Category Archives: 2011 Reviews

September 28, 2011 · 2:00 PM

Review: Tension City by Jim Lehrer

Tension City: Inside the Presidential Debates, from Kennedy-Nixon to Obama-McCain
by Jim Lehrer
Published 2011 by Random House
Ebook received for review from publisher via Netgalley
Read September 2011
224 pages

Why I Read This Book: Although this book was featured at BEA and I wanted to pick up a copy, it didn’t quite work out that way. In fact I didn’t even realize it was on Netgalley until I did a search on there for “Nixon.” Because that’s how I roll. (I’m currently having a read-all-about-Nixon thing; see my Nixon Reading List.)

The Nixon Connection: Since the Nixon part of the title is what initially drew me to the book, I feel like I should take a moment to mention the quality of the, uh, Nixon content. It’s rather lack luster, mostly a paragraph or two about how folks who watched the Nixon-Kennedy debate on television thought Kennedy won and how those who listened to the debate on the radio thought Nixon won. It brings nothing new to the table.

The rest of it: Jim Lehrer has moderated eleven presidential candidate debates, so many that Bernard Shaw has called him The Dean of Moderators*. In Tension City, Lehrer reflects on the history of the debates as well as his own time moderating them.

As might be expected, the book is most vivid and engaging when Lehrer is discussing his own experience; this section of the book reads as a memoir, complete with behind-the-scenes information and reflection. When Lehrer writes about historical debates that he was not a part of, however, the narration sags under the weight of Lehrer’s obvious boredom with events of which he was not involved.

Tension City tries at once to be both history and memoir and suffers for it. If Lehrer had focused on his own memories of the debates he moderated and his discussions with the presidential candidates, Tension City would be a great book. Instead, it’s a decent read with some interesting tidbits.

Grade: B-
Recommended if you like: Memoirs, insider-tales, journalism, politics

4 Comments

Filed under 2011 Reviews, B, E-Book, Non-Fiction

September 9, 2011 · 9:17 AM

Review: Women of the Mean Streets edited by J.M. Redmann & Greg Herren

 Women of the Mean Streets
edited by J.M. Redmann and Greg Herren
Published August 2011 by Bold Strokes Books
E-Galley received for review from publisher via Netgalley
Read July 2011
288 pages

According to the synopsis, Women of the Mean Streets is “an anthology of some of the top, tough women crime writers today, noir stories with a lesbian twist.” The thing is, some of the stories, like ”Den of Iniquity” by Lori L. Lake, that are missing the “lesbian twist.” There are about three of these stories in the collection, and two of them are about sexual violence (the other suggests that sexual violence was an issue). I found that interesting, if a bit frustrating.

Some of my favorite stories in the collection:

“A.R.M. and the Woman” by Laura Lippman

  • Summary: After divorcing her husband, Sally Holt is shocked to find that she needs to come up with one million dollars in order to keep her house. When her attempts at finding a man to take care of her (well, of the money) don’t work out, she turns to a lonely housewife named Lynette.
  • Reaction: I’m not going to lie, I was pleasantly surprised to see a story by Laura Lippman included in this collection. Sally’s manipulation of Lynette is awe-inspiring, if you ever felt like being a criminal mastermind.

“The Economics of Desire: A Cautionary Tale” by  Jeane Harris

  • Summary: There are four interlocking vignettes in this story, featuring women who are being taken for all their worth by the women they think love them.
  • Reaction:
“I pointed that out. She said it’s called ‘change,” which we would know if we ever left the house. She said all we do is sit on our patio and barbecue.”
“We do so change. We went to San Francisco last year instead of Pronvincetown. That’s change.” (p. 59)
This story really brought on the giggles. I’m a terrible person.

“Some Kind of Killing” by Miranda Kent

  • Reaction: This was one of those stories where there actually isn’t a lesbian involved–the main character is a thirteen-year-old girl who may or may not have slain her whole family–but it may be the best written of all the stories in the collection. It’s definitely the creepiest. It kind of makes me shudder just thinking about it. Certainly the sign of a good story, no?

