Review: Enjoyable, light YA book
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 02 17, 2014
~3.8 stars~Most of my absolute favorite books are YA, and a lot of them are lgbt. I have read and discovered some pretty amazing authors and writing. So any YA book I read, I end up comparing and rating to the best YA I've read (Suicide Watch by Kelly York, Gives Light by Rose Cristo, Collide by J.R. Lenk).There were niggles, but I really enjoyed this. This was a relatively shorter book compared to what I'm used to reading for YA, and the length did affect the story for me. I felt some things were rushed and skated over, particularly towards the end with the bullying. But overall, I thought the issues and consequences of bullying itself was still handled well enough for what was a light-hearted book. I also did feel things were just a bit too happy-go-lucky, with the successes of the play, the store, B's transformation. Generally, I like my YA stories to be more depressing, or at least emotionally heavier. But this also made it a nice change of pace. What worked for me so much was the MC, Collin, and Austin. I loved Collin's voice. He initially came off as snarky and moody as most teenagers are wont to be, but once he got over his anxieties over the move, he turned out to be a likeable character. A little self-centered, yes, not to mention flamboyant, but also funny and brave. I loved his relationship with Austin, the school outcast, and his family. I might have wished the story went deeper in some areas like the characterizations, but it still made me smile and feel hopeful, even tear up at times, crybaby I am. I think we could always use more stories like this.