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mesy_mark's review
2.0
I liked the Rainbow boy series. It was great (especially the audiobooks) but this was not a good book. This is a book about getting comfortable with sexuality. We have four main characters. Two sets of friends. There is Sergio a bisexual and Kimiko a butch lesbian. And then there is Allie a questioning teen and her best friend Lance, an out gay man. Lance likes Sergio but doesn't get the bisexual thing. And Kimiko likes Allie and so does Allie but she dosesn't know what to do with her boyfriend. This is where the characters are and basically, the rest of the book is conversations of the four to each other providing insight and whatnots to each other.
It mainly dialogue or discussion of dialogue. A lot of is he truly digging both and girls or is she just curious? Relationships going back and forth. Just not much to it. The only real positive of this book is that it explores different types of sexuality and that I got some quotes from it.
It mainly dialogue or discussion of dialogue. A lot of is he truly digging both and girls or is she just curious? Relationships going back and forth. Just not much to it. The only real positive of this book is that it explores different types of sexuality and that I got some quotes from it.
megatsunami's review against another edition
3.0
I enjoyed this book and found it very refreshing to read a book with bisexual main characters. Thank goodness. I also thought the characters mostly seemed like a realistic mix of being angsty/ having teenage drama, while also being mostly sensible and thoughtful young people. Downsides - the book felt overly didactic to me and the diversity of the characters felt very self-conscious (maybe young people really do hang out in such racially/ culturally heterogeneous groups, but that's not my memory of the teenage years).
peh27's review against another edition
i don’t love biphobia, whether it comes from the author or it’s integrated into the character. really unnecessary.
ssjonoyoung's review against another edition
3.0
Hmm I mean it wasn't bad and characters despite being pretty basic were entertaining. The storyline was nice as well it was good to see a character really opening up about their sexuality and the confusion. Lance and Sergio had some fun interactions though I wish we had just one more chapter rounding off their story a bit more. I think my main issue was that the writing was pretty simple and not in a good way unfortunately.
ecmanclt's review against another edition
5.0
I think it is a really good book, it had the right amount of everything in it. It's a Gay Teen book but it is a really amazing book. I loved it.
emmaleemay21's review against another edition
2.0
The writing isn't... good, and it feels really dated at this point. The characters are mostly one dimensional and maybe it's just the succinct writing, but a lot of the plot is unrealistic. I cannot imagine a person telling you they're bi and then you basically just say "I don't think bisexuality is real. I don't respect your identity and I think you're in denial about being gay." Then just making out after a quick apology??? Like what??
I get that it's about the characters "learning to accept" bisexuality, but jeez, the amount of biphobic comments in the first chapter alone had my eyes nearly popping out of my head! The biphobia is so random and blatant it's actually kind of jarring. Does anyone actually act like that in real life?
The whole "bisexuality" conflict seems like it should've easily been resolved in one conversation, but whatever, I guess for the time it was a good enough bone to throw us bisexuals.
I get that it's about the characters "learning to accept" bisexuality, but jeez, the amount of biphobic comments in the first chapter alone had my eyes nearly popping out of my head! The biphobia is so random and blatant it's actually kind of jarring. Does anyone actually act like that in real life?
The whole "bisexuality" conflict seems like it should've easily been resolved in one conversation, but whatever, I guess for the time it was a good enough bone to throw us bisexuals.
angelreadsthings's review against another edition
3.0
3 1/2 Stars. The good side is that this book handles bi issues through a teenage lens superbly. It offers characters that are more than simply stereotypes of their orientations, ethnicities, and ages. It establishes a good balance between romantic relationships and platonic relationships and gives each character unique interactions with their friends, partners, and parents. The bad side is that it feels less weighty than it could be. While I appreciated the range of the main characters, I never got deep enough into any of their emotions or thoughts to feel truly connected to the book. Thus, while I enjoyed a lot of the book, I didn't ultimately get as much out of it as I'd hoped.
shesnicky's review against another edition
2.0
I really wanted to give this more than 2 stars, because it was pretty cute, but the writing was so all over the place that it would have been an injustice to other books I've given 3 stars.
librosconte's review against another edition
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
miasantos's review
my friend read this book and sent me a couple quotes that were massive red flags.
we had a laugh for a time but now that it's been a couple hours I can't help thinking how ridiculously harmful this biphobic, sexist and insensitive pice could be to young audiences questioning who they are or who they like.
this book desregards an entire community that is often disrespected anyways. and if 20yo me has the mechanisms to filter this out of my life and understand that it's jus problematic and means nothing, there's a large amount of young people questioning that may not be able. and when you're 14/15 questioning your identity this can be so so damaging.
so pls, LGBT+ and allies, ban this book out of existence before it really fucks someone over. and Simon and Schuster PLEASE AND I CANNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH get a better sensitive reading team, PLEASE
(I would like to stress that this book is from 2011 and Simon and Schuster might have improved their standards a lot since this book first saw the light of day so don't go rain hell on them without double checking if the situation improved or not)
we had a laugh for a time but now that it's been a couple hours I can't help thinking how ridiculously harmful this biphobic, sexist and insensitive pice could be to young audiences questioning who they are or who they like.
this book desregards an entire community that is often disrespected anyways. and if 20yo me has the mechanisms to filter this out of my life and understand that it's jus problematic and means nothing, there's a large amount of young people questioning that may not be able. and when you're 14/15 questioning your identity this can be so so damaging.
so pls, LGBT+ and allies, ban this book out of existence before it really fucks someone over. and Simon and Schuster PLEASE AND I CANNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH get a better sensitive reading team, PLEASE
(I would like to stress that this book is from 2011 and Simon and Schuster might have improved their standards a lot since this book first saw the light of day so don't go rain hell on them without double checking if the situation improved or not)