GLBTYA Book Reviews 3
Oct. 16th, 2008 10:14 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
zelempaKissing Kate by Lauren Myracle (2003) *
One of those "being gay is an endless trial" long-hard-slog books with no discernible point. The narrator, Lissa, is depressed because her best friend, Kate, is ignoring her ever since they kissed at a party. We don't see the kiss, or Lissa and Kate's original relationship, except in brief flashbacks here and there, so it's hard to like Kate, or sympathize with Lissa in missing the great friendship she says they had. åWe never saw it in action. We also never see Lissa being anything but depressed, mean and hateful (especially to Ariel, a new-age girl she eventually befriends (but they don't, thankfully, get together). There's a plot thread about lucid dreaming that doesn't make a lot of sense. At some point the book ends. It's not clear why.
Absolutely, Positively Not by David LaRochelle (2005) ****
A coming-out comedy that made me laugh out loud on several occasions. The story focuses on that interesting period when the character basically knows he's gay, but refuses to accept it. He studiously sets about straightening himself out, taping pictures of female underwear models to his notebooks and sitting with the manly hockey kids at lunch. Amazon criticisms of this book are that it's too silly, farcical, but I didn't find that; most of the humor does come from the narrator's perfectly-worded, fastidious reactions to the things that happen to him, rather than the situations themselves. The light tone is delightful to read, and totally appropriate for what is (most people who go through this can admit after the fact) a somewhat ridiculous period in one's life.
Hero by Perry Moore (2007) **
The genre of fiction which features GLBT main characters and romance subplots but which is not, primarily, about GLBT issues (or even romance) is underdeveloped outside of slashfic, and I'm excited to see a more-or-less mainstream book go there. For the most part, superhero-in-training Thom's sexuality is more or less irrelevant to plot, although the fact that he was making out with a certain guy at a certain time did turn out to provide a key alibi at one point. I thought this was a good balance of non-gay-specific to gay-specific plot elements.
Unfortunately, the main (non-gay-specific) plot of this adventure was shaky. At first, I was able to sit back and enjoy the standard "Legion of Superheroes" plotline. The adult superheroes were clearly shorthanded, using lore we all know about existing comic book superheroes as background (the alien from another world, the sidekick who's come into his own, the hot sexy guy whose only disguise is a pair of glasses, the one with no superpowers but lots of training, the woman warrior, etc. etc. etc.), but I thought the parody was kind of groovy and had a lot of potential for humor and moralizing. Unfortunately, it didn't really go anywhere. As the book wore on (about 200 pages too long), it got harder to invest in what really felt like stock characters. It actually wasn't a comedy or even a morality tale so much as a melodrama, and parodic, stock characters really don't work for that kind of story.
Another plus which turned out to be a minus in this book had to do with the revelation of information. At first, everything was show, show, show, and no tell, which made it a little confusing to work out the rules and norms of the world. But once I'd figured it out, I appreciated that Thom hadn't given a tired YA-style 'This is what my life is like!" I later realized that what I thought was showing-not-telling may have been the author's way of dropping hints that he didn't expect to be put together, because he ended up spelling out the backstory later on. I hope not, because it's silly to make a big mystery of information that the first-person narrator already knows, but it's also silly to explain in detail a backstory that we've already pieced together.
Other, actual mysteries were quite easily solved (particularly when it came to the secret identities of superheroes, though it was sort of charming how dense the characters were about this--a convention of the genre). I was never entirely sure what information was showing-not-telling and what information was supposed to be a hint toward a later revelation. When the revelations did happen, they came one after the other, with minor characters practically lining up to deliver pages-long monologues in complete paragraphs.
I appreciate the kind of book that Hero represents, but it's not quite a success.
I think I'm finally teen-booked out for awhile, guys.
One of those "being gay is an endless trial" long-hard-slog books with no discernible point. The narrator, Lissa, is depressed because her best friend, Kate, is ignoring her ever since they kissed at a party. We don't see the kiss, or Lissa and Kate's original relationship, except in brief flashbacks here and there, so it's hard to like Kate, or sympathize with Lissa in missing the great friendship she says they had. åWe never saw it in action. We also never see Lissa being anything but depressed, mean and hateful (especially to Ariel, a new-age girl she eventually befriends (but they don't, thankfully, get together). There's a plot thread about lucid dreaming that doesn't make a lot of sense. At some point the book ends. It's not clear why.
Absolutely, Positively Not by David LaRochelle (2005) ****
A coming-out comedy that made me laugh out loud on several occasions. The story focuses on that interesting period when the character basically knows he's gay, but refuses to accept it. He studiously sets about straightening himself out, taping pictures of female underwear models to his notebooks and sitting with the manly hockey kids at lunch. Amazon criticisms of this book are that it's too silly, farcical, but I didn't find that; most of the humor does come from the narrator's perfectly-worded, fastidious reactions to the things that happen to him, rather than the situations themselves. The light tone is delightful to read, and totally appropriate for what is (most people who go through this can admit after the fact) a somewhat ridiculous period in one's life.
Hero by Perry Moore (2007) **
The genre of fiction which features GLBT main characters and romance subplots but which is not, primarily, about GLBT issues (or even romance) is underdeveloped outside of slashfic, and I'm excited to see a more-or-less mainstream book go there. For the most part, superhero-in-training Thom's sexuality is more or less irrelevant to plot, although the fact that he was making out with a certain guy at a certain time did turn out to provide a key alibi at one point. I thought this was a good balance of non-gay-specific to gay-specific plot elements.
Unfortunately, the main (non-gay-specific) plot of this adventure was shaky. At first, I was able to sit back and enjoy the standard "Legion of Superheroes" plotline. The adult superheroes were clearly shorthanded, using lore we all know about existing comic book superheroes as background (the alien from another world, the sidekick who's come into his own, the hot sexy guy whose only disguise is a pair of glasses, the one with no superpowers but lots of training, the woman warrior, etc. etc. etc.), but I thought the parody was kind of groovy and had a lot of potential for humor and moralizing. Unfortunately, it didn't really go anywhere. As the book wore on (about 200 pages too long), it got harder to invest in what really felt like stock characters. It actually wasn't a comedy or even a morality tale so much as a melodrama, and parodic, stock characters really don't work for that kind of story.
Another plus which turned out to be a minus in this book had to do with the revelation of information. At first, everything was show, show, show, and no tell, which made it a little confusing to work out the rules and norms of the world. But once I'd figured it out, I appreciated that Thom hadn't given a tired YA-style 'This is what my life is like!" I later realized that what I thought was showing-not-telling may have been the author's way of dropping hints that he didn't expect to be put together, because he ended up spelling out the backstory later on. I hope not, because it's silly to make a big mystery of information that the first-person narrator already knows, but it's also silly to explain in detail a backstory that we've already pieced together.
Other, actual mysteries were quite easily solved (particularly when it came to the secret identities of superheroes, though it was sort of charming how dense the characters were about this--a convention of the genre). I was never entirely sure what information was showing-not-telling and what information was supposed to be a hint toward a later revelation. When the revelations did happen, they came one after the other, with minor characters practically lining up to deliver pages-long monologues in complete paragraphs.
I appreciate the kind of book that Hero represents, but it's not quite a success.
I think I'm finally teen-booked out for awhile, guys.