A review by jayqueuetee
Love & Other Curses by Michael Thomas Ford

4.0

This book probably has two or three two many things going on for it, but it made my heart SING. It's a smart and open look at what life for a gay kid can be these days. Sam is still questioning what his particular version of gayness is, and where he fits in the world. His grandmothers are like the witches from Hocus Pocus, so delightfully nutty and adorable. The friendship Sam creates with Tom is handled with a deftness I haven't seen in many books, much less a YA one, and I enjoy that Tom is a tough character to love even though you sympathize completely with what he's going through in his own struggle to get his parents to accept his identity. And the found family he finds with the drag queens at the local gay bar is so sweet and generous. That Sam doesn't really need more family isn't the point - it's that he finds people he belongs with and his relationship with those queens, especially Lola, made me cry. I'm still musing over the phone calls with "Linda" and how that whole plot line, though important to Sam's growth, fits in with everything else going on at home. I enjoyed that outlet for him; I don't know that it was folded in as well as I would like.

But let's be honest: I'm here for Sam and his dad. What an incredible father-son relationship. The scene about two thirds of the way through when his father finds him in a bad way in his bedroom after a disastrous night will stick with me for a while. What a gorgeous and real and aspirational relationship. (Though the fact that his dad is at least four years younger than me is really hard to get my head around - I don't know that I could be that good of a parent, especially to a kid Sam's age, when I was that young.)