Full Disclosure

Camryn Garrett

Signe

"Men det här är min värld, och jag tänker själv bestämma vad som händer i den."

"Jag tror ingen skulle kunna hata dig om de kände dig."

Fan också. Jag kommer definitivt börja gråta." 

"Jag är bara jag. Jag vill bara vara normal."

"Men jag kanske inte skulle behöva gömma mig. Det är skillnad. Det är inte att fly."

" "Ja, jag älskar henne." Claudias röst får ett ovanligt drömskt tonfall. "Jag älskar hennes hår och hennes ögon och hur hon skrattar. Jag älskar hur hon vet allting." 

"Pappsen känner mig för väl. Hans min säger allt. Det gör mig nästan arg på honom."

"De sa aldrig på pappalägret att de var ett alternativ att låsa dörren."

"Jag är endabarn, och ändå måste jag tävla om att vara favoriten."

"Du blir så uppspelt. Dina ögon lyser upp och allt. Jag vet oftast inte ens vad du pratar om, men jag vill lyssna eftersom det är du som säger det."

" "Vet du", börjar Miles i en teaterviskning. "Vi missade dagens musikal i går och i förrgår." Det var för att vi kysstes i förrgår. "

"Antingen drömmer jag eller så är jag hög. Kanske båda."

"Han existerar bara, och det räcker. Jag önskar att det gjorde det för mig också. "

Sarah Sammis

** spoiler alert **
           On the representation front, Full Disclosure has a lot going for it. Simone is Black and queer and adopted. She's being raised by a pair of married men. Her friend group at school is also diverse.

For YA readers — the intended audience — there's a lot of information that they might not otherwise have access to. There's information on safe sex, masturbation, living with HIV, pregnancy with HIV, gynecological exams. It's mostly provided through dialogue.

But all this info-dumping gets in the way of the rest of the plot. There isn't a smooth blending of useful information and plot.

I read the book in Swedish so i can't say to much about the english version, but i did like it. It took me a really long time to read because i never got hooked until the last 95 pages which i read in a day. But it was good and i did feel the need to finish it. It takes up important topics and educates well. 

Jamieson

I really liked this a lot. It deals with so many important issues, primarily living as an HIV positive person, but also sex-positivity, queer issues, being Black in America and how all these things intersect. Simone was a great protagonist, I love teenagers who are given room to mess up in YA books. I also thought the romance was super cute. My one issue is that I felt the reveal of the blackmailer was a little unsatisfying and I had some issues with how the reveal and the motivations were handled. But overall this was a great YA contemporary that I really enjoyed. Also the audiobook is well done.

Flavia Louise

This book is objectively amazing. It employs a lot of common YA tropes while being EXTREMELY sex-positive as well as talking about HIV in a meaningful way. 
I wish I'd liked this book more, the thing is that lately I am getting a little bit tired of the trope of the MC getting blackmailed.

Liz Whitehead

I don’t love a book that relies on miscommunication to create all the plot and tension. It’s very frustrating for me and I just kinda want to shake Simone and be like just talk to your family!! Talk to your friends!! There were several instances where she would say something and I would say “um what” out loud because it just didn’t make any sense.

I also felt a lot of disconnect from Simone. I think growing up in a household where even saying the word sex was like saying a cuss word, Simone’s openess with her sex drive was jarring and felt unrealistic. I think this is just because of my own personal experience though.

Grace O'Callaghan

After the backlash of being outed as HIV positive at her old school, Simone is determined not to let that happen again. She’s happier at her new school with friends she adores and a crush on Miles. But when someone starts blackmailing her about her status, Simone is left wondering if history will repeat itself.

While I’ll go into what I didn’t love about this book, it did bring up a lot of things I didn’t know about. I’ve never read about a character with HIV and it was really eye opening. I hardly knew anything about HIV before I read this book so I’m very thankful for that. It’s also very sex positive and talks about things such as consent, masturbation, sex toys and more.

Simone is such a realistic main character for YA. It shows that this book was written by a teenager as Simone actually acts like a teenager. She’s obsessed with the things she loves, makes some stupid decisions, but her heart is in the right place.

However, I can’t say the same for the rest of the characters. A lot of them just felt very flat or were introduced in a weird way. As an example, we learn that Claudia (Simone’s friend), got sent to a mental institution because she’s a lesbian, and it’s never mentioned again. It’s just a throwaway line to give the character a backstory when it’s clearly something that’s relevant to the conflict between Simone and her friends.

Simone’s love interest, Miles, was just not good at all. He seems like the perfect person that does and says all of the right things, which made him insufferable. I felt that his role in the book is very transparent as when he actually doesn’t do something that Simone wants it’s clear that it’s to make a rift between them just so they can come together at the end.

