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A review by ceceewing_
Autoboyography by Christina Lauren
4.0
I don't know how to talk about this book. I don't know if I'll ever be able to explain my feelings on this book and how it got to me in so many specific ways.
This book felt like a book about home. It was a story about people I grew up with, it was a story about myself and my connection to my sexuality and the religion I grew up being a part of. I saw my high school friends in character after character. I saw a boy I went to school with who grew up to marry another boy, even though it caused him a lot of pain. I saw myself growing away from my religion and towards falling in love with a girl. There is no way to make this review one that isn't deeply personal.
This story was hard and heartbreaking, but also lovely and sweet. It was nuanced in how it talked about religion, in how it examined the differences between religion and those who are religious. It was tough on a church that has been vicious and has handed out cruel words, while also highlighting the ways that Mormons are not an evil group of people. There are those who are wrong, without question, but there is so much depth to the way the sides of the situation are handled.
This was a love story, and a good one. It was romantic. It begins "His smile ruins me" and doesn't disappoint from there. I love these boys and their messy love story. Plus, the main character is bisexual! A bisexual boy who insists on his label and the meaning that that label has for him!
It is a story about religion and family that is deftly handled. It is fair while constantly pointing out the dangerous and divisive ways that the church comes between people. It is deeply and accurately rooted in LDS culture. I have never read a book that nailed what it feels like to grow up LDS and to grow up in Utah quite like this one did.
It is a story about teenagers being allowed to mess up, and mess up badly, but to still be able to come back from that. It is rooted in solid communication between family, friends, and partners.
And, more than anything else, it is a story that will stay with me because it felt (more than once) like being punched in the gut. It is absolutely excellent and I'm so glad that this book exists.
*I received an ARC of this book from the publisher but that in no way changes my review*
This book felt like a book about home. It was a story about people I grew up with, it was a story about myself and my connection to my sexuality and the religion I grew up being a part of. I saw my high school friends in character after character. I saw a boy I went to school with who grew up to marry another boy, even though it caused him a lot of pain. I saw myself growing away from my religion and towards falling in love with a girl. There is no way to make this review one that isn't deeply personal.
This story was hard and heartbreaking, but also lovely and sweet. It was nuanced in how it talked about religion, in how it examined the differences between religion and those who are religious. It was tough on a church that has been vicious and has handed out cruel words, while also highlighting the ways that Mormons are not an evil group of people. There are those who are wrong, without question, but there is so much depth to the way the sides of the situation are handled.
This was a love story, and a good one. It was romantic. It begins "His smile ruins me" and doesn't disappoint from there. I love these boys and their messy love story. Plus, the main character is bisexual! A bisexual boy who insists on his label and the meaning that that label has for him!
It is a story about religion and family that is deftly handled. It is fair while constantly pointing out the dangerous and divisive ways that the church comes between people. It is deeply and accurately rooted in LDS culture. I have never read a book that nailed what it feels like to grow up LDS and to grow up in Utah quite like this one did.
It is a story about teenagers being allowed to mess up, and mess up badly, but to still be able to come back from that. It is rooted in solid communication between family, friends, and partners.
And, more than anything else, it is a story that will stay with me because it felt (more than once) like being punched in the gut. It is absolutely excellent and I'm so glad that this book exists.
*I received an ARC of this book from the publisher but that in no way changes my review*