GLBTYA Book Reviews

cesperanza wrote a post looking for actually enjoyable GLBT books in which, for example, the lesbians don't die and got lots of great responses, amounting to a vast book rec list. The books I'm most interested in reading are the YA subset, since I love YA books, and it turns out my local library has most of them. As a service to the people, I've decided to provide my reviews of GLBT YA books here. Here are the first three I've read.

Annie On My Mind by Nancy Garden (1982) ****
I can tell I enjoyed this book because I found myself choosing not to read it so that it would last longer. The style is charmingly old-school children's lit (flights of fancy involving knights and maidens are a recurring motif), and overall it does admirably capture the joy and awkwardness and confusing oversignificance of a girl's first lesbian love affair. (The moment when Liza wants to call Annie "fascinating" but thinks it sounds like too much so she goes with "interesting" and then hates herself reminds me of everything I ever said to my first girlfriend before we were girlfriends.)
( However. )

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Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan (2005) **
I don't demand that my gay kid books be full of gay angst. In fact, I picked this one up because all the reviews said it had a refreshing LACK of gay angst. It takes place in this inexplicable, miraculous, gay-kid utopia town where some people and straight and some people are gay and some people are trans and it's all okay! That sounded like it could either be hokey or great, and it turns out it's pretty much the former.
( Warning: Here is where I proceed to tear this beloved book a new one. )

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M or F? by Lisa Papademetriou and Chris Tebetts (2005) ****
This book was apparently pitched as a teen Will and Grace, and it does have some of that screwball comedy aesthetic, but it's so much better, I think, because (a) teens can pull of hijinks much more lovably than grown adults and (b) the boy is not your standard functionally asexual gay-best-friend. He's just as much of a romantic lead as the straight girl.
( Clearly I liked it.... )

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I am always looking for recs! Please comment if you have a favorite (or least favorite!) book aimed at teens (say 10-16) which has at least one textually gay, lesbian, bi or trans major character (the plot can, but need not, rely on their sexuality). While I certainly enjoy books with angst and unpleasant events, it should be not be a total downer (and then the gay kid gets kicked out and gets on crystal meth and gets lynched and DIES!) I'm also historical-fiction-avoidant, but this can be overcome in certain circumstances.

ETA: Reading list in progress: Empress of the World; Geography Club; Hero; Hello Groin; Totally Joe; Luna; Parrotfish; Kissing Kate; Absolutely Positively Not