Felix Abarca Abarca থেকে Jonnada, Andhra Pradesh 533233, India
First of all, I would highly advice folks not to listen to the audiobook. The narrator reads the whole novel as if she is reading about the most grim, depressing thing ever, when it is supposed to be a teen love story (a teen love story with some sadness/confusion/drama, but isn't that part of most teen love stories? or love stories in general?). I never was able to fully stop thinking about the narrator, which sucks cause I was definitely not thinking about how good she was. I had to turn the volume up very loud to understand her on my car stereo (I'm coming to think this might just be true of a lot--but not all--of audiobooks with female narrators on my stereo in general, which is really irritating). The one benefit of the audiobook is that the Q&A with Nancy Garden at the end of the book is actually done by Nancy Garden, and it's cool to hear her talk. I'm sure this is in print form in the current version of the print book too, but it was cool to hear her voice. I also appreciated that as she was talking about how great it is that there are such a variety of good books for/about queer youth, she said that she was really hoping to see more books about trans youth in the future--a sentiment which I more than agree with and was happy to hear someone who actually has a voice in that kind of literature say it out loud. The books was good. It takes place in a very different world than most people in the US live in almost 30 years after it was written. Then again, I think it takes place in a very different world than most people in the US at the time it was written lived in too, as the main character comes from a really wealthy family and goes to this really uppity private school (I went to private school, but mine was nothing compared to how annoying and pretentious her school was) and the main character is totally scandalized and gives a really weird account of public schools when she visits a friend for a day that makes them seem kind of deranged. Apart from the kind of weird (and maybe slightly unintentionally so) setting, the story was great. I think it probably paved the way for a lot of the exciting LGBTQ teen lit coming out now. There were a couple parts that just made me cringe out of the sheer embarrassment of being able to relate to or imagine what it would be like to be in the situation the teens are in at that point in the book, which, even though it was hard to read, was really awesome because it is so real and done really well. It's a cute book. I kind of tend to gag a little when teenage love is treated as if the kids are going to stay together the rest of their lives (can't teens just be teens and go through relationships and heartbreak and stuff instead of having to find their one true love at such a young age?) but I think that's more of a personal kind of annoyance and in the story and what she was trying to accomplish and the time it was written, I think it was appropriate. I more read this--or re-read it, as I had read it when I was a teen, which was almost 20 years after it was written, but still before, or just before LGBTQ teen fiction had become this huge genre where there are more titles than I can keep track of. At the time, this was one of 5 or maybe almost 10 LGBTQ YA novels I could find in the library--as kind of a throw-back to the roots of the whole LGBTQ YA genre that is so massive now, to kind of re-visit its roots.
One of the greatest plays to ever break your heart.