Despite the outlying stories that didn’t quite fit within the guidelines of the anthology, Women of the Mean Streets was both entertaining and creepy, as all good noir should be.

Grade: B

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Filed under 2011 Reviews, B, E-Book, GLBTQ, Mystery

September 6, 2011 · 10:08 AM

THOUGHTS: Shelter by Harlan Coben

 Shelter: A Mickey Bolitar Novel
by Harlan Coben
Published TODAY! September 6, 2011 by Putnam Juvenile
ARC received (and signed!) at BEA
Read May 2011
288 pages

From IndieBound:

Mickey Bolitar’s year can’t get much worse. After witnessing his father’s death and sending his mom to rehab, he’s forced to live with his estranged uncle Myron and switch high schools.

A new school comes with new friends and new enemies, and lucky for Mickey, it also comes with a great new girlfriend, Ashley. For a while, it seems like Mickey’s train-wreck of a life is finally improving – until Ashley vanishes without a trace. Unwilling to let another person walk out of his life, Mickey follows Ashley’s trail into a seedy underworld that reveals that this seemingly sweet, shy girl isn’t who she claimed to be. And neither was Mickey’s father. Soon, Mickey learns about a conspiracy so shocking that it makes high school drama seem like a luxury – and leaves him questioning everything about the life he thought he knew.

Here’s the thing about Harlan Coben: I trust the guy. I mean, except for that one totally strange Myron Bolitar novel*, all of his books have been thoroughly enjoyable. I know what I’m getting into when I pick up a Coben mystery: witty, smart writing and a solid mystery. I may or may not have read all his books. OKAY I HAVE READ ALL HIS BOOKS.

So I was absolutely THRILLED when I found out ARCs of Shelter would be at BEA. I was so excited, I read the whole book on the train ride home from New York. All you need to know from me is: it’s just as good as any of the best Harlan Coben novels. And if you’re not yet a Harlan Coben fan, you will be after this book. Trust me.

Grade: A

Also recommended: The Myron Bolitar series. If you like witty mysteries, do yourself a favor and check them out. If I was going to heterosexually marry any fictional former basketball player-turned-sports agent, I’d marry Myron Bolitar. I can’t think of a better endorsement.

*The one with the TERRORISTS. Ammirite?

2 Comments

Filed under 2011 Reviews, A, Print, Young Adult Fiction

September 5, 2011 · 4:20 PM

THOUGHTS: The Borrower by Rebecca Makkai

The Borrower
by Rebecca Makkai
Published June 2011 by Viking Adult
Borrowed from the library
Read July 2011
336 pages

If you heard that an adult had taken a child, without permission from his parents, on a cross-country road trip, whom do you think would be at fault for that, the adult or the child? In The Borrower, author by Rebecca Makkai makes the case that the answer to this question could possibly be open to interpretation.

As an absurdly unqualified children’s librarian, Lucy Hull finds little to enjoy about her job in small town Missouri; her one joy is her precocious ten-year-old patron Ian Drake. Ian loves to read, but his religious parents limit his reading selections to books they feel are appropriate for a young boy (emphasis on the boy–books with anything vaguely feminine, ie anything not specifically about sports or featuring The Hardy Boys, is out). Lucy, a privileged young woman with some intense White Liberal Guilt, is shocked and outraged. She sneaks him books that aren’t on his parents’ approved list.

This setup is working okay for Lucy until she find a piece of paper with a clip of an email that Ian’s mother had sent (yes it’s that complicated), and finds out that Ian is being sent to a program that is supposed to reaffirm traditional gender roles. Oh yes, I forgot to mention: everyone (including adults other than his parents)  is convinced Ian is gay because he likes to read, doesn’t enjoy playing sports, and sometimes enjoys dancing. Did I mention that Ian is 10? Do we really need to assume sexual orientation of children, be it straight or gay or bi or what have you, when they are 10 years old?

