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bonnieg 's review for:
Autoboyography
by Christina Lauren
You know all the stuff I have said about not liking YA, I take it back. A lovely coming of age story. I loved Tanner, who knows himself and makes interesting and age-appropriate decisions. He is smart, thoughtful, and hard-working, a good friend and son and boyfriend. He is bi in a really authentic way. He knows he is privileged, and understands that comes with responsibilities. There is pain here, but in the end nothing is unnecessarily dramatic. I also loved that female virginity was not treated as the MOST IMPORTANT THING EVER but its loss is still given its due as a major life event. Tanner and Autumn particularly are such authentic characters. One of my regular YA issues is that the teens don't act like teens. That was not an issue here. My biggest issue with YA is that it oversimplifies issues, and that there are no secondary issues, its just the central conflict and nothing else exists in the world and no one is impacted but the primary characters. Not so here on either count. This is really a 4.5. I had a couple concerns. Given Tanner's mother's almost pathological PFLAG zeal I don't think she would have moved her kids to Provo, no matter how appealing the job offer. Also, years ago I spent a good deal of time in Utah for business reasons, and though I would NEVER want to live there, the LDS people I got to know were good people. I am not saying they would not reject their gay child if they had one, they well might, but there would be real pain and conflict and not just a bloodless rejection. I would have liked to get a hint of that. Otherwise just great.