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A review by whiterose912
Boyfriends with Girlfriends by Alex Sanchez
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
1.0
THIS REVIEW WILL CONTAIN SOME SPOILERS. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
In 2001, Alex Sanchez wrote Rainbow Boys. In 2003, he wrote Rainbow High. And in 2005, he wrote Rainbow Road. All three of these books I have read and enjoyed, featuring solid characters and plots and treating topics like bisexuality and HIV/AIDS with respect. Unfortunately, in 2011, he released Boyfriends with Girlfriends and undid all of that.
When Boyfriends with Girlfriends allows itself to be a young adult romance story, it's quite sweet, but it's overshadowed by a whole mess of problematic representation. The bisexual character, Sergio, has no defining traits beyond being bi and Mexican. Lance the gay likes show tunes and musicals, Allie the "straight" girl likes anime and manga, Kimiko the lesbian is into poetry. Sergio's sole trait is that he is bisexual. Not that it matters much as the story is paced so poorly and head-hops so often that none of the characters get any time to shine, you don't get a chance to connect to any of them and they end up feeling flat and shallow.
When the guys are together, they talk about sex and sexuality. When they're not talking about it, they're thinking about it. Their first conversation in the story was about which gender the bisexual prefers which was an attempt by the gay Lance to determine what Sergio's "true" sexuality is. On the second date, Sergio reflects on dating and thinks that two guys dating is like a competition about who can get into the other's pants faster. Two chapters after this, Chapter Eleven, Sergio and Lance get into each other’s pants. I mean, seriously?
I mentioned problematic representation, and there are three main ones. First, the bisexual Sergio has a fascination with sex over relationships, he mentions that people can be friends with benefits, he expresses his interest in possible threesomes, and also sees nothing wrong with open relationships. Ordinarily this would be fine except he is bisexual, and all Sanchez manages to do is push the idea that bisexual people are promiscuous. Although Sergio himself mentions a lot that he is happy being bisexual, through the viewpoint of Lance we see a gay character trying to decide why Sergio won't just commit to one gender, not one person but one gender. A reductive viewpoint.
The second problematic representation is the Japanese character and her family. It relies on the harmful stereotype that Japanese women and demure and delicate, which is at odds with the butch nature of Kimiko. This does get addressed and resolved later in the story, but I found myself uncomfortable with the fact that the Japanese kids do karate as a sport, and that the connection between Kimiko and Allie is formed over shounen-ai and shoujo-ai novels (both outdated terms now), and that the other characters refer to the reserved but stern mother of Kimiko as the “Dragon Lady”.
The third problematic representation which is just a brief part of the story is during the second date that the guys have. They go to an Ethiopian restaurant and are served by a waitress, who is the only black woman in the entire novel I might add (Darrell might be black too but honestly, I didn't care enough about him to notice). During the date, the gay couple eat injera and wat, in simple terms injera are flatbreads like pancakes and wat are thick stews. The author describes the food as being "baby food-like", and then a page later one of them as "sweet orange goop". Whenever the author mentions Mexican foods like churros, they're just churros, no demeaning terms for those but the Ethiopian food? That's goop for babies. For goodness’s sake.
Now, on to some more positive things. In the last ten percent of the book the conflict of the story switches from bisexuality to relationships. Instead of the characters worrying about being bisexual or dating a bisexual, they instead worry about if they can date someone at all. This greatly improves the quality of the book but it's so late in the story that it feels tacked on, the dating of the main couples seems rushed and serves to hurry along to a conclusion with little in terms of resolution.
And the final positive part of the story is the character Chip. He is Allie's boyfriend at the start. He doesn't care that Allie's best friend is gay, he also doesn't care that Allie herself might be bisexual. He is a sweet guy who has a soft side, and when Allie breaks up with him, he cries. He gave me stereotypical jock vibes in the beginning but every time I thought he would do something homophobic or whatever he did the opposite. The book should have been about him.
This book is an example of how not to write bisexual characters, and how not to write Japanese characters. If you want better stories with bisexual representation, read Openly Straight and Honestly Ben, both by Bill Konigsberg (though Honestly Ben has more bi content). Or read the charmingly adorable webcomic Heartstopper by Alice Oseman. Even reading Rainbow Boys, Sanchez's first book, would be better bi rep. Save yourself the trouble, skip this book and look for something better.
