ARC Review: This Is Kind Of an Epic Love Story by Cheryl Callender

This Is Kind Of An Epic Love Story  

by Kheryn Callender 

Publication Date: October 30^th 2018 

Publisher: Balzer + Bray 

Find This Book: This Is Kind Of An Epic Love Story  

Rating: 5/5

I was given an ARC of this book by the publisher in exchange for an honest review

You know that special kind of magic that happens when you read a book at the perfect moment for you? This is what happened for me with This is Kind Of An Epic Love Story. It’s not EPIC-epic, but cherishes the great and fabulous occurrences in normal relationships. If you’re looking for a meet-cute couple that struggles a bit with navigating physical intimacy and potential long-distance, this is the book for you!

Nate is a junior in high school, trying to figure out his relationship with his ex-girlfriend and best friend, while also realizing he has feelings for the new guy in school that Nate already has a bit of history with. As someone who’s tried staying friends with their ex, I really felt what Nate was going through. I’d recommend this for anyone who’s experienced similarly, and/or have been in a complicated romantic dynamic. 

An added layer to the story is that Nate is interested in the creative arts as a career path- Screenwriting in particular. This needs extra work (projects, summer classes, etc.) to get into any good colleges, and it was so nostalgic to read his experiences prepping for summer applications and pulling all-nighters to get his script ready in time. Many of my friends had gone through similar process while we were in high school, and I could easily place myself in Nate’s shoes.

The most emotional part of the story was Nate’s views on relationships. He’s a bit of a pessimist, and thinks happy endings only happen in movies. Watching him being scared to commit to multiple relationships, and struggling between expressing his emotions and trying to avoid getting hurt, was so powerful. He was so caught up in the future, that he wasn;t paying attention to how happy he could be in the moment, and that no matter what the future was perhaps the present would be worth it. As someone who is about to leave my home for 6 months and am about to enter a ling-distance relationship myself, this book couldn’t be more inspiring. 

But the book doesn’t simply revolve around Nate’s romantic relationships! We are also given dramatic scenes where he discovers how to be more emotionally available to his friends and his family, and honestly is was so cute.

Book Rep: Deaf (elaborate ASL use and detailed descriptions of signing), POC, LGBT+ (obvious via relationships but no labels are used) 

ARC Review: The Gilded Wolves by Roshani Chokshi

The Gilded Wolves
by Roshani Chokshi
Publication Date: January 15^th 2019
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Find This Book: The Gilded Wolves (The Gilded Wolves #1)
Rating: 3.5/5

I was given an eARC of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

 For context, I have previously read Chokshi’s hilarious mythological book, Aru Shah and the End of Time, so I had a lot of expectations going into reading this!

If you’re looking for a historical heist, this is the novel for you! Séverin Montagnet-Alarie has been exiled from a powerful order and spends his time taking back what’s his: the items of his inheritance that were taken form him upon exile. A job gone south forces him to take a commissioned job: stealing a Forged (magical) item from The Order he was kicked out of! Séverin and his talented crew get into higher stakes than ever before as relationships form and break under the pressure.

 Set in 1889 Paris, the environment of the book and the outfits of the characters are absolutely fabulous- I’m sure so much research went into this book! The best part for me was that we were given a group of 6 characters, and they were equally given screen-time and were all well developed with personal histories and motivations. That’s hard to do in one initial book and I was blown away. I didn’t realize how attached I was to the character’s plots until I started rooting for [certain things] to occur. Our exiled hotel owner, a biracial friend from the past (a current Order-member), a biracial bisexual historian, an Indian dancer with a powerful touch, a genius engineer with a debt to pay, and our exile’s brother with the ability to Forge flowers.

 The bisexual representation in particular was done quite tastefully, showing the character’s interest in multiple people and their past struggles with religion and family. As someone who identifies as bisexual, I was shocked and pleased to see this realistic experience in this novel, especially since the novel has only been marked as Historical Fiction and Fantasy so far. It’s nice to see an LGBT+ character in a book that doesn’t revolve around their sexuality. Going further, this character’s commitment to a person was just that, choosing a person to be with and not ‘choosing a gender’. Unfortunately, the latter happens too often, so I am over the moon about this character!!

 Of course, this book ends with prophesized action ahead, and a big twist- I can’t wait for Séverin and the crew’s next adventure!

Review: Ramona Blue by Julie Murphy

Ramona Blue

by Julie Murphy

Publication Date: May 9^th 2017

Publisher: HarperTeen
Source: Publisher

Find This Book: Ramona Blue

Rating: 3.5/5

This book's review is a bit scary for me, as I feel a bit vulnerable when I compare it to my own experiences. I think it's so important that conversations like this have been allowed by the doors this book has opened, but it's sensitive to all. Be aware and be kind.

I was provided a copy of this book by the publisher in exchange for honest review.

The first half of this book was absolutely great for me. The spaghetti-o’s were cute, Grace was cute, the summer fling was cute. Ramona’s problems with Grace’s confusion and reservations was emotional and powerful. Ramona’s mother was disheartening, but real. Even Hattie’s struggle, which is not relatable to me in the slightest, still felt relatable. It was when the self-declared lesbian kissed a guy that I became super scared about the rest of the novel. I’d heard so many good things about this book, I was really looking forward to it. How could people not warn me about a lesbian finding the guy to “turn her straight”?

