LGBT

Sistersong by Lucy Holland

| piperreads


Rating: 4/5

“Someone once told me that the only names that matter are the ones we take for ourselves.”

Sistersong tells the story of three sisters, Riva who was scarred in a terrible fire and fears that she will never heal, Keyne who battles to be seen as the King’s son, who was born a woman and Sinne, the youngest of the group who years for romance.

Historical Fiction and I don’t really get along so this was a nice surprise as I found it interesting and enjoyable. Seeing the different perspectives from the sisters is one of the pluses of the book as I got to see life through their eyes and how it was different. In addition, their contrasting personalities are what made them interesting and well written characters as the more I read, the more I wanted to know about them.

Out of the sisters, I related to Keyne the most with their struggle to feel accepted not only with their true identity but by their father, the King and others. Their struggles of wanting to be seen as a man despite being born in a man’s body. I appreciated how Holland portrayed it as it felt very real even if it was a different time period. Kenye’s journey is relevant to what many people go through especially in our society right now. I hope that readers will treat them with the kindness, compassion and empathy they deserve.

The writing was another layer that helped make the characters feel very real and raw. Holland’s prose is captivating and painting the mood and headspace of the characters and helped readers understand them better. I felt like I understood what the characters were up against and it made the pacing of the book feel right. It wasn’t fast pacing or slow, right in the middle which is perfect. This book is more character-driven than plot driven which that sometimes be hit or miss and this is was a hit.

It did take some time to get used to different POV’s but this was an enthralling, emotional, raw and entertaining tale of love, betrayal, acceptance, following your destiny.

Heartstopper by Alice Oseman

| piperreads

Rating: 3/5

“You can’t tell whether people are gay by what they look like. And gay or straight aren’t the only two options.”

Heartstopper follows Charlie and Nick, two grammar schools guys who couldn’t be more different. Nick, is a cheerful and soft spoken football player and Charlie is a high-strung over-thinker. For Charlie, school hasn’t been that great especially since he was outed and bullied for months. Nick heard about the bullying but knows very little about Charlie so when the two start talking to one another and get close, will it blossom into something more or will it go down in flames?

While very predictable and a bit cliche, I did enjoy Charlie and Nick’s relationship as it was very cute. I felt for Charlie being outed and bullied as a result because no one should have that happen to them. On top of being outed, he was bullied and that just made things worse for them. The plot has been done a lot of times so it was a bit predictable but a very cute book. Seeing how the relationship progressed through the book was enjoyable with Charlie and Nick getting to know one another and become closer.

A very cute book so if you’re looking lots of fluff and cuteness, you’ll find it in this book!

Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender

| piperreads
\

Rating: 4/5

TW: Being outed, Cyber-bullying, Transphobia, Emotional Abuse, Absent Parent

“I’m not flaunting anything. I’m just existing. This is me. I can’t hide myself. I can’t disappear. And even if I could, I don’t fucking want to. I have the same right to be here. I have the same right to exist.” 

Felix Love has never actually fallen in love and yes they are aware of the irony. The book follows Felix on a journey of self-acceptance, love, belonging, and living their truth with who they are. It ends up becoming so more about finding self-acceptance and belonging with themselves than finding with someone else.

“It could’ve been easy to say I was hurt because I’m trans, because someone singled me out for my identity, but there’s something weird about that – something off, about suggesting that my identity is the thing that brought me any sort of pain. It’s the opposite. Being trans brings me love. It brings me happiness. It gives me power.”

I had no idea that this book would become a favorite of mine but here we are. This is defintely one of the best reads for this year as I enjoyed it from beginning to end. It seems like that I have a struck gold with YA Contemporary recently and Felix Ever After is definitely my faves out of the ones that I’ve read. Not only is Felix is a likeable and relatable character, I found myself invested in their story and wanted them to find the happiness that they deserved. I hurt for Felix especially with the transphobia that they experienced and how impacted their mental health as one can imagine.

