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A review by alifromkc1907
Thinking Straight by Robin Reardon
4.0
Read more at http://rainbowreviews.wix.com/readingfree or on Instagram @rainbowreviewskc
When Taylor's parents find out he's gay, they immediately ship him off to a camp, called Straight to God. (No, it's not a place for gay conversion therapy.) When he gets there, he discovers everything around him is about Christ and the way the bible accepts, and shuns us from our sins. But when Taylor's roommate starts acting distant, he feels that it's time to investigate (afterall, he's finally out of the SafeZone).
You may like this book if you like the following sub-genres:
GBLT
Religion/Christianity
Sexual Abuse
This book was a huge surprise. When I originally started reading it, I swore I'd be reading a true story about a conversion camp. But sure enough, I read the not-so-true story of Taylor, a boy who needed to know that through Christ there was love, and that being gay wouldn't change that. I thought, "Surely I'll get tired of reading all these bible verses." But I didn't. It was more re-assuring than anything, despite my own personal acceptance of my sexuality.
The story line, was good. But the concepts didn't mesh well with the writing style, which was the biggest disappointment in this novel. The way this is written, it feels like a memoir. I very much felt as if Taylor was a real person, and that I was following a brief moment in his life. But that brief moment, was too brief. Taylor was expected to be at the camp over the summer, but by the 100th page, I was only at day 2. But the end of the book, I only saw, 10 days, maybe? For me, I felt cheated. I would've liked to see the same chain of events happen, because I think it was extremely powerful, but it took a while to get to the camp, and the ending was really abrupt. I would've liked to see a bit more character growth, and while this is a separate issue, I think it would've been so rewarding to see more than just two characters change. The lack of substance from the other characters that Taylor bonded with could've accounted for more purposeful pages. While something happened in every chapter, the most important things happened in the first 98 pages, and the last 50 pages. That leaves 150 pages of things that weren't unimportant, but they didn't add a lot of value (for me) to the story line. I also missed the closure (if there was any) because Taylor and his parents as well as between Taylor and Will.
But this story, it's one many experience - that Christian values counter the ability to be gay. This story did an amazing job of showing the different levels of acceptance for gay Christians. As I mentioned previously, this felt like a memoir. That's a combination of how it was written, and the experience behind it. It felt very realistic. There were few moments that I thought, "that's not really going to happen." And then I remember an episode of some crime show and think, wait, that did happen... and there was no disclaimer before hand. It's not in the papers so much anymore, but when this book was written in 2008, this was a hot-topic issue in Obama's campaign. And that's because being gay was shifting from being the greatest sin (although, this book reminds us that no sin varies in weight from another) to being something progressives accept. This book looked into the future, into that historical shift and that's something that could've been predicted, but in no way could the author have known has drastic that shift was going to be. I think the reality-factor behind this novel made it that much more entertaining. And I don't mean that in the sense that reading about these camps is a laugh-factor; but I never felt like I had to put the book down. I became increasingly annoyed when I was interrupted as a matter of fact.
The title was really well done. "Thinking Straight" isn't just a phrase (as in, I'm so tired I wasn't thinking straight,) used, but it's used in the sense that these gay youth need to think straight. But they can't, because this is a thing ingrained in their bodies, in their DNA. And I think that the title, paired with the cover art (see above) really drove home this idea that these teenagers are caged into this camp with parental threats on the outside; that if they don't become straight, if they don't become straight edge, if they don't become calm/mild-mannered teenagers, that a certain hell awaits them on the other side of the fence. It's a separation of church and state; it's a separation of healthy and unhealthy; of reality and inner impulses; it's the epitome of what it means to try to think straight.
When Taylor's parents find out he's gay, they immediately ship him off to a camp, called Straight to God. (No, it's not a place for gay conversion therapy.) When he gets there, he discovers everything around him is about Christ and the way the bible accepts, and shuns us from our sins. But when Taylor's roommate starts acting distant, he feels that it's time to investigate (afterall, he's finally out of the SafeZone).
You may like this book if you like the following sub-genres:
GBLT
Religion/Christianity
Sexual Abuse
This book was a huge surprise. When I originally started reading it, I swore I'd be reading a true story about a conversion camp. But sure enough, I read the not-so-true story of Taylor, a boy who needed to know that through Christ there was love, and that being gay wouldn't change that. I thought, "Surely I'll get tired of reading all these bible verses." But I didn't. It was more re-assuring than anything, despite my own personal acceptance of my sexuality.
The story line, was good. But the concepts didn't mesh well with the writing style, which was the biggest disappointment in this novel. The way this is written, it feels like a memoir. I very much felt as if Taylor was a real person, and that I was following a brief moment in his life. But that brief moment, was too brief. Taylor was expected to be at the camp over the summer, but by the 100th page, I was only at day 2. But the end of the book, I only saw, 10 days, maybe? For me, I felt cheated. I would've liked to see the same chain of events happen, because I think it was extremely powerful, but it took a while to get to the camp, and the ending was really abrupt. I would've liked to see a bit more character growth, and while this is a separate issue, I think it would've been so rewarding to see more than just two characters change. The lack of substance from the other characters that Taylor bonded with could've accounted for more purposeful pages. While something happened in every chapter, the most important things happened in the first 98 pages, and the last 50 pages. That leaves 150 pages of things that weren't unimportant, but they didn't add a lot of value (for me) to the story line. I also missed the closure (if there was any) because Taylor and his parents as well as between Taylor and Will.
But this story, it's one many experience - that Christian values counter the ability to be gay. This story did an amazing job of showing the different levels of acceptance for gay Christians. As I mentioned previously, this felt like a memoir. That's a combination of how it was written, and the experience behind it. It felt very realistic. There were few moments that I thought, "that's not really going to happen." And then I remember an episode of some crime show and think, wait, that did happen... and there was no disclaimer before hand. It's not in the papers so much anymore, but when this book was written in 2008, this was a hot-topic issue in Obama's campaign. And that's because being gay was shifting from being the greatest sin (although, this book reminds us that no sin varies in weight from another) to being something progressives accept. This book looked into the future, into that historical shift and that's something that could've been predicted, but in no way could the author have known has drastic that shift was going to be. I think the reality-factor behind this novel made it that much more entertaining. And I don't mean that in the sense that reading about these camps is a laugh-factor; but I never felt like I had to put the book down. I became increasingly annoyed when I was interrupted as a matter of fact.
The title was really well done. "Thinking Straight" isn't just a phrase (as in, I'm so tired I wasn't thinking straight,) used, but it's used in the sense that these gay youth need to think straight. But they can't, because this is a thing ingrained in their bodies, in their DNA. And I think that the title, paired with the cover art (see above) really drove home this idea that these teenagers are caged into this camp with parental threats on the outside; that if they don't become straight, if they don't become straight edge, if they don't become calm/mild-mannered teenagers, that a certain hell awaits them on the other side of the fence. It's a separation of church and state; it's a separation of healthy and unhealthy; of reality and inner impulses; it's the epitome of what it means to try to think straight.