A review by juushika
Annie on My Mind by Nancy Garden

4.0

Teenage girls from different schools meet at a museum, and their sudden friendship will blossom into a romance. The summary is nothing special; what matters about Annie on My Mind is that it was a YA novel published in 1982, that it was for many readers--including me!--their first lesbian novel. I'd read other queer books, but mostly of the Last Herald-Mage sympathetic/tragic queer male protagonist variety; this is distinctly about women and about female desire, about sex, about navigating homophobia and building queer communities in the real world. And rereading lives up to that memory: the small school exploration of homophobia is claustrophobically on the money, but the romance, its humanity and miscommunications and desire, and particularly the queer mentorship of adult lesbians and the still-enchanting fantasy of inhabiting their home and family life, remains precious. It's no Patience and Sarah! But it did similar work for teen-me, and I love it for that.