“It can be easier, sometimes, to choose to love someone you know won’t return your feelings. At least you know how that will end. It’s easier to accept hurt and pain, sometimes, than love and acceptance. It’s the real, loving relationships that can be the scariest.” 

What I loved about the book even more is that it touched on the labels and how they are different for people. Acknowledging that some people are fine with and it helps them feel connected while others don’t want that kind of pressure. As someone who struggled for years with labels, I like Callender discusses how people react to labeling differently and that’s fine and I think it’s something that’s very important to discuss openly and for people to feel accepted whether or not labeling is for them.

The Mirror Season

| piperreads


Rating: 5/5

TW: Sexual Assault, Bullying, Homophobia

“There is enough alive in me to grow a hundred rosebushes, a thousand blooms, a million leaves”

Oh Anne-Marie McLemore, you really know how to pull at my heartstrings and I love every minute of it. Stunning, haunting, and emotionally raw, this book sheds light on rape culture, the aftermath of sexual assault, and how they survive while pursuing a journey of healing. This wasn’t an easy book to get through, there were times where I cried and had to put the book down. Even with those difficult moments, McLemore intertwines hope, discovery, love, and finding magic in life while on a journey of healing.

“It costs something to listen to someone else’s story. People forget that sometimes.”

On a night like any, the world’s of Ceila and Lock come crashing down when they are sexually assaulted in rooms mirroring each other one fateful night. While Celia can remember what happened, Lock can’t and the guilt begins to weigh heavily on her. That guilt begins to impact her more than she wants as she tries to work through it while also trying to heal herself. The way that McLemore unwraps the many layers of Ceila’s guilt gives it so much more depth and it’s also truly heartbreaking.

“I hope he hasn’t put all this together, this thing we have in common that he can’t remember and I can’t forget.” 

The pain, hurt, loss, and even guilt that Ceila feels towards what happned with Lock especially as he doesn’t remember what actually happened is hard to read at times. I felt for Ceila who was concerned for Lock and took a lot of it on herself. Through this, a budding friendship forms and the two are able to heal each other while trying to take care of themselves. To me, those are the best kind of friendships where two people who may of not met on their own but they brought together by tragic events that happened in their lives. The way that McLemore writes the characters, we see them as real people going through very real situations and trying to heal from it which to me is a sign of a great author.

Months ago, I didn’t cry, and I didn’t scream because I thought if I started crying and screaming I’d never stop. But now, I don’t care if I scream forever. If I scream forever, they will have to hear me forever.

McLemore doesn’t hold back from exploring the power dynamics that pre-exist to that night of Lock and Ceila, both from poor to middle class backgrounds up against their rich white classmates who are related to people who have their names on buildings all over town. For Ceila, her peers not only look at her different because of the color of her skin but also her sexuality. For Lock, it’s the stigmatization and misconception that boys don’t get raped because of their gender that they should be able to defend themselves from being sexually assaulted. I appreciated how McLemore wrote Lock and how he struggled to heal from the trauma, it was raw and real.

But I know this one, the boy who needs light flooding into parts of him that have gone dark. And I am, in some way smaller than my hands, bringing him back to life.

While the subject material in the book are important for us to understand, no one should push themselves through it. Sometimes, I struggle with sexual assault is written in books and that was something that I was worried about while reading this so I was very pleased with how it was done and played out. Anne-Marie McLemore is an incredibly talented and wonderful writer and I have to say that this is her best book to date. So if you want to see if it’s up your alley, feel free but don’t feel pressured that you have to read it!

Cool For The Summer

| piperreads


Rating: 3/5

“Just because you’re telling a good story, doesn’t mean it’s the right story. And I think that it’s really important to tell the right story.” 

