Reviews tagging 'Homophobia'

Things We Couldn't Say by Jay Coles

7 reviews

lqvekanej's review

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emotional reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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bluehairedlibrarian's review

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emotional reflective sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I’m having a hard time putting my feelings for this book into words. It’s an achievement of emotion and expressing intersectional marginalization for a Black queer boy, but at the same time I found the pacing to be haphazard. I found it difficult to keep track of the passing of time bc days would randomly pass in a sentence and days of the week didn’t always match up with the timeline explained by characters within the story. I know this is a me issue, but I also know this is an editing issue. The same goes for movement and placement of people in space. As someone with a visual imagination, a character suddenly being in a different part of a room throws me from the emotional beats of the story. Once again, a me thing.

There are a lot of pop culture references, many of which seemed a bit odd for a teenager of this generation. A lot of the details didn’t into the flow of the writing for me either. But when I could get passed my issues with the writing, this is a beautiful story about a boy learning who and what he wants his family to be and finding a way to be brave in the face of adversity.
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zombiezami's review against another edition

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challenging emotional funny hopeful tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I liked how earnest this was. This book addresses a lot of issues that teens face. However, as others have said, the prose and characterization weren't quite right, given that the characters were teens. I also don't think it was necessary to describe the sexual encounters between teenagers. Otherwise, I liked this. 
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emilyeehaw's review

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okay hmmmmm. this book was a perfectly decent YA novel following gio as he navigates his first real relationship with a guy and his complicated relationship with his absent mother. great, good, fabulous, love that for him. HOWEVER, the writing of this book was so?…..not good.

sometimes authors miss the mark and make their teen characters seem too old or mature in a pretentious way. this author wrote the teen perspective pretty well but wrote adults’ dialogue as if he had never met an adult person in his life. not to mention, sometimes the teens would also fall into this problem.

at one point gio says “i am a child of abandonment.” deeply sorry but reading that felt so unnatural and too formal for the situation. gio was feeling things so intensely and ranting to david and THAT is how he expresses it ????

there were sections where the author could have easily said something like “i agreed” or “i nodded” but instead would write “i responded ‘yes’ to him” or something to that effect. LIKE ??? why does that read so bizarrely. am i CRAZY?? and this kind of stuff happened throughout the ENTIRE book. 

i also felt a little EH about the romance between gio and david, it was a little too “you are my WORLD” a little too quickly. young love i guess. david felt like any other guy…would have liked him to be a bit better developed.

it also felt like some things were wrapped up a little too fast. gio’s dad starts off as a harsh father with an alcohol use disorder and then by the end of it, it seems like that magically all went away? malik who was involved in the local street gang is suddenly no longer involved by the end of the book, with seemingly no consequences. just small details like that were taken care of in what felt like such a rushed way.

let me not be a complete downer here...i loved gio's relationship with his younger brother theo, as well as his dynamic with his stepmom. i liked that she was portrayed as a loving mother figure to him and there was no external conflict between him and her. i also liked that this book depicted the experience of a black, bisexual teenager. and addressed some of the unique challenges because of these identity intersections. 
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xoodlebooks's review

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emotional reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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jamesflint's review

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2.0

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sadandsapphic's review

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emotional hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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