Trouble with LGBTQ Literature...

It looked good from the outside...how do you approach someone you are attracted to if you're not sure of their orientation? However past that the novel lost its worth. Rather than addressing the angst, fear, and confusion that comes with being different than your peers when you are a teenager the book spends most of its time focusing on fashion and the shallow materialistic endeavors of a pair of rich New York socialites. Paige and Anthony are chasing the same boy and use Jimmy Choo shoes and designer clothing to lure him in. If you're looking for something with nothing more than pure drama and gossip this is it, if you'd like a reflective read that vaguely mirrors reality, I'd look elsewhere...

The Vast Fields of Ordinary

Nick Burd's debut novel follows Dade Hamilton through his final summer before he heads off from his home in the suburbs of Cedarville to college at Fairmount in Michigan. Dade's transition into freedom includes everything from coping with his parents divorce and extramarital affairs, to coming out about his own homosexuality. His secret relationship with the school's best looking Latino athlete, Pablo Soto, leaves both him and Pablo struggling to find themselves and comfort with their feelings for one another. When Dade meets Lucy and becomes confident in himself, his new found sense of bold exploration puts in the relationship he dreamed of.

The novel packs three months into 300 pages of struggle, hope, depression, love, and devastation. Taking a new twist on the normal teen novel, this addresses mature themes from the perspective so many young adults know so well.