Summer love can be fickle and for seventeen year old, Lara is arrives when she leasts expects it while on vacation in the Outer Banks, North Carolina. Lara begins tp spend time with her mother’s assistant Jasmine and before she knows, an unlikely friendship begins to form. But, what if there is more to the friendship than meets the eye as Lara begins have dreams about a girl who looks similar to Jasmine sending Lara on a journey of self-discovery, accepting, and being more comfortable with being who you want to be and not what other people think.

While reading, I had flashbacks to Grease which is actually one of the my favorite movies and there are similarities between the two. This is a very cute and fun story and I really wished I could’ve gotten more into it but I couldn’t. I did like Lara and found her a very interesting and fun protagonist. I wish I had read this back when I was younger because her journey of self-discovery so I think she will be a hit for young readers who can relate and see themselves in her.

I wish the same could be said for the side characters and romance especially with Chase and his sudden interest in Lara. I felt like that could’ve been fleshed a bit more over the chapters because I could’ve really invest in them as a couple. Other parts of the plot were predictable and while I do enjoy love triangles, I didn’t feel like I was fully invested in it. But at the same time, showing the flaws in the relationship is a plus but I still feel like I needed more to really understand why he liked her. There were other parts of the book that surprised me as the serious and lighthearted events throughout the book balanced each other out.

Another thing that kinda rubbed me the wrong way was the way that certain people were described throughout the book. I felt like it was a bit of a checklist for diversity and it could’ve been better with more thought, effort, and consideration. So, that was something that impacted my enjoyment of reading the book. It was a cute book but I feel like it could’ve been better if there had been more effort put into the issues that I highlighted.





The Sky Blues

| piperreads


Rating: 3.5/5

I think it’s the timid and slightly terrified energy he gave off; it reminded me of myself, when I get caught up in walking the straight way down the hall, or sounding less gay, or carrying my books like a guy is supposed to. We’ve both been struggling to bury our otherness beneath the surface, but I shouldn’t have assumed our otherness was the same.”

Going into his senior year, Sky is ready to go out with a bang and make his best yet. Sky comes up with a brilliant plan to ask his crush, Ali to the prom and has to do that within thirty days. Sounds easy right? Well, when his brilliant plans get leaked by an anonymous hacker in a deeply homophobic email causes him to wish that he could leave town and finish his year at another high school. But, when his friends and others at the school encourage Sky to find out who is the behind the hack and expose them. Will Sky be expose this person for they are or will his small town blues stop Sky from embracing his true self? Find out in this fun, witty, and heartfelt debut!

This heartfelt debut was definitely one to enjoy from beginning to the end. There were a few things that I didn’t like that but I’ll get into that later. Sky is such a fun, witty, kind, friendly and wonderful main character I felt like I knew him. The other characters were a bit of hit and miss for me, I felt like some were well written and others were added for the sake of diversity. While I did enjoy the story, there were a few things that I think could’ve been better. The subplots felt rushed and quick so it was hard for me to stay invested and the ending was a bit vague.

Other than that, it was a pretty fun read so if you want to check it out, go for it!

Between Perfect and Real

| piperreads


Rating: 4/5

“This is it; this is the moment when someone appears out of nowhere, demands to know what I’m doing with clothes for the wrong gender.”

Between Perfect and Real is a stunning and moving debut about finding your voice, being confident with who you are, and coming into your own. Dean Foster, the main protagonist is going through a lot of struggles with their identity as they are pretty sure they are transgender but their girlfriend, friends, and other family think they’re a lesbian. Dean is struggling with coming to terms with that and understanding that some people close to him may not be as accepting as they want. But, when Dean gets cast as the untraditional Romeo for the school play, things start to change as he feels this is their time to embrace who they are truthfully and authentically.

It didn’t take me long to become fully invested in the story especially with Dean’s journey throughout the book. While the book is full of moving and heart warming moments where you see Dean become more comfortable with themselves, there are also moments that break your heart and you want to give Dean a hug and tell them everything will be okay. I feel like I felt every emotion while reading this book and the way Stoeve fleshes out his characters, main and side makes you feel like you know them. They were very real and relatable especially Dean who wanted to not only be accepted by others who they really were but find that self-acceptance.

