Reviews
Last year when Amazon temporarily delisted books with LGBT themes for being "adult material" I bought up a bunch of the delisted books (from Powell's). One of those books was Rainbow Boys by Alex Sanchez. Rainbow Boys was Sanchez's debut novel. It's also the start of a trilogy. The other two books are Rainbow High and Rainbow Road. I haven't read the other two and I'm debating whether or not I will. The book is told from three different male points of view: Jason, a jock with a girlfriend who realizes he might be bi; Kyle who looks straight but isn't and isn't sure he wants to tell anyone; and Nelson who is out to the whole world but can't muster the guts to tell the boy he's crushing on how he feels. Each boy has a unique voice and an interesting personality. Unfortunately their stories are bogged down with a combination of family drama and a Jack Webb style of including information about helpful groups for teens in similar situations. I'm not against showing how hard it can be for LGBT teens. Nor am I against including real life resources in fiction. But there needs to be a balance and Rainbow Boys doesn't have that balance until near the end. A book that covers the same topics but does a better job of balancing issues with plot is In Mike We Trust by P. E. Ryan (review coming).
This was one of those books that was on my to-read list years and years ago when I first discovered YA queer lit, but I never actually read it until I had to take a class on it. Go figure. That being said, I think I would have liked this a lot more when I was younger. 2011-2012 was when the narrative of "miserable queer teenagers" was ending and being replaced by stories where queer teens just happened to be queer, and in the past couple years I've grown to like the latter narrative more. But I recognize that we wouldn't have gotten to these stories - where gay teens are allowed to be gay, and happy, and face little homophobia in their lives - without stories like Rainbow Boys. And sometimes in this world, where I can talk about being queer, wishing I had a girlfriend, and happily post fanart and posts about queer ships on an Instagram account with 1700 followers and get no homophobic comments; where so many churches in my city hang up rainbow flags at its doors and not only tolerate but welcome members of the LGBTQ community; where the Queer Centre at my university inhabits a space covered with rainbow flags on the outside - I forget about how hard it used to be for kids and teens. I was in the GSA at my high school, but I forget how difficult it used to be to set up these, to go to these. So this book was a bit of a brutal kick, but I think one I needed to remember: how hard queer people before our generation fought for people who would come after them, and how hard some people are still fighting. Sanchez presents three different boys, but all of them are unique, but somewhat stereotypical. There's the soft flamboyant gay guy (Nelson), and then there's the closeted jock (Jason). Kyle wasn't quite as stereotypical. I think my favorite of them was Nelson, though, because he does not know when to shut up and is sarcastic and I love that. I liked how Nelson's mom was such a good and accepting mom, you'd think it would be one of the other two's parents that were like that. But it was good, because in a lot of earlier queer books no one had even one accepting parent. I think I connected to Kyle the most - I'm low-key, but I'm not really out to anyone (except on the Internet and I suppose people who like read my stuff on the internet OOPS HAHA). It kind of sucked that there weren't too many accepting kids who weren't gay at their high school, which would have been nice. I do think that Sanchez's writing style is a bit too telling, not showing, which made it kind of hard to read sometimes because telling doesn't immerse you as much, but it was pretty good altogether.
Didn’t love it, didn’t hate it.
3.5 stars
This book is so much better than I expected. The characters are likable and incredibly true to life. I think Sanchez's writing style (explaining an event from different character's perspectives) is really enjoyable to read and a whole lot fresh it terms of YA fiction. In a way, Sanchez reminds of David Levithan (addressing LGBT issues, the writing style) which is awesome, since he's a serious favorite of mine. I recommend this book to anyone with an interest in LGBGT topics or anyone that is scared, in the closet or questioning. It really spoke to me on a deep level.
I have been in one of my normal reading slumps as of late, but tonight my mind was going crazy with stress, so I randomly picked a book I've been wanting to read. I was always interested in starting this book. Rainbow Boys is a book about three high school teens and their friendship as they deal with homophobia at home and at school and feelings that they have for each other. Each character's perspective was clean. The author did a wonderful job of making each character diverse with different voices such as their home life and relationship. Their hardships were incredibly relatable and heart felt and I enjoyed every single point of view each chapter. I was completely in love with this story and was never bothered when another character took over. The book was short but sweet, the right amount of angst, fluff and drama. This is a quick read and well worth it. I even went online to scream capital letters at one of my friends because I knew it was something he would like and I was enjoying it so much. It didn't blow my mind and that is the reason why it's only at four stars. But I do think this book is incredible and I hope teens, questioning or not, are able to have access to this amazing book and hopefully others can experience it too. I am so glad I gave this a chance. I 100% adore this book and can't wait to own a physical copy for my shelf. Give it a read!
I quite enjoyed this book. I love the characters! I love Nelson's attitude and how shy and sweet Kyle is. Jason is cool, too. Certain parts reminded me of The God Box, especially the movie theater part, but it was still really awesome! I'm looking forward to reading the other books