The few gay characters (or, in Ian’s case, assumed to be gay because of “masculine deficiency”)  in this novel are there specifically as a plot device. We have three tropes:

  1. The Innocent One: Ian, whom Lucy must protect because, well, because she has White Liberal Guilt, I guess.
  2. The Victim: Lucy is inspired to “save” Ian because she is convinced that she is the reason her high school friend, a young gay man, committed suicide. Because she hadn’t talked to him in the three or four years between high school and the time he died. Because Lucy is Very Important and obviously is the entire reason anyone does anything.
  3. Entertainers: The men who own the building Lucy lives in also run a theater. They are often in drag and they often say oh-so-silly things to Lucy.
It will come as no surprise to you that I did not exactly enjoy this book. I don’t see how it could possibly have been Ian, a TEN-YEAR-OLD BOY, who is at fault for the illegal road trip, considering LUCY IS AN ADULT. I do not see why it is necessary to use an ill-fated “saving the gays from themselves” message to give Lucy her “coming of age” moment.

On a more positive note, look at this cover! It’s adorable! The Borrower has a really excellent cover. It really appeals to my bibliophiliac inclinations.

Grade: C-

15 Comments

Filed under 2011 Reviews, C, Fiction, GLBTQ, Print

August 11, 2011 · 7:15 AM

Historical Fiction Book Tour: Eromenos by Melanie McDonald

Eromenos
by Melanie McDonald
Published March 2011 by Seriously Good Books
Received for review from the author for Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours
172 pages
Read August 2011

Not much is known of the brief life of Antinous, chosen favorite of Hadrian, Emperor of Rome, and in Eromenos, Melanie McDonald presents her idea of what might have been. The facts are thus: Antinous, a Greek by birth, became part of Hadrian’s circle at a young age; he became Hadrian’s preferred companion and they most probably had a sexual relationship; and upon Antinous’s mysterious drowning in the Nile at 18 or 19, Hadrian had the boy proclaimed a god and temples and statues were built in Antinous’s honor. Eromenos is written as Antinous’s secret diary, and it ends with his proclamation that he will sacrifice himself for Hadrian.

The unruly power dynamics implicit in the relationship between the very young, poor, Greek Antinous and Hadrian, the patrician ruler of the Roman Empire, are interesting, but they weren’t explored with the depth I was hoping. The sex scenes between Hadrian and Antinous, while written sparsely and do attempt to highlight this unbreakable tilt of power between the man and the young boy, are still hard to read because they are also scenes of rape. Antinous tells the reader:

After a moment, I realized what he wanted. [...] It was what one sometimes engaged in with a prostitute, or perhaps a servant or younger classmate. I was no slave, no girl, and this act I expected, anticipated, being done only to me, for me. By the Roman code, I knew, such submission was not asked of a partner, for it demeaned him. [p. 72]

Beyond this quick history lesson on how the folks in ancient Rome felt about a certain sexual act, we don’t get much more of a discussion from Antinous on his feelings of the matter. He quickly “matures” and comes to accept and enjoy the encounters.

An overarching weakness with Eromenos is that while McDonald is clearly quite knowledgeable about ancient Rome, she is heavy handed with her attempts to impart her facts on the reader. At one point, for instance, Hadrian recites “from memory” his dialogue with Epicteus, Questions and Answers, the full text of which is included in an Appendix, at a dinner party. Obviously I can’t say that Hadrian never did such a thing, but it seemed out of place for the story being told.

I’m sorry to say that Eromenos simply wasn’t the book for me. I seem to be alone in this opinion, however: to see what other participants in the tour thought about the book, check out the tour schedule.

Thanks to Amy of Passages to the Past for the opportunity to read Eromenos!

