A review by avokaitotoast
Jay's Gay Agenda by Jason June

lighthearted fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.5

my advice before you read this book:
  • go into it knowing that it is for teens (but also written by someone who doesn’t know what teens do now)
  • know that there will be lots of (often cringe) talk surrounding sex and virginity
  • embrace the cringe and let it come full circle into camp territory.
  • do not take a shot every time u see the word „gawd“, „frack“, or „VSB“
  • chapter 18/19 are fairly explicit
  • 2 modern teen references are made in the entire book

don’t get me wrong — this book is a fine read. it kept me interested and id still recommend it to people looking for queer lit, there was just a cringy child-ness to the main character and his inner monologue. i’m also over reading (or watching) things strictly about teens and their sex lives. 

jay sort of gave me kurt hummel from glee but in 2020 vibes (only out gay kid in a small town w a dad who works on cars? literally kurt) and  i both loved and hated it. definitely a stereotype (which they are self aware of, it’s brought up how stereotypical jay is).

POS
  • easy read
  • enjoyable cringe to a certain point
  • fun to hate read

MAJOR NEGS
  • jay is supposed to be 17/18 but acts more like a 14/15 year old while discussing extremely adult topics (not a vibe)
  • discussion of the impacts of stereotypes is mentioned but when covering the topic of racial stereotypes it gets really weird… aka the only POC in the books essentially says „i used to hate that i’m asian and do xyz but now i embrace it“ and coming from a white author it feels very „i’m supposed to discuss race in my book bc it’s the PC thing to do“ but did not hit the mark at all

i don’t like giving negative reviews to queer lit (and i don’t think this is entirely negative — like i said, i did enjoy it a lot!!) because there is so little of it and i always want to support queer art. that being said, while it’s no great work of fiction, it’s a nice quick and enjoyable read if you don’t mind the extreme cringe and constant (i mean constant) dialogue surrounding sex and virginity.



Expand filter menu Content Warnings