Helene Dunbar

Includes afterwords by Ron Goldberg and Jeremiah Johnson and Jason Walker.

We Are Lost and Found

kelsey

this book blew me away. here’s some of my favorite quotes, for many different reasons:

 but really, what do i have to apologize for? being myself?


“i just want to be that brave.” “brave?” “yes. to be myself.”


it’s the things that are missing that keep us searching for a reason to stay alive.


worth stopping the world for.


but i’m going to own my fear.
own my voice.
own my love.
own my life.
and i’m not giving any of them up without a fight.

Jasper

Olivia Mason

a poetic and powerful piece. this book is one that needed to be written and needs to be read.

Paige Green

Disclaimer: I received this book at an event with @yatl. Thanks Vania! All opinions are my own.

Book: We Are Lost and Found

Author: Helene Dunbar

Book Series: Standalone

Rating: 3/5

Diversity: Gay male MCs

Publication Date: September 3, 2019

Genre: YA Contemporary

Recommended Age: 16+ (sex, AIDs, language, and discovery)

Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire

Pages: 304

Amazon Link

Synopsis: Michael is content to live in the shadow of his best friends, James, an enigmatic teen performance artist who everyone wants and no one can have and Becky, who calls things as she sees them, while doing all she can to protect those she loves. His brother, Connor, has already been kicked out of the house for being gay and laying low seems to be his only chance to avoid the same fate.

To pass the time before graduation, Michael hangs out at The Echo where he can dance and forget about his father's angry words, the pressures of school, and the looming threat of AIDS, a disease that everyone is talking about, but no one understands.

Then he meets Gabriel, a boy who actually sees him. A boy who, unlike seemingly everyone else in New York City, is interested in him and not James. And Michael has to decide what he's willing to risk to be himself.

Review: This was an amazingly well done and moving piece of art. The book was unapologetic in how it showed the grit and the glory of being gay in the 1980s, at the height of the AIDs epidemic. The book was well written and it was written very interestingly. The book is almost prose like and it forces you to read slowly and savor the novel.

The only downside is that I felt like there is a lot to unpack in the year that this takes place and that the book is wrote by a straight woman. While I am on the side of “you can write what you like as long as you have amazing sensitivity readers” I didn’t like how staying in the closet was likened to hiding and being cowardly and I didn’t like the slut shaming that happened. Sex is sex and you should do what you want with consenting parties and as long as you have the proper protection. 

Verdict: Do what you can to make yourself happy.

Isabel 

Courtney 

Loretta Dredger

Dahlia McGarvey 

Faith

Hailey

wildflowers.between.pages

Kit Nash

Arden Kowalski

Patty M.

Elizabeth Hisserich

Kate Angileri

A poignant, heartbreaking, and uplifting, story in the tradition of The Perks of Being a Wallflower about three friends coming-of-age in the early 1980s as they struggle to forge their own paths in the face of fear of the unknown. Michael is content to live in the shadow of his best friends, James and Becky. Plus, his brother, Connor, has already been kicked out of the house for being gay and laying low seems to be Michael's only chance at avoiding the same fate. To pass the time before graduation, Michael hangs out at The Echo where he can dance and forget about his father's angry words, the pressures of school, and the looming threat of AIDS, a disease that everyone is talking about, but no one understands. Then he meets Gabriel, a boy who actually sees him. A boy who, unlike seemingly everyone else in New York City, is interested in him and not James. And Michael has to decide what he's willing to risk to be himself.

Abi Baker

Emma

We Are Lost and Found

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