7 Comments

Filed under 2011 Reviews, Fiction, GLBTQ, Print

August 10, 2011 · 7:24 AM

REVIEW: Gemini Bites by Patrick Ryan

Gemini Bites
by Patrick Ryan
Published March 2011 by Scholastic Press
Borrowed from Library
240 pages
Read June 2011

Guess what? This book features TWINS! I bet you never would have guessed. Judy and Kyle Renneker are part of the rather large Renneker brood, and they don’t get along at all. Judy is suddenly Very Religious has been attending Bible study sessions–but unbeknownst to her family, it’s all an act so she can flirt with a cute guy. Judy’s been giving Kyle, who recently came out (to very accepting parents), a particularly rough time, capitalizing on her “religiousness” to take out her anger on her brother (for something unrelated to being gay).

Amid this sibling rivalry, the Parents Renneker have offered to let GARRET JOHNSON stay at the house for a month so he can finish up the school year before having to move. Yes, THAT Garret Johnson that you heard about in biology class–the creepy one who may or may not be a VAMPIRE. And you know what vampires will do, right? LEAVE TWO IDENTICAL MARKS WHEN THEY BITE YOU! Oh, it’s too much to handle, I know. Once Garrett moves in, Judy and Kyle both develop crushes on him, and the real battle of the twins gets going: who will get him? And will they follow him into the AFTERLIFE?

Gemini Bites is not a book that works well when summarized. It sounds campy and ridiculous–but it’s actually an original, funny, endearing book about first love and the strains of sibling rivalry.

SPOILER ALERT From the beginning, it’s pretty clear that there are no real vampires in the world of Gemini Bites, but Ryan manages to keep you guessing anyhow, which I appreciated. When all is revealed at the end, you don’t feel let down as much as amused that you could have possibly thought vampires could be real. END SPOILER

Gemini Bites is my favorite LGBTQ young adult novel that I have read this year. Do yourself a favor and pick this one up.

Grade: B+
Recommended: To fans of YA novels
Also recommended: Ryan’s 2009 book In Mike We Trust, another great read.

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Filed under 2011 Reviews, B, GLBTQ, Print, Young Adult Fiction

August 8, 2011 · 7:02 AM

REVIEW: Who Is Ana Mendieta? by Christine Redfern and Caro Caron


Who Is Ana Mendieta?
by Christine Redfern and Caro Caron
Published 2010 by Feminist Press
Received for review from Feminist Press
55 pages
Read June 2011

I don’t often read about art. Art just isn’t my thing the way, say, Presidential history has been. That being said, the first book explicitly about art that I remember reading was Bitches, Bimbos, and Ballbreakers: The Guerrilla Girls’ Illustrated Guide to Female Stereotypes (Penguin 2003), which I bought and read when I was in high school. Its feminist take on art history got me excited about art for the first time, and led me to take an (ill fated) Art & Music History course in high school (not nearly as interesting, although I also took a course in college called Women & Art which was much better). When I received Who Is Ana Mendieta? in the mail from Feminist Press and saw a quote on the cover from the very same Guerrilla Girls, I did a little happy dance* and read it immediately.

Ana Mendieta was sent with her sister to the United States by their parents in 1962 to escape Fidel Castro’s rule in Cuba. Mendieta created art in several mediums, and is best known for her “earth-body” work. In 1985 she died from injuries sustained after falling from her bedroom window following a fight with her husband, Carl Andre; he stood trial for her murder and was acquitted, after arguing that he was not in the room at the time.

There is a lot to love in this little book. Redfern’s story encompasses both Mendieta’s life as well as the violent situations of other contemporary female artists. By artfully (heh) contextualizing Mendieta’s life, the reader is able to more fully grasp not only the mores of the time but the implications of being a female artist in a world that over-congratulates male violence and exhibitionism. Caron’s illustrations are rich with detail, and often panels merge into one another, adding to the overall contextuality of the writing.

At the end, there is an annotated bibliography entitled “Blind Spot,” which presents the resources used (including newspaper articles, phone records, poetry, etc.), laid out like a newspaper and featuring more of Canon’s stellar drawings. It sealed the deal for me (by reaching out to my nerdier, fact-collecting side). I adored Who Is Ana Mendieta? and if you are anything like me and want to know more about art but have no idea about anything, this book is a great, engaging way to start learning.

