Boyfriends with Girlfriends

Sanchez, Alex. Boyfriends with Girlfriends. Simon & Schuster BFYR, 2011.

Lance is gay. Sergio is bisexual.  Allie's had a boyfriend for years, but their relationship isn't going anywhere.  Kimiko is a lesbian.  Add to this that Kimiko's and Sergio's families don't support them in their orientations, Lance doesn't believe in bisexuality, and Allie is a manga-holic who loves everything Japanese (including Kimiko).  The four protagonists try to navigate through high school while defining themselves and what they believe about sexuality.

I read this book because it is one of the few YA books available that actually contains bisexual characters. The characters in this book are really stereotypical, which I found irritating. Also, the book kind of reads like an after school special on bisexuality.  It would be wonderful to find a book where one or more characters was bisexual and it wasn't a big deal. We've gotten there with gay and lesbian characters, but I'm still waiting for a book with a bisexual character where the book isn't trying to teach everyone about bisexuality.  Also, it bothered me that Allie and Lance, the two white kids, were best friends, while Sergio and Kimiko, the two minorities, were best friends. Overall, the story is pretty typical Sanchez, with lots of teen drama and a Disney-esque ending.  Not a bad beach read.

Recommended for: teens

Red Flags: lots of sex and mentions of sex, even though it isn't graphic

Overall Rating: 2/5 stars

Notes from the Blender

Cook, Trish and Brandon Halpin. Notes from the Blender. Egmont USA, 2011.

Declan's aunts run a church where Declan works on occasion.  It's in that same church that he runs into Neilly, his soon-to-be stepsister.  Neilly's mom is marrying Declan's dad, while Neilly's dad is marrying another man.  Declan, a death metal fan who spends his time playing violent video games, must learn to get along with Neilly, a popular girl who's also an accomplished gymnast.   Their two worlds collide as their parents move in together and plan to marry.

I didn't really like either of the main characters in this story, but I did enjoy watching the hijinks as their personalities clashed and then they (inevitably) learned to like each other in spite of their differences. This book is filled with teen drama: Neilly loses her boyfriend when he kisses her best friend, and then loses her best friend as well.  Declan has had a crush on Neilly for a long time and can't imagine living in the same house with her.  Neilly's dad attends Declan's aunts' church.  This book is chock full of crazy, but somehow the crazy all works.

Recommended for: teens, fans of LGBTQIA lit

Red Flags: Declan is a horny teenage boy.  He watches porn online and talks about wanting to see Neilly naked.  He also plays very violent video games and listens to death metal.  At one point, Neilly comes home to find her mom and soon-to-be stepdad wearing only towels.

Overall Rating: 4/5 stars

Maggot Moon

Gardner, Sally. Maggot Moon. Candlewick, 2013.

Standish Treadwell lives in the Motherland, where everything is very tightly controlled. People live on the edge of poverty, and access to information is very limited.  Everyone is preparing for the lunar landing, when Standish and his friend find one of the moon men. What if everything they've been told their entire lives is a lie?

The narrative style and lack of background information in this book frustrated me.  I wanted to enjoy it and understand it better, but it was hard to get into.  I did enjoy the plot twists and the climax of the story, even if they were both pretty predictable.  I think it would have helped, with a setting so different from ours, if the author had spent more time world-building and introducing the characters before launching into the plot.  An interesting read, nonetheless.

Recommended for: teens, especially strong readers

Red Flags: none

Overall Rating: 3/5 stars

The Sin Eater's Confession

Bick, Ilsa. The Sin Eater's Confession. Carolrhoda Books, 2013.

Ben is in the army, and he thinks he's going to die on his next mission, so he's taking time to confess everything before he heads out.  When Ben was in high school, Jimmy was beaten to death because some people suspected he might be gay.  Ben saw what happened and never told; since then he has felt responsible for Jimmy's death.

I didn't really like this book.  Ben's mother has been running his life, which is not an atypical storyline for a young adult novel, but Ben doesn't have that epiphany where he takes his life back and starts making his own decisions.  Also, he's obsessed with telling the reader, as well as anyone else who will listen, that he is. not. gay.  Perhaps he's deeply closeted, but if so, then he's still closeted at the end of the book.  And the whole church coffee shop and religious musical group and homophobic pastor thing is weird, too, especially since Ben's family isn't religious. This book rambles a bit, like a confession would, but it's not very engaging. I didn't like any of the characters, and I didn't get to know Jimmy well enough to do anything but feel a bit sorry for him.  Overall, this book felt like Absolute Brightness, but without the heart.

Recommended for: teens

Red Flags: alcohol use, profanity, graphic scenes when Jimmy is killed

Overall Rating: 2 1/2 stars out of 5

The Language Inside

Thompson, Holly. The Language Inside. Delacorte, 2013.

Emma's family lived in Japan for most of her life, but when Emma's mom is diagnosed with breast cancer, her family moves back to New England so her mom can be treated at a hospital while the kids stay with family members. Everyone expects Emma to love being back in the States, but Emma misses Japan and wishes she were there to help her friends clean up after the earthquake. Emma volunteers at a hospital where she meets a woman who can only communicate with her eyes. Together they use poetry to open up and express themselves.

This book is written in free verse, which I don't usually appreciate since it seems that some authors use free verse to make their book different or cool, when actually they're still writing in prose, just with oddly broken lines. This book is no exception. I would have loved this story in standard prose format, but in free verse it seemed a bit inaccessible. The references to Japanese culture were interesting, as was Emma's relationship with the Cambodian boy that she meets. I would have liked to have heard more about how the dance to raise money for Japan went over, and I would have liked to get to know the other characters better. It wasn't a bad story at all; it just wasn't great.

Recommended for: fans of free verse; people interested in learning about Asian cultures

Red Flags: none

Overall Rating: 3/5 stars