Take a photo of a barcode or cover
rickjones 's review for:
こいものがたり 1 Koimonogatari 1
by Tohru Tagura
Thank you to NetGalley and TokyoPop for providing me an advanced reader copy of this title in exchange for an honest review.
This is primarily a story about self-discovery, as narrated by Yuji and his closeted gay classmate Yamato. At the beginning of the book, Yuji has some backward ideas about how Yamato being gay may influence his behavior. However, he eventually becomes more open-minded as both boys spend more time together. Personally, I don't like seeing homophobic mindsets in stories that aren't specifically discussing oppression, but I understand how the writer might have been compelled to display and disprove some common misconceptions about how gay men think and behave.
Unfortunately, this was somewhat derailed with the introduction of an older gay teenager who essentially assaults Yamato and plays it off as a joke. The inclusion of that event was very jarring and definitely soured my enjoyment of this book. While harassment from older people is something I and other gay friends have had experience with, I don't feel it's a wise idea to put into young teenagers heads that the first fellow gay person they meet will inevitably try to assault them. Older people taking advantage of children who lack an adequate support network and understanding of healthy boundaries is a complex and traumatizing issue in our community, and discussion of it needs to be nuanced and not played off as a joke, even in a fictional setting.
Aside from that event, the aspect of this story I appreciated most was that Yuji and Yamato are both written as narrators. Most stories I've read in which one character is learning to understand someone different from them typically don't include perspective changes. This often leads the protagonist's outsider perspective to inadvertently other the individual and community their increase in understanding is focused on. While this book is not perfect, I did enjoy seeing both boys' thinking displayed equally. Hopefully more narratives with similar intent will continue to utilize this pattern.
This is primarily a story about self-discovery, as narrated by Yuji and his closeted gay classmate Yamato. At the beginning of the book, Yuji has some backward ideas about how Yamato being gay may influence his behavior. However, he eventually becomes more open-minded as both boys spend more time together. Personally, I don't like seeing homophobic mindsets in stories that aren't specifically discussing oppression, but I understand how the writer might have been compelled to display and disprove some common misconceptions about how gay men think and behave.
Unfortunately, this was somewhat derailed with the introduction of an older gay teenager who essentially assaults Yamato and plays it off as a joke. The inclusion of that event was very jarring and definitely soured my enjoyment of this book. While harassment from older people is something I and other gay friends have had experience with, I don't feel it's a wise idea to put into young teenagers heads that the first fellow gay person they meet will inevitably try to assault them. Older people taking advantage of children who lack an adequate support network and understanding of healthy boundaries is a complex and traumatizing issue in our community, and discussion of it needs to be nuanced and not played off as a joke, even in a fictional setting.
Aside from that event, the aspect of this story I appreciated most was that Yuji and Yamato are both written as narrators. Most stories I've read in which one character is learning to understand someone different from them typically don't include perspective changes. This often leads the protagonist's outsider perspective to inadvertently other the individual and community their increase in understanding is focused on. While this book is not perfect, I did enjoy seeing both boys' thinking displayed equally. Hopefully more narratives with similar intent will continue to utilize this pattern.