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rainbowbookworm's review
5.0
One of the first collections of GLBT stories for young adults, the short stories are moving, entertaining, and funny.
bowienerd_82's review
3.0
A wonderful collection of YA stories about alternative sexualities and those who are questioning their sexuality.
This was another gem from my YA lit course. The title story (by Bruce Colville of the My Teacher is an Alien fame) is by far my favorite, but there are plenty more worth reading. At times funny, touching, and painful. One of my favorite anthologies out there.
This was another gem from my YA lit course. The title story (by Bruce Colville of the My Teacher is an Alien fame) is by far my favorite, but there are plenty more worth reading. At times funny, touching, and painful. One of my favorite anthologies out there.
mybluepants's review
5.0
Read this as part of a Young Adult lit class at college and fell in love with it. The stories are vulnerable, heartbreaking and loving.
libmeh's review
5.0
I call your attention to this excellent collection of stories for LBGT youth for the fantastic title story. A fairy godfather grants the wish of a harassed and gay-bashed youth to turn everyone who has a same-gender attraction blue. Some folks turn light blue, some medium blue and some are bright, bright blue. I think often of this story and sometimes wish I could make it happen in real life (then, I realize it would be very unsafe for many people and think it is a bad idea overall).
crescentmoondaydreams's review
informative
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
taylormorgantm's review
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
noelknd's review
3.0
As a queer person, I could not finish this selection. I know the introduction speaks to the "prejudice" of queer people wanting to only hear from queer authors, and I know that this anthology was collected in the early nineties, but too many of the stories were by pandering straight people who used their authors' blurb to talk about all their accomplishments and their authorial sacrifices made for us Poor Queers and how many gay men they knew who died in the AIDS crisis while simultaneously writing stories with strange and estranged queer characters that lacked both sympathy and depth, so. Three stars and I also didn't finish it.
xeni's review
1.0
This was a very odd book. The stories in here are all a bit older, so the "coming out" is still in a time when there was much animosity towards homosexuals (well, more than now). Still, none of the stories have really stuck with me over the years, thus the low rating.
jenny_librarian's review
3.0
3 stars
Trigger warnings: homophobia, biphobia, transphobia, violence
Content warning: erasure of every queer orientation that isn't gay or lesbian
The problem with this book is how old it is. Because of its age, it doesn't acknowledge any sexual orientation other than straight, gay and lesbian. Which doesn't leave a whole lot of space for diversity. If you were a queer teen in the 1990s, I'm sure this book would have been great (considering the lack of queer-friendly material back then). But reading it in 2020, it feels dated and I can't say I relate to any of the stories.
A lot of the stories included in this volume are violent. Homophobia is present in most of the stories, and there are a lot of microagressions. I don't know if it still represents what the US is like for queer people, but it left me sad if it's the case.
On the bright side, the amount of racial diversity was amazing! I've rarely seen 10+ years-old books with that much diversity, and I'm sure that helped a lot of diverse queer kids in their development. On that front, I believe this was a much needed book that can still be useful today.
Don't look into this book if you want any rep for non-gay/lesbian queer kids, but do read it if you want LG ethnically diverse rep!
Trigger warnings: homophobia, biphobia, transphobia, violence
Content warning: erasure of every queer orientation that isn't gay or lesbian
The problem with this book is how old it is. Because of its age, it doesn't acknowledge any sexual orientation other than straight, gay and lesbian. Which doesn't leave a whole lot of space for diversity. If you were a queer teen in the 1990s, I'm sure this book would have been great (considering the lack of queer-friendly material back then). But reading it in 2020, it feels dated and I can't say I relate to any of the stories.
A lot of the stories included in this volume are violent. Homophobia is present in most of the stories, and there are a lot of microagressions. I don't know if it still represents what the US is like for queer people, but it left me sad if it's the case.
On the bright side, the amount of racial diversity was amazing! I've rarely seen 10+ years-old books with that much diversity, and I'm sure that helped a lot of diverse queer kids in their development. On that front, I believe this was a much needed book that can still be useful today.
Don't look into this book if you want any rep for non-gay/lesbian queer kids, but do read it if you want LG ethnically diverse rep!
torts's review
3.0
I re-read this today. It's pretty amusing. I found the authors' bio-pages after their stories equally as amusing as the stories themselves. But the introduction was kind of depressing, because it mentioned something about the editor's hopes of no longer needing Gay-Straight-Bisexual Alliances in ten years...and the book was published in 1994. It's kind of disappointing how little seems to have changed in fourteen years. People need to stop hatin'.