notes was relatively early on. It was still a good read, and one I will be recommending, because HIV is not a topic that we see discussed in YA lit a whole lot, and when we do, it’s often historical (set during the AIDS crisis), or used as a plot point- eg someone gets AIDS from a partner/hospital and has to learn how to deal with/live with that. While these are both important, it was a breath of fresh air to have it be a part of someone, something they had grown up with. There were some complexities around friendship in this book as well, which I thought were handled well. The bi-erasure by an LGBT+ friend was a bit painful, but it was talked about and resolved in a good way. I also liked that there was an overarching message around taking a step back and seeing WHY someone is lashing out, rather than simply reacting to the behaviour. Many, many important topics covered in this book. We delve into HIV, how and when the virus can be contracted; masturbation; sex; safe sex; contraception; standing up for friends; sexuality; reasons why people lash out; all on a backdrop of a standard high school and their drama department. #ownvoices: QUILTBAG, WOC Content Warning: See above final paragraph, hospitals, mild bi-erasure. Overall Rating: 4 stars Marin is a good student, a good friend, a good girlfriend. She’s on track to head to Brown - top of her
college wish list - and everything seems to be going perfectly. Until one day, her hot, young English teacher invites her upstairs to collect a book from his apartment… and kisses her. This book touched on a number of really important topics. Marin does everything right after the encounter with Bex (her hot male English teacher and the staff member attached to her Newspaper extra curricular). She speaks out, telling the principal, her parents, and her best friend, Chloe. While her parents are outraged, and her principal insists that of course the school will look into the allegations, her discussion with Chloe is less positive. When Chloe suggests that perhaps Marin “was confused” or “misread the situation”, Marin is understandably upset. The friendship between the two suffers from this point on, with Marin unable to fathom how her closest friend could say such a thing. One night, she compiles a list of Rules for Being a Girl - many contradictory as well as sexist - and publishes it as an editorial piece in her school newspaper. The backlash of both the sexual harassment accusation and the feminist editorial leads Marin to form new friendships, re-assess her own part in the treatment of other students at her school, and see the overall bigger picture. “...mostly I’m just sort of numb. It’s like I keep waiting for some cinematic moment to signal I’m totally over everything that happened, that means it’s all done and dusted. But the hard, frustrating reality is that all I can do is move on one day at a time.” I appreciated that Marin didn’t just get over it, that the authors included all the small ripples her allegation caused. Just stepping up and saying something happened is never the end of the story. Did I feel that this book could easily be twice the length? Yes! Did that matter? Not too much. I felt like I was left with a desire to read some of the books and essays the Feminist Book Club talk about, which I believe is a good thing! Wanting to learn more after reading a novel is never a bad thing. I hope it will inspire more young people to do the same. Marin was a strong character, and though she may have run away from her problems at time, and lashed out at times, this only served to make her feel more realistic. While I can see that some people would simply read this and scoff, saying that she was a jumped-up-feminist, I think that kind of proves the authors point. We need to step out of our bubbles to see the harm being inflicted on others (the feminist book club discuss the fact that the girls volleyball team, despite being reigning champions, have to make their own way to their games, while the lacrosse boys get a school- sponsored bus; they also discuss the discrepancies in oft-cited figures, such as average salaries, where the ‘female’ examples given are most often those of white females, not all females). I was also glad to have what felt like a genuine portrayal of a relative with Alzheimer s ( not that I can speak to close personal experience, but I do have some anecdotal experience through loosely connected family). It wasn’t made a big scene of, but also added to the story in a way that didn’t feel like a) a diversity insert, or b) a way to fill space. Content Warning - slut shaming, gas-lighting, Alzheimer's, racial discrimination, sexual discrimination, sexual assault Overall Rating - 4 stars We follow the lives of two characters, Eric and Morgan – born the same day in a hospital in the middle of a snowstorm - meeting them each birthday from age thirteen to age eighteen. Each time we meet them we get a snapshot of where they are in life, and where they have been the last 12 months. When we first meet Morgan, Morgan is struggling. Not only has Morgan’s mother recently died, but Morgan is becoming more and more certain that although the outer body presents as male, she is, and always has been, a female.
This book gave me all the feels. I was hooked from the first moment, when Morgan tries for the very first time to explain out loud what they are coming to realise: that Morgan is a girl, and not a boy, regardless of what she looks like on the outside. I was unsure how the telling of this tale would work – it’s split between two points of view, Eric and Morgan – as it is spread out over a long period of time, with the reader only touching base with the characters in the few days surrounding their birthday each year. We only see them at 6 different points in their lives, and I was unsure if we would get enough information to fully connect with the characters. I was wrong. Meredith Russo is a standout author. I was so intrigued by her use of distinct voice for the two main characters, and how she managed to keep Eric’s voice consistent, while changing the voice of Morgan as we move through the book. There was a clear change from when Morgan was trying to accept that she was a girl in a boy’s body, to when she tried her hardest to simply accept that she was a boy. It was honestly remarkable. If you haven’t read anything by Meredith Russo, I highly recommend her. Being #ownvoices gives this book additional gravitas and… I don’t have the words to do it justice. It was a quick read, for me, but it had a lasting impact and I have recommended it to many people! Content Warning: sexuality, transphobia, violence, discussions of sex #ownvoices - trans Overall Rating: 5 stars |