Grade: A
Recommended: Highly!

*it happens

10 Comments

Filed under 2011 Reviews, A, Gender Studies, GLBTQ, Non-Fiction, Print

July 25, 2011 · 9:08 AM

Review: Firestorm by Radclyffe

Firestorm (A First Responders Novel)
by Radclyffe
Published July 2011 by Bold Strokes Books
Ebook received for review from publisher via Netgalley
Read July 2011

Note: This is a romance novel and I can’t write about it without mentioning the sex scenes.

I don’t often read romance novels. I do, however, have a history with them: I used to sneak my aunt’s Harlequin novels when I was in middle school, and in high school I was really into the Helen Fielding/Jane Green/Jennifer Weiner school of romance–but once I got to college and was all “Oh, right, gay,” I stopped reading romance out of pure necessity.

Lesbian romance novels seemed to follow a singular, frustrating pattern: girl meets girl; girls share soft, loving kisses and fall in love; some jerk-off attacks them in a homophobic rage; girls break up; girls get back together after much hand-wringing over the difficulties of being ho-mo-sexuals. This isn’t to say that all lesbian romance novels are like this, because I definitely didn’t read widely within the genre (after two or three cringe-inducing books, I gave them up entirely) but the ones I read definitely didn’t inspire me to read further.

So what made me read Firestorm, a lesbian romance by one of the most prolific authors of the genre? I was suddenly, after like 10 years, in the mood to read ROMANCE*. I may or may not have downloaded and read a Harlequin novel on my nook (ahem) and I may or may not have also downloaded and read a  Jennifer Crusie** novel (ahem), both of which may have been entertaining (the Crusie novel much more so) but ultimately they didn’t make me feel all romancey***, because while I might want to meet a handsome cowboy and ride off into the sunset, he’d be a tiny bit different from the one I found in that Harlequin book. So, when I came across Firestorm as I was browsing Netgalley’s Gay & Lesbian section, I decided to give it a go.

So basically, Mallory is the head smokejumper, which is like a SUPER firefighter, ie lots of DANGER. This is her first year as commander of the SUPER FIREFIGHTER crew and she is very nervous about it because last year her jumping partner died during a rescue mission and Mallory blames herself. She has 30 days to make sure the new recruits are prepared to be awesome SUPER FIREFIGHTERS (and not die). She hand picked her team, but then Jac Russo shows up and makes her angry but not too angry because Jac is really hot. Obviously.

I am pleased to report that Firestorm veered away from what I will call the Classic Lesbian Romance Plot (CLRP) enough to be quite enjoyable. The sex scenes did suffer from the Simultatious Orgasm issue that is also a problem with Harlequin etc romance novels, but they are otherwise well-written. There is a subplot involving Jac’s father who is an Ultra-Conservative politician running for president, ie not friendly to the gays, but it’s handled well and doesn’t become over the top. I also didn’t mind it because it gave Jac an excuse to put her Army dress blues on, and I am very okay with that.

Would it be in bad form to swoon during a review? I kind of want to swoon.

I’d recommend this to anyone looking for an enjoyable, well-written lady romance.

Grade: B

*I blame Sarah Wendell and her awesome speech at the Book Blogger convention.

**I blame the ever-so-convincing Linda Holmes.

***I don’t mean this in a gross way.

10 Comments

Filed under 2011 Reviews, B, Fiction, GLBTQ

July 20, 2011 · 7:51 PM

Review: Secret Historian by Justin Spring

Secret Historian: The Life and Times of Samuel Steward, Professor, Tattoo Artist, and Sexual Renegade
by Justin Spring
Published 2010 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Audio book borrowed from the library
Narrated by Sean Runnette
Winner of the 2011 Lambda Literary Award for Gay Memoir/Biography
Read February 2011

Let’s start out with a totally true and undeniable statement: Secret Historian: The Life and Times of Samuel Steward, Professor, Tattoo Artist, and Sexual Renegade is one of the best titles ever. If you are awesome (which you obviously are on the basis of reading this blog), chances are you have been the tiniest bit tempted to pick up this book based on the title alone. Let me assure you that this is one of the rare occasions that an intriguing, over-the-top title correctly reflects the contents of the book.