Besides discussing HIV, the plot is one that is pretty generic to YA. Protagonist moves to a different school and has a secret, falls in love, is blackmailed because of secret, secret is revealed. It’s not a bad premise per say, it’s just that nothing new is done with it and it’s very easy to call the beats of the story.

Another problem I have is the inconsistencies and how unrealistic some of the scenes are. I like to keep my reviews spoiler free so to speak generally there are times when characters know information they shouldn’t know, characters act in bizarre ways and sentences just don’t make sense.

While I did not enjoy this, I do think that it is valuable in terms of teens being able to see themselves in literature and I did learn a lot about HIV. This is a debut so while I enjoy the premise, I didn’t enjoy the execution. I’ll be interested to see what Camryn Garrett writes next. If you’re looking for a book with a similar plot that also talks about sexuality, Jack of Hearts (and Other Parts) is one I’d recommend.

Toni Turner

This was amazing and I cried a lot!

I am not a usual reader of contemporary, but every once in a while a story sounds right up my ally and I know I have to read it. This was definitely one of those few! And I loved it!

Jennifer Dieter

“My HIV isn’t a threat to you, but your ignorance is a threat to me.”

The biggest barrier to ending HIV? Stigma. I absolutely loved Simone. It’s very rare to read about someone who is living with HIV today, especially a young queer Black woman. Full Disclosure is very much your average YA novel with all the emotions and feelings that come with being a teenage girl with a crush, but Simone must also navigate her status and identities. She has so many people in her life rooting for her and helping her stay healthy, which is important. Also, I am always about lots of musical theater references. There’s some tough stuff in this book but also so much joy. Once again, a book I’m so glad exists.

Stephanie Midolo

I received a copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Not a spoiler-free review. Read at your own risk.

Unfortunately, this book fell very short for me. I was pulled in by the premise—a teenage girl, born with HIV, navigating disclosure, sex and high school in general. For me, the negatives outweigh the positives.

I was uncomfortable from the very first page when one of Simone’s fathers accompanies her to her first gynecologist appointment. As in, he was in the room when she changed into a gown, asked questions about her sexual health and had a breast exam performed. It’s fantastic that she’s close with her dads, but even my pediatrician asked my mom to step out of the room sometimes. I doubt any GYN would allow this, even if they were close personal friends of the dad.

Also with regards to the hospital scenes, Simone often asked questions that she should already know the answers to. She’s lived with this disease since she was born, so it is illogical that the doctor would have to tell her what numbers qualify a high or low viral load. I get that those questions were asked as a way to give information to the audience. It was just a lazy and unrealistic way to do it.

Next, there is Miles. There is very little tension with him. This isn’t a romance novel. It’s a novel with a romantic subplot that fuels the main plot (blackmail). There was no struggle in them getting together or when she told him she was HIV positive. She didn’t even really contemplate not seeing Miles when she got the first letter. It also seem unrealistic that teenage boy would react so calmly to being told his girlfriend is positive. Adults don’t understand HIV, let alone kids. He just sat there, let her talk, and asked questions. It’s what should be done, but it’s really not what would be done.

Speaking of things that should be done: following your doctor’s medical orders. (Minor spoiler) Simone and Miles have oral sex. Simones viral load is undetectable, and therefore untransmittable. However, her doctor told her not to engage in sexual activity until she had been undetectable for at least six months. The whole novel takes place in two months. They also discussed protection (dental dams were specifically mentioned by her doctor), but they did not use any. 

The Drama Club aspect and Simone’s obsession with musical theatre were also strange. If you don’t have an understanding of these musicals already, I feel like you’re going to miss a lot of the references. Furthermore, I don’t know any high school in America, let alone one called Sacred Heart (re: Christianity), would put on Rent. There is sex and drug use and prostitution. I feel like the outrage over the show would have occurred before opening night and for different reasons than it did in the book.

********Major spoiler********
My last major grief is that the author presented gay men as predatory. The person who left the notes for Simone is a gay student with a crush on Miles. This narrative that gay men are always preying on straight men, or younger men, is damaging to the community and has been a point of contention for as long as there has been a gay community. I’m severely disappointed that an author who self-identifies as queer would put this in her book. I don’t know if this was an oversight or if it was calculated, but it did not sit well with me.
********end spoiler********

There was also the issue of the writing. It was very dull to me, and seemed like it lacked an editor. There is a scene where Simone is in a group therapy session for kids with HIV and they have a guest who previously attended the group. She recently had a baby and refers to her partner as both her husband and her boyfriend. There is another scene where Simone is supposed to go with Miles to watch a lacrosse game, but Miles is on the lacrosse team, so that seems weird. It was a bunch of little things like that, that took me out of the story and had me going back pages to re-read for something I missed. 

