The Difference Between You and Me--"The lady doth protest too much, methinks"

Title: The Difference Between You and Me

Author: Madeleine George


What it’s about (in 75 words or fewer):  Emily is vice-president of student council, blonde and beautiful, in love with her boyfriend, and working as an intern for NorthStar.  Jesse puts up flyers to "liberate all weirdos," cuts her hair short with a Swiss army knife, is openly queer, and is working to keep NorthStar  corporation out of her school.  Jesse and Emily seem to have nothing in common, yet they meet secretly to kiss passionately in the library restroom every Tuesday afternoon.


What I think (in 250 words or fewer): At first, I felt very sorry for Jesse and disliked Emily intensely.  Jesse is bullied and Jesse's only friend left school to be home-schooled.  Jesse is a social misfit kind of drifting through life and has a hopeless crush on Emily, who is seemingly the stereotypical preppy perfect high school girl.  Emily likes to toot her own horn and explain over and over how good her intentions are and how she so much wants to help people.  Very irritating.

Rainbow Road--"A very Sweet Valley Rainbow High road trip!"

Title:  Rainbow Road

Author: Alex Sanchez


What it’s about (in 75 words or fewer): In the last book of the Rainbow Boys trilogy, Jason receives an invitation from an all-LGBTQ high school in California wanting him to speak, as a star high school athlete, about his public coming-out.  He, Kyle, and Nelson decide to drive to California to have a last adventure before Kyle goes away to Princeton.  The boys get on each others' nerves and learn more about themselves, as you do on a road trip.


What I think (in 250 words or fewer): When I read the premise of the book, all I could think of was the SVH book Perfect Summer, one of my favorites, in which the key SVH characters go on bicycle trip, and Jessica meets a hot guy named Robbie October (seriously), somehow a rich girl gets stuck riding with them and she and Lila fight, and the guest nerdy guy (someone's nephew?) saves the group from a forest fire and a bear attack! Road trips in books are SO much more fun real-life road trips!

Openly Straight--[Insert tagline here]

Title:  Openly Straight

Author:  Bill Konigsberg


What it’s about (in 75 words or fewer): Rafe has lived his last few years as "the gay kid," and he's tired of being defined by his sexuality.  So when he transfers to an all-boys boarding school, Rafe decides to "openly straight"--not necessarily going back into the closet, just letting people assume he's a straight jock, just "one of the guys."  Rafe's plan seems to be working, until he falls in love with one of his friends, who has no idea Rafe's gay.


What I think (This will definitely be more than 250 words): I set up perimeters for this blog for a reason:  I wanted to keep the reviews short and sweet, so that I will choose my words carefully, only write what's important, and not overwhelm myself by thinking I have to write a lot about each book.  That being said, I have already reviewed a few books where I just had to write over 250 words.

Oh well, I made the rules, I get to break 'em 😉.

Huntress--"I love the world, romance, heroine's quest, and writing style"

Title: Huntress

Author: Malinda Lo (I am doing an in-depth author study on Malinda Lo as a final paper for a class, and this is the fifth of five fiction novels I am reviewing)


What it’s about (in 75 words or fewer): Huntress is set in the same Asian-inspired fantasy world as Ash.  A summons has arrived for the king by the Fairy Queen. Xi, a fae race, have been spotted in the human world, violating a centuries-old treaty.  Taisin, a gifted sage academy student, and Kaede, the councilor's daughter, are among the group appointed to visit the queen, but Taisin is haunted by visions of falling in love with Kaede and having to leave her behind. 


What I think (in 250 words or fewer):  Huntress is very enjoyable as a stand-alone book, and I wish I had read it before Ash, which is a book that didn't really work for me.

In some ways, Huntress is a typical hero-on-a-quest story in the style of Joseph Campbell.  I'm a fan of Star Wars and Lord of the Rings so this worked well for me; I actually have written the Star-Wars-as-a-hero's-journey research paper before and could do the same for Huntress. 

Autoboyography--"Oh honey, this will not end well"

Title: Autoboyography

Author:  Christina Lauren

What it’s about (in 75 words or fewer): Tanner is bisexual, and he was out and proud when he lived in California, but now that he and his family have moved to Utah, Tanner is back in the closet.  When Tanner joins a writing seminar class at school, he and the cute TA, Sebastian, fall for each other. But Sebastian is a strict Mormon whose whole life revolves around church and family, and if he admits he is gay, he will lose everything.


What I think (in 250 words or fewer): Autoboyography was kind of a tough book for me to read.  I enjoyed the story but reading it gave me a nervous stomachache.  All I wanted to do is sympathetically say to Tanner Oh honey, this will not end well.  Sebastian is going to break your heart.  Tanner's parents agreed with me and also warned him.