As a confused sexuality-fluid female myself, I was super worried about where this twist was going. Is the author going to make this one boy invalidate all of Ramona’s past relationships with girls? I didn’t think I’d make it through a book about that. Maybe Ramona was Bi? Fortunately for me, Julie Murphy emphasized Ramona’s love for this person because of the person and everything they mean to her, not really taking gender into account. This then left me wondering if Ramona was Pansexual or Demisexual. What was super powerful for me was Ramona’s internal struggle with sexuality. Did her love for this guy mean that she liked guys? Or was it just this specific guy? And every time she kissed him, she said she felt like she was betraying her old identity. Death by a thousand cuts to the Ramona who thought she had it all figured out in high school being a lesbian in Mississippi. I can’t count how many times the same thoughts have gone through my head. I’m a cis female, dating a cis male, that is probably seen as a heterosexual relationship to everyone. If it’s not visible does it even count? Does this mean I am queer enough for LGBTQ+ clubs, safe spaces, pride marches etc.? It can feel like people feel like I’m an intruder, which of course makes everything even more confusing. This is what saved the book for me. Ramona doesn’t label her sexuality by the end of the book. She hasn’t figured herself out yet and maybe she never will, but the point is that the pressure to have a label has been removed. And maybe it will help fellow confused queers not feel pressured to label themselves as well.

What brought this book down the stars is how long it took Ramona to be her own person. The whole book is spent following her sister Hattie around, picking up the pieces and trying to keep things together. While I can respect that, every single person in her life tells her that that’s not the destiny that’s set in stone for her. The future is still up to her and she could go to college after graduation if she really worked for it. While money is obviously an issue, it saddened me to watch Ramona counter everyone supporting her, and shut down any possible future that wasn’t staying in Eulogy, working 3 jobs, and living with her sister in the trailer park. In life, you really only need one person supporting you: yourself. Ramona didn’t even have that which made the book really hard to get through for me. I could only end up reading a couple chapters at a time because of this mental block Ramona has.

I thought this book was going to disappoint me, but it ended up pulling through. The ending was comfortingly bittersweet. I can appreciate how Ramona is going to figure out her sexuality, her career, her relationships etc. as she goes along. She’s finally come to accept that the future isn’t set in stone and that she has a life to live- a super important message. Honestly, if Ramona wasn’t her own worst enemy, and if the writing didn’t originally indicate that this guy was going to ‘turn Ramona straight’ as her mother had hoped, it definitely would’ve gotten a better rating. While the payoff was worth it, the author put me through a lot to get there.

BroodyBFF Challenge #3: LGBT+ Lit History/Most Anticipated

So my prompt for this challenge is to talk about my favorite, or most anticipated LGBTQIA+ YA books. Unfortunately, I haven't read too many YA books where the main character doesn't identify as cis and het. SO, this post ventures a bit beyond my usual realm and shall dive into important books in queer history (aka not YA) and my anticipated YA reads that are available to us because of the books that opened the door before them!

History

1890

A Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. What would this list be without the most famous closeted, subtext-riddled book?  Dorian, can be interpreted as bisexual, and the affectionate painter as gay. It's a pretty tragic story of corruption and untimely deaths, but we would be amiss to not include Oscar Wilde on our list!

1936

Nightwood by Djuna Barnes. Honestly this book isn't just about queer people, it embodies queerness. The novel is a disorientation from reality, centered around Robin Vote who is also a bisexual character, though is mostly seen with female lovers. This book is seriously a piece of work and tough to tackle, I don't think I'll ever fully understand this novel. It's been called "a masterpiece of modernism" by the Washington Post Book World, and a "lesbian classic" by Dorothy Allison.

1973

Rubyfruit Jungle by Rita Mae Brown. Honestly this is my favorite book on this list. This book is about growing up a lesbian in America. It's pretty humorous, and tackles being human and her sexuality in a less serious tone than the rest of this list. Now you may be questioning this book's artistic merit- fair point. It's not quite the prose of Nightwood, however, it contains radical ideas. It shows that society values women as a necessary component to male sexuality. Women are objects for the male libido. It's 'thesis' is about having value as an individual, outside of men, which is so important.

1982

Zami: A New Spelling of My Name by Audre Lorde. Audre Lorde is a technical and emotional master with a pen. An important Feminist and Civil Rights Activist, this book is an "biomythography" about herself. In my personal opinion, this is the most powerful book on this list. Audre Lorde gives us a look into her poor, lesbian, POC life in (primarily) New York. This is so multifaceted, facing a wide range of issues starting early in her childhood.

2008

A Life Apart by Neel Mukherjee. A gay, illegal Indian immigrant in London, and a (presumably) cis, straight English woman in India during Partition having intertwining stories in this novel. Partition isa bit of a taboo topic that we do not hear talked about much out in the world, and this book contains so many important elements that should be talked about. They both go through a lot with culture shock and have parallel journeys of working towards self-discovery.

2015

Hanayome wa Motodanshi (The Bride Was a Boy) by chii. This is in manga form and will be one of the cutest things you ever read. This manga is about a trans women and the experiences that led her to her present situation. Written by chii, about her own life, makes this a very powerful to read. chii describes meeting her husband, many of the tricky laws in Japan regarding sexuality and gender, and her experience navigating everything.

Anticipated Reads!

A Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee. Bisexuals in 18th century Europe. (June 27th 2017)

Ship of the Dead by Rick Riordan. Genderfluid child of Loki. (October 3rd 2017)

Let's Talk About Love by Claire Kann. Asexual Biromantic librarian. (January 23rd 2018) 

What are your most anticipated LGBTQIA+ books?

---

You can check out my fellow #BroodyBFF responses on Twitter! 

Brooding YA Hero: Becoming a Main Character (Almost) as Awesome as Me 

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads 

---

The BroodyBFF's street team will run from May to November, so check back here at Love at First Write regularly for new challenges and updates, and follow me and @broodingyahero on Twitter to see the hashtags, visual challenges, and #BroodyChats!