Samuel Steward was indeed a professor (at a religious university, no less), a pioneering tattoo artist, a writer of erotica, and an obsessive record-keeper of his sexual trysts, which numbered in the thousands. He was friends with Gertrude Stein, Alice Toklas, Thornton Wilder, and Alfred Kinsey, to name a few. Steward had sex with Lord Alfred Douglas entirely because Douglas had had sex with Steward’s idol, Oscar Wilde. Steward even had an elevator-rendezvous with a young Rock Hudson! Basically, Steward was a fascinating man who did fascinating things, and his story was almost lost to time.

When Steward died in 1993 (of chronic pulmonary disease), he left all of his belongings, writing, and photographs to a GLBT library; however, because this was near the height of the AIDS epidemic and so many other gay men were dying at the time and leaving their estates to the library, it didn’t have the room. When Justin Spring began his research into Steward’s life, he found all of Steward’s belongings in a dusty attic. Thankfully, Spring was able to access these documents and write the fascinating biography that is The Secret Historian.

Grade: A-

On the Narration: Sean Runnette is perfect for this book; his narration is a complement to the text. Highly recommended in audio, especially if biographies are not usually your thing but audio books are.

Also recommended: Steward wrote a two book mystery series featuring Gertrude Stein and Alice Toklas as the main characters. The first book, Murder Is Murder Is Murder, was available at my library and it is charming, funny, and a great read.

5 Comments

Filed under 2011 Reviews, A, Audio Books, GLBTQ, Non-Fiction

July 18, 2011 · 11:37 PM

NERDS HEART YA: Dirty Little Secrets v. A Love Story Starring My Dead Best Friend

This is the second and FINAL post in my discussion with Ana for the second round of Nerds Heart YA. Check out part one of the conversation at her blog, then finish up here.

  • Plot development

Dirty Little Secrets:

Ana: As much as I don’t want to dismiss Omololu’s portrayal of someone deeply affected by her mother’s hoarding, I have to say that the plot was REALLY hard to swallow. Not only did it feel sensational and bad-made-for-TV-movie extreme, but it also seemed to be full of HOLES. Why didn’t Lucy try to call her brother again? Why did she stay quiet when she finally managed to talk to him? Why was it so easy for her to fool her neighbors, her sister, and everyone else around her? Why did she assume that paramedics would bring TV station crews in tow? I guess the answer to that last question is “because she was so scared”, but it would have been nice if something about the story proved her wrong. Lucy’s mistrust of adults can easily be understood if we consider she has a distant, uncaring father who does little more than sign the child support checks and a mentally ill mother. But why is there no suggestion at all in her world that not all adults will exploit and sensationalize her mother’s hoarding? This ties in with the ending, so I’ll talk more about it later on, but the complete lack of reliable adults was the main reason why I found Dirty Little Secrets so disappointing.

Cass: I couldn’t believe that her AUNT, who instigated a cleaning-spree that led to a break in contact with Lucy’s immediate family, and clearly understood that Lucy’s mother had a problem that she needed help with, didn’t a) call family services or b) try to contact Lucy’s father or c) find a way to have an intervention/find a therapist for Lucy’s mother.

Ana: Another aspect of the plot I wasn’t so crazy about was the romance. Josh is basically a nonperson – a cardboard cutout of a dream guy. In addition to this, the language used to describe his and Lucy’s romantic moments really irked me. It’s all about how she feels protected and nurtured and taken care of – I haven’t even read Twilight and I kept having flashbacks of Bella. It’s difficult to explain what bothered me exactly, because I don’t want to come across as suggesting that heroines shouldn’t be allowed to be vulnerable before their love interests or rely on them for emotional support. But the really Traditional Gender Roles-infused language coupled with the fact that Lucy never seems to experience similar feelings of support or safety in close relationships with females (like with her best friend Kaylie) made me a bit suspicious

Cass: What you said.