In 2001, Alex Sanchez wrote Rainbow Boys. In 2003, he wrote Rainbow High. And in 2005, he wrote Rainbow Road. All three of these books I have read and enjoyed, featuring solid characters and plots and treating topics like bisexuality and HIV/AIDS with respect. Unfortunately, in 2011, he released Boyfriends with Girlfriends and undid all of that.
When Boyfriends with Girlfriends allows itself to be a young adult romance story, it's quite sweet, but it's overshadowed by a whole mess of problematic representation. The bisexual character, Sergio, has no defining traits beyond being bi and Mexican. Lance the gay likes show tunes and musicals, Allie the "straight" girl likes anime and manga, Kimiko the lesbian is into poetry. Sergio's sole trait is that he is bisexual. Not that it matters much as the story is paced so poorly and head-hops so often that none of the characters get any time to shine, you don't get a chance to connect to any of them and they end up feeling flat and shallow.
When the guys are together, they talk about sex and sexuality. When they're not talking about it, they're thinking about it. Their first conversation in the story was about which gender the bisexual prefers which was an attempt by the gay Lance to determine what Sergio's "true" sexuality is. On the second date, Sergio reflects on dating and thinks that two guys dating is like a competition about who can get into the other's pants faster. Two chapters after this, Chapter Eleven, Sergio and Lance get into each other’s pants. I mean, seriously?
I mentioned problematic representation, and there are three main ones. First, the bisexual Sergio has a fascination with sex over relationships, he mentions that people can be friends with benefits, he expresses his interest in possible threesomes, and also sees nothing wrong with open relationships. Ordinarily this would be fine except he is bisexual, and all Sanchez manages to do is push the idea that bisexual people are promiscuous. Although Sergio himself mentions a lot that he is happy being bisexual, through the viewpoint of Lance we see a gay character trying to decide why Sergio won't just commit to one gender, not one person but one gender. A reductive viewpoint.
The second problematic representation is the Japanese character and her family. It relies on the harmful stereotype that Japanese women and demure and delicate, which is at odds with the butch nature of Kimiko. This does get addressed and resolved later in the story, but I found myself uncomfortable with the fact that the Japanese kids do karate as a sport, and that the connection between Kimiko and Allie is formed over shounen-ai and shoujo-ai novels (both outdated terms now), and that the other characters refer to the reserved but stern mother of Kimiko as the “Dragon Lady”.
The third problematic representation which is just a brief part of the story is during the second date that the guys have. They go to an Ethiopian restaurant and are served by a waitress, who is the only black woman in the entire novel I might add (Darrell might be black too but honestly, I didn't care enough about him to notice). During the date, the gay couple eat injera and wat, in simple terms injera are flatbreads like pancakes and wat are thick stews. The author describes the food as being "baby food-like", and then a page later one of them as "sweet orange goop". Whenever the author mentions Mexican foods like churros, they're just churros, no demeaning terms for those but the Ethiopian food? That's goop for babies. For goodness’s sake.
Now, on to some more positive things. In the last ten percent of the book the conflict of the story switches from bisexuality to relationships. Instead of the characters worrying about being bisexual or dating a bisexual, they instead worry about if they can date someone at all. This greatly improves the quality of the book but it's so late in the story that it feels tacked on, the dating of the main couples seems rushed and serves to hurry along to a conclusion with little in terms of resolution.
And the final positive part of the story is the character Chip. He is Allie's boyfriend at the start. He doesn't care that Allie's best friend is gay, he also doesn't care that Allie herself might be bisexual. He is a sweet guy who has a soft side, and when Allie breaks up with him, he cries. He gave me stereotypical jock vibes in the beginning but every time I thought he would do something homophobic or whatever he did the opposite. The book should have been about him.
This book is an example of how not to write bisexual characters, and how not to write Japanese characters. If you want better stories with bisexual representation, read Openly Straight and Honestly Ben, both by Bill Konigsberg (though Honestly Ben has more bi content). Or read the charmingly adorable webcomic Heartstopper by Alice Oseman. Even reading Rainbow Boys, Sanchez's first book, would be better bi rep. Save yourself the trouble, skip this book and look for something better.
Content Warnings
Minor: Racism