Reviews tagging 'Biphobia'

The Lesbiana's Guide to Catholic School by Sonora Reyes

119 reviews

therewillbenewsuns's profile picture

therewillbenewsuns's review

5.0
emotional funny hopeful inspiring tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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challenging emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted reflective relaxing sad medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
emotional hopeful inspiring sad medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

This is the type of Young Adult fiction I like! 

This book has actually renewed my faith in YA fiction. I used to really like YA fiction in high school and I assumed I just stopped liking it, but this book has renewed my faith in the genre. 

Turns out I don't hate YA, I just hate a lot YA books. But it is good to know that good YA still exists! 

Thank you  Sonora Reyes for renewing my hope in finding YA books that I will enjoy 😭.

I loved Yami, Bo, Cesar, and Jamal (I read this via audio so some of these might be spelled wrong). 
I liked the realistic approach to family relationships and dynamics. I think this handled and portrayed a hard situations in a believable and well rounded way. 

I think Yami's relationships with her mother, brother, and father, were representative, real, and human. 

I loved every part of this book, would recommend! 

**adds Sonora Reyes back log to my tbr**




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adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted reflective sad tense
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

This book held so many emotions but still overflowed with queer joy. Reyes captured the rawness of feeling alone, fearing your family’s reaction, actually facing rejection, and trying to find acceptance anyway. It covered suicidal thoughts, gay panic, new friendships, the heartbreak of losing them, and the warmth of parents who truly accept you. That part reminded me of my own family and made my heart so full.

I loved Yami and Caesar’s sibling relationship and how much closer they grow when they share their truth with each other. I want to keep that part vague to avoid spoilers, but it made me so emotional. Bo is such an authentic character, and seeing her live so honestly pushes Yami to imagine she can be just as brave. My favorite moment was when Yami spent the holidays with Bo and her parents. Bo’s family reminded me of mine and the love they showed Yami felt so genuine and healing.

Some parts were painfully relatable. The rejection from family hit home for me, and the way Caesar’s situation made Yami question how well she really knew him felt so raw. I don’t know if I tapped back into my own teen angst or just related too much as a lesbian, but the way Yami’s mom treats her really got to me. Especially the way her mom tries to blame her for what happened to Caesar. I’m glad her mom comes around in the end, but I felt like the lack of real accountability was missing something for me. Yami is so ready to forgive because her mom finally accepts her, but I wish there was more reflection on that hurt.

The ending was incredible. At first I wanted the mean girls (Emily, Karen, and Jenna) to maybe change, but I’m glad it didn’t go that way. It felt more real. For most of the book I was convinced Jenna had a crush on Bo, which might have been implied or maybe I just read it that way, but either way it was so relatable. This story was messy and joyful and real. I loved it.

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sweetsanchia's profile picture

sweetsanchia's review

5.0
emotional funny reflective tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
challenging emotional funny hopeful informative reflective tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
emotional funny hopeful lighthearted sad medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

An incredible read I wish I had in high school. I love how well the author navigates such overwhelming topics and addresses so many intersections of queerness, race/ethnicity, feminism, disability, etc. without making the book seem like it’s just trying to market to a wider audience. This is the book so-called allies need to be reading. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
emotional funny hopeful inspiring medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Rating: 5/5 Stars

Why am I not surprised that I sobbed over another Sonora Reyes masterpiece? Listening to the audiobook was so the right choice as well, the narrator did a phenomenal job voicing Yamilet and bringing Yami to life. This book is so moving and important to read. There are a lot of serious topics that I do recommend reading the trigger warnings for, but if you believe you are in the right mindset to read/listen, it's going to be so worth it. I could relate so much to Yami's nerves over her coming out process, and about the pressure to be the "perfect sibling/child." Reyes also brings up important talks around immigration and the likelihood of police brutality happening in more predominantly BIPOC neighborhoods/to BIPOC people. Racism and homophobia are very important topics in this book, and Reyes is real with showing that not all people in life are supportive of differences. But what Reyes also shows is the found family and camaraderie that also happen when you find other people who are open-minded and not bigoted assholes. Religious bigotry is real, especially within Christianity/Catholicism, and Reyes shows this while also showing you can believe in God without believing in the church. This book was so well written, and had me laughing, crying, and screaming in ways I didn't realize I could scream. I highly recommend this book to everyone and anyone.

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