A Love Story Starring My Dead Best Friend

Ana: This book has a past/present dual narrative – one dealing with Cass’s trip to California to attempt to come to terms with her best friend Julia’s death (the two had planned a trip together before Julia’s accident), and another dealing with Julia’s friend’s attempts to stage the musical she had written. I have to say that I was much more interested in the bike trip subplot than in the musical subplot. I found all the details about the logistics of a trip so long and so demanding and the physical and psychological challenge it posed really interesting (funnily enough I can’t even ride a bike – perhaps that was part of why I enjoyed the vicarious experience so much?). Also! Teen girl doing something on her own that a large percentage of people would say a girl could never do: that’s instant cool points. And like I mentioned before, I really liked the resolution of that particular subplot. But as for the musical storyline… you mentioned will grayson, will grayson in our brief e-mail exchange about the book, so I’ll just paraphrase what we have said before: this book would have felt a lot fresher if I had never read the Green/Leviathan. As it was, though, I couldn’t help but feel that I’d seen it before.

Cass: This book was basically like the now with girls! version of will grayson, will grayson.

Ana: The romance I could take or leave. Spoilers warning: I find that people-who-used-to-hate-each-other-falling-in-love type of love stories CAN work, but neither Cass and Heather’s initial antagonism nor their eventual romance felt as passionate to me as it was supposed to be. It was like… the text was trying to tell us something it wasn’t quite showing. I have no particular complaints, really, just… my thoughts on the romance echo my thoughts on the book in general, I guess. It was harmless and sweet, but not particularly memorable.

Cass: SPOILER: Okay, sorry, but you know who I would never, ever date? PEOPLE WHO WERE TERRIBLY MEAN TO ME IN HIGH SCHOOL/MIDDLE SCHOOL. No. The whole “bullier who teases the maybe-gay kid actually being gay themselves” is the most over-used story line next to to “most popular (American) football player being secretly gay.” There’s also the never-ending lesbians-in-novels trope of the comparison of kisses with boys (so hard and rough) to kisses with girls (so soft and sweet).

Ana: Argh, I feel awful that I missed the kiss comparison thing! Spoiler: about the dating a former enemy thing, when I read it I felt that I could imagine myself forgiving someone like Heather, but I’ll be the first to admit that I read the story through the privileged lens of someone who has never had a gay slur directed at them. So my experience of People Who Were Mean In School is really very different from the characters’. Like I told you above, I’m too ignorant when it comes to GLBTQ lit to have recognized the common trope, but I can definitely see how something like that being overused is problematic.

  • Themes

LSSMDBF

Ana: One of this book’s main themes is dealing with grief and coming to terms with the loss of someone you love, as dealt with in the trip-to-California storyline. I found Horner’s treatment of this theme moving and effective, but what stood in the way of me truly loving this book was the fact that all the other things it tried to be about just didn’t work nearly as well. Above you articulated what the problem with Cass’s “coming out” was better than I ever could have, so I’ll leave it at that. There’s also the theme of friendship and trust, I guess – but again, I would have appreciated this more if Cass’s other friends had been more developed as individuals rather than just a group.

Cass: The author tries to also bring in a minor story line about faith and sexual orientation; Cass’s friend Jon was outcast from his church when he came out, and there’s a little bit of exploration there with how he still manages to believe in God without believing in the homophobia of his church.

Ana: I also liked Jon’s story line. I only wish there had been more about him.

DLS

Ana: Everything I’d read about DLS made me believe that Omololu was going for a nuanced, respectful and human treatment of mental illness and its effects on a teen, but like we have discussed previously, that didn’t quite work out, did it? You know what, there’s no way I can share my full thoughts on this without talking about the ending, so I’ll clarify what I mean when we discuss the next point.