I very much enjoyed the LGBT with the other main and side characters. Zoe who is Dean’s girlfriend is lesbian, Ronnie is Dean’s best friend is black and gay, Allison, one of Dean’s and Zoe’s good friends, is japanese-american and bisexual, and then there are Nina and Jade who are trans and non-binary. I loved how welcoming they were and providing Dean and each other with love, acceptance, and support.

I really enjoyed this book and I would recommend it to anyone as it was a very moving and empowering debut on coming into your own and being proud of it.

s.

Loveless by Alice Oseman

| piperreads


Rating: 5/5

“She’s happy with who she is. Maybe it’s not the heteronormative dream that she grew up wishing for, but… knowing who you are and loving yourself is so much better than that, I think.” 

What a cute and endearing coming out story! Loveless is a story about Georgia, a young eighteen year old who struggling to come to terms with the fact that she’s never kissed, never had a relationship, or even a crush. She’s perplexed as to why that is and is trying to make sense of it while she starts at Durham University with her two best friends, Pip and Jason. With a new environment, new friends, and new adventures, Georgia starts a journey of self-acceptance, empowerment, and learns that love is so much more than she thought it was.

I’m a huge fan of Alice Oseman, she’s one of my favorite writers and I was really excited to start this for the LGBTQIA readathon. This was such a beautifully written coming out story and I loved that the main character, George identified as Aromantic-Asexual because that is what I identify as and it’s been a long journey to feel comfortable with that identity. I felt like out of all the characters, I related to her the most not just because of the aro-ace identity but to her personality. As someone who was a very shy, quiet, and reserved, I didn’t enjoy parties and going out and I did some of the same things Georgia did with her friends, Pip and Jason. I think she’s a well written character that teens and others will find relatable.

The secondary characters were well written and had great dynamics throughout the book. The story involves drama just as you would expect but it all works itself out in the end and you get a sense that Georgia is going to continue with her journey of self-acceptance and that something that we can all relate to in our own lives. Definitely would recommend this book to anyone! It’s super cute, real, relatable, and very empowering.



Zara Hossain Is Here

| piperreads



Rating: 5/5

“It’s so easy to paint all the people you don’t want to accept with the same brush. That way you can tell yourself you’re just protecting your way of life and that they’re the ones encroaching upon your space.”

TW: Biphobia, Islamaphobia, Racism/Bullying, & Gun Violence

Looking at Zara Hossain from the outside, it would appear that she was living typical life of a teenage. But beneath it all, Zara is struggling to find and accept who she truly is also while battling islamaphobia at her high school. She doesn’t want to cause any trouble that would bring more harm to her and those around her especially when it comes to her family. Especially since anything could jeopardize their family’s stay in Texas while awaiting the approval of their green card which has been nine years in the making. But, what happens when Zara’s tormenter Tyler Benson starts leaving threatening messages that leads to a violent incident that puts Zara’s future at risk?

As someone who identifies as white reading this story was important for me not just because of the LGBT themes but also racism, bullying, and islamaphobia. These are important themes that people should be educated and I felt like I was taking more away from this book than I anticipated. Especially in the wake of what has been happening in the last year or so and recently with the attacks on Asian American’s. I liked how she captured the racial prejudice that immigrants face in and outside their communities. I’ve taken a few courses during my counseling degree that actually talk about this particular issue and it can impact so much and it’s very sad.

I loved Zara, I thought she was a very well written protagonist and relatable. I felt for her especially when she was dealing with biphobia and islamphobia throughout her journey of not only living in Texas but attending a Christian High School. This is how she meets her love interest, Chloe who is also dealing with her own struggles that include her homophobic parents who refuse to believe that their daughter is part of the LGBT community. The other characters were well-written that really give great dynamics throughout the story. So in short, I think everyone should read this book because I took a lot away from it and I think others will too.