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A review by sarah_who_reads
Give Me Some Truth by Eric Gansworth
4.0
***TW for sexual exploitation of teenage girls, alcoholism, racist violence***
Eric Gansworth writes great YA fiction. Like If I Ever Get Out of Here, Give Me Some Truth is a book for music lovers (especially of The Beatles and/or John Lennon and Yoko Ono). It's also a powerful look at the lives of indigenous teenagers in the US in the late 70s/early 80s, and an unusual example of a YA novel that doesn't necessarily end with a neatly-packaged HEA. Told from the dual perspectives of two members - Carson's and Maggi's - of the friend group that readers will remember from If I Ever Get Out of Here, which is set about five years earlier and focuses on another member of the group, Lewis, the book deals with big issues in both teenage life and indigenous communities, such as bad grades, crushes, and cars, but also alcoholism, sexual exploitation of girls and young women, racism, and erasure. For me, this book was difficult to read because there is a "romance" that runs throughout most of the book and is rooted in statutory rape (though no rape actually takes place) and the exotifying Native women and girls while treating Native men and boys with physical violence. The "romance" is not condoned, but it is written like many teenagers would think about it, and even though the author is clearly condemning the age-of-majority man in the "relationship," it is still difficult to read, especially because the end of the book is realistic rather than HEA. For me, this look at the sexual exploitation of a fifteen-year-old was the realest and most important part of this book, even though it was tempered by the lighter focus on music and a Battle of the Bands, and even though it was set against a backdrop of plenty of other terrible things happening, as mentioned above. If you can handle it, the book is well worth your time.
Eric Gansworth writes great YA fiction. Like If I Ever Get Out of Here, Give Me Some Truth is a book for music lovers (especially of The Beatles and/or John Lennon and Yoko Ono). It's also a powerful look at the lives of indigenous teenagers in the US in the late 70s/early 80s, and an unusual example of a YA novel that doesn't necessarily end with a neatly-packaged HEA. Told from the dual perspectives of two members - Carson's and Maggi's - of the friend group that readers will remember from If I Ever Get Out of Here, which is set about five years earlier and focuses on another member of the group, Lewis, the book deals with big issues in both teenage life and indigenous communities, such as bad grades, crushes, and cars, but also alcoholism, sexual exploitation of girls and young women, racism, and erasure. For me, this book was difficult to read because there is a "romance" that runs throughout most of the book and is rooted in statutory rape (though no rape actually takes place) and the exotifying Native women and girls while treating Native men and boys with physical violence. The "romance" is not condoned, but it is written like many teenagers would think about it, and even though the author is clearly condemning the age-of-majority man in the "relationship," it is still difficult to read, especially because the end of the book is realistic rather than HEA. For me, this look at the sexual exploitation of a fifteen-year-old was the realest and most important part of this book, even though it was tempered by the lighter focus on music and a Battle of the Bands, and even though it was set against a backdrop of plenty of other terrible things happening, as mentioned above. If you can handle it, the book is well worth your time.