Cass: This is one of the worst depictions of a person with mental health issues that I have read.

  • Ending (aka Spoilers Ahoy!)

LSSMDBF

Ana: The book ends with with the staging with Julia’s musical, Totally Sweet Ninja Death Squad, which… argh, it’s just too will grayson, will grayson. I kind of feel bad saying this – the two books were published the same year, so it’s really not the case that Emily Horner was ripping off John Green and David Levithan or anything like that. It’s just unfortunate for her that a high profile book that a lot of readers surely got to first came out at around the same time. And whichever book you happen to read first will inevitably feel fresh and original, while the second one… not so much. So as much as I know that this is unfair, I just couldn’t help the deja vu. I think I’d have had far more positive feelings about the ending (and possibly about the book as a whole) if the last thing in the novel had been the conclusion of the trip to California story line.

Cass: The inevitable comparisons to wg, wg, are unfortunate because I found the ending of that book to have an emotional punch, while A Love Story… just couldn’t live up to that.

DLS

Cass: Lucy comes home to find her mother is dead, and instead of calling 911 she decides to clean the house before anyone can see the state it’s in. After a few hours of this, she decides to go to a party with her crush and then spends the rest of the night hanging out with him. When she gets home, she decides cleaning is no longer an option and BURNS DOWN THE HOUSE WITH HER MOTHER IN IT. HER DEAD MOTHER. One could argue that the trauma of living with a mother who has hoarding issues and having no support system to help process this has had a great affect on Lucy (who is clearly in need of a good psychologist), but I’m sorry, I just…SHE BURNT HER MOTHER’S DEAD BODY. And this is treated as a successful way to keep the press from finding out about her mother’s problems and help Lucy become popular and have a nice boyfriend.

Ana: AGREED. I mean arson? Really?! And clearly we were not the only ones dissatisfied with the ending, because the author has written an “extra” chapter, an epilogue, that’s available as a download from her website. But since this isn’t ACTUALLY PART OF THE BOOK I don’t think we should even consider it. One of the things that bugged me about the ending (the least of them, but still) was how completely unbelievable the whole thing was. You know what, I recently read a mystery novel in which someone burns down a house with a body in it to make it look like the person died in the fire. This is a period mystery, so the police didn’t have the technology they do now at their disposal, but even THEN it takes a lot of preparation on the criminal’s part to make sure the house was properly dry and everything would burn to the ground. They knew they couldn’t possibly hope to cover their tracks otherwise. And what do we have here? A teen girl burning down a house in the middle of winter, with SNOW all around, and hoping that no one will ask too many questions. The “extra” chapter tell us that there were in fact suspicions and whispers of hoarding after the fire, but apparently no one thought to take a close look at the body or attempt to verify what her mother actually died of. Seriously?

More than the obvious plot holes, though, what bothered me was what this implies. I can understand how a first person narration from a terrified teen wouldn’t directly acknowledge that there are adults out there that can be trusted or resources at her disposal, but something somewhere in the story could have proved her wrong, no? Even if it was just a word of kindness from ONE adult character. But as that never ever happens, what we have at the end of the book is a character who remains convinced that there’s nobody she can turn to for help. The story’s implication is that the only way Lucy will ever be “normal”, the only way others will ever love her, is if she continues to hide the truth about her mother and burns down the evidence. The epilogue lessens this implication to some extent, but again: NOT REALLY PART OF THE BOOK. Sadly, the whole “your mom was a freak, and if only people knew they’d think YOU are a freak too” vibe is only reinforced by how things turn out.

Cass: Exactly. The short version of my thoughts: Moms are a big deal and this book treats them terribly and it is not okay.

  • AND THE WINNER IS…

While A Love Story Starring My Dead Best Friend was by no means perfect, compared to Dirty Little Secrets it’s a clear winner.

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