This one is just a pet peeve, but goes along with the writing. She wrote at great length about Javier Muñoz (who is a Broadway actor, I guess), but only briefly mentioned Ryan White (who died from HIV/AIDS when he was a teenager after contracting it from a blood transfusion. His story mirrors Simone’s very well, and it was missed opportunity).

I know I’ve been hard on this book, but that is because it is about such an important and misunderstood topic. The author did give a lot of valuable information. She talked about PrEP, U=U, safe sex (even if her characters didn’t practice it) and HIV overall.

Mary Graham

*3.5*
Don't get me wrong, this book is an extremely important read. The topics covered, specifically being HIV-positive, are so important and really well written about. However, I just wasn't blown away by the book. I think I'm just not as impressed by YA books as I used to be as I get older. 

I really related with Simone's struggle with defining her sexuality because I went through the same thing, and am still going through it to this day a bit. I think that part of the story is really relatable and I know if I had read this when I was going through my own sexuality crisis it would have helped me realize I'm not alone in that respect. 

I would still really recommend this book because it's an important read and some really important topics are discussed.

Geneviève Rouleau

THIS BOOK 😭😭😭

1. Simone's parents are amazing and exactly how I want to raise my baby (although more openness about sex please. I kind of get it, in Simone's context, but it's still not their decision to make)

2. SO. MUCH. REP. AND. DIVERSITY (POC, queer people, people with disabilities, people questioning their identities, etc.)

3. LOVE the openness of the characters. I LIVE for their detailed sex talks, it all felt so NORMAL and that's exactly how I view talking about sex (aka masturbation, kinks, etc.)

4. This book is still entirely YA AND educational

5. Shitty reactions don't just come from straight, healthy, cis people.


P.S. the way Simone disclosed her status to Miles and especially the way he reacted. All, absolute perfection. 😭 & how she doesn't resent her mom for conceiving her with HIV. She understands her, even if she never knew her. SO. MUCH. EMPATHY.


ALL. THE. FUCKING. STARS.

Jessica 

Blog | Twitter | Instagram | Review can be found here at Booked J. 


   As always, a copy of this book was provided by the publisher or author in exchange for my honest review. This does not effect my opinion in any way.
 

First things first: Full Disclosure is a remarkable standout. In my entire lifetime, I've never seen such a poignant exploration of what it means to be living HIV positive. Camryn Garrett is one of THE next great literary voices and if she wasn't on your radar already, she will be after this one is released. Not only is Full Disclosure one of the best debuts of the year--it is one of the best books of the year, period.  

It takes a lot out of an author to craft stories with such care and honesty. Not everyone is up for the task, but Garrett does so beautifully. There's a line you simply cannot cross. There's a reality behind every sentence. There are facts that need to be represented with illnesses. Most importantly, every work of fiction can represent something in reality. For a book to discuss so much, so frankly, in such a small window of time, is a triumph. Full Disclosure is a rare read, indeed, for this reason alone. 

Not only does it tackle the stigma and facts, and dismantle falsehoods of the disease, surrounding HIV, it touts a diverse cast that is nothing short of lively. Simone is one of the best lead characters I've read in recent memory--determined, hopeful, and so deserving of all good things in this life. I loved reading her journey and watching as she found her footing, chased her dreams, and made life her own. Further, the relationships explored within Full Disclosure felt real and complex in a really wonderful kind of way. 

At its core, Full Disclosure is a truly stunning coming of age story that explores many true to life topics: sexuality in a positive and realistic manner, living a life with an illness so heavily misunderstood and unrepresented, and the subtle threatening nature our peers might have upon our happiness. It explores all forms of relationships in this life and does so with a tenderness that still remains blunt with honesty. 

(It also hits a personal sweet spot for me in referencing musicals. We all know THAT is my true love.) 

Full Disclosure is about many things. Mostly, it's about coming of age, living your life, and reflecting on the relationships we gain--or lose--on the way. The amount of life we witness in Full Disclosure should be applauded and admired. I'll say it again: Camryn Garrett is the voice/author to look out for.

In short? I loved seeing such a wonderful portrayal of the HIV virus. I loved that this didn't feel like a cardboard cut-out exploration of hard hitting topics and instead felt full of life and its diversity. It is hands down one of the most realistic YA releases of all time and should absolutely be added to everyone's TBR.

Mirella

A smart, funny, sex-positive YA perfect for fans of Nicola Yoon and Rainbow Rowell, this is a heartwarming look at the particular challenges of adolescence, written as only a teen could. Simone is HIV-positive - and positive HIV won't define her. She also knows that celibacy is - techincally - the best way to stay safe. Enter Miles Austin: intelligent, funny and way too sexy for Simone to resist. But her classmates don't know that she's HIV-positive - and what is the truth worth in the hands of the wrong person?

Full Disclosure

Reviews

Highlights