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midnightbagel 's review for:
Autoboyography
by Christina Lauren
*3.5 stars*
EDIT - it’s been a little bit since I finished this and I can’t stop thinking about this book, and I only have fond memories of it. Hence, I’m raising my ~official~ rating to the full 4 stars.
This book....kind of leaves me at a loss? I’m on winter break from uni, and I just feel like I’ve been reading nothing but heavy and dense texts so I really needed something quick and light. I turned to this, thinking “oh perfect, a sweet and fluffy YA contemporary” — which is what I got — but also not.
These writers usually helm from new adult / adult romance land, and the writing shows that very much. It was incredibly easy to digest, no painstakingly beautiful phrases, and dialogue that felt very tongue in cheek. It was incredibly fast paced, I read it in two sittings, and the romance did leave me feeling warm and fuzzy, exactly what I had wanted and expected. It checked all my boxes of something to fill the desire now, of something fun but not something that would necessarily stick with me — except it took me by surprise in a way I wasn’t anticipating.
I knew this book was about a male relationship going in, but I didn’t realize that Tanner, the main character was bi, and this affected me more than I was expecting. I myself am bi (and so is one of the authors of this novel, so it’s OwnVoices rep, even better!!), and bi representation in media really isn’t great, so seeing myself in this novel shook me more than I was expecting. More than it affecting me at my current point, where i’m very much assured in my sexuality, it made me wish so much that I had this book when I was in late middle school / early high school, where I didn’t even know being bi was a possibility, and I only discovered the name of it because of being entrenched in fandom culture on tumblr where I was then exposed to it and thought “wow, that’s me”. I grew up in an incredibly conservative family and town, one that still does not think i’m anything but straight, so to have read this book when I was young and unsure, would have been so powerful. Not to mention I think the arc of Sebastian dealing with the intersection of himself and his faith was very compelling, and realistic. It may seem harsh to some, but Christina and Lauren put a lot of research into this aspect of the book, and as someone who used to be very involved in church, it seemed like it was handled well.
It just made me really appreciate the book more, and made it feel more personal to me, and have much more meaning than “just a fluffy read” — which is still is in many, many points — it’s funny, and cute, and certainly not melodramatic. It was also more than that, but not overly more than that. I think this book was exactly what it was trying to be, not overly complicated or glamorous, and I appreciate that, and I also appreciate how it spoke to me personally, hence why I just can’t let it sit rounded down to 3 stars.
EDIT - it’s been a little bit since I finished this and I can’t stop thinking about this book, and I only have fond memories of it. Hence, I’m raising my ~official~ rating to the full 4 stars.
This book....kind of leaves me at a loss? I’m on winter break from uni, and I just feel like I’ve been reading nothing but heavy and dense texts so I really needed something quick and light. I turned to this, thinking “oh perfect, a sweet and fluffy YA contemporary” — which is what I got — but also not.
These writers usually helm from new adult / adult romance land, and the writing shows that very much. It was incredibly easy to digest, no painstakingly beautiful phrases, and dialogue that felt very tongue in cheek. It was incredibly fast paced, I read it in two sittings, and the romance did leave me feeling warm and fuzzy, exactly what I had wanted and expected. It checked all my boxes of something to fill the desire now, of something fun but not something that would necessarily stick with me — except it took me by surprise in a way I wasn’t anticipating.
I knew this book was about a male relationship going in, but I didn’t realize that Tanner, the main character was bi, and this affected me more than I was expecting. I myself am bi (and so is one of the authors of this novel, so it’s OwnVoices rep, even better!!), and bi representation in media really isn’t great, so seeing myself in this novel shook me more than I was expecting. More than it affecting me at my current point, where i’m very much assured in my sexuality, it made me wish so much that I had this book when I was in late middle school / early high school, where I didn’t even know being bi was a possibility, and I only discovered the name of it because of being entrenched in fandom culture on tumblr where I was then exposed to it and thought “wow, that’s me”. I grew up in an incredibly conservative family and town, one that still does not think i’m anything but straight, so to have read this book when I was young and unsure, would have been so powerful. Not to mention I think the arc of Sebastian dealing with the intersection of himself and his faith was very compelling, and realistic. It may seem harsh to some, but Christina and Lauren put a lot of research into this aspect of the book, and as someone who used to be very involved in church, it seemed like it was handled well.
It just made me really appreciate the book more, and made it feel more personal to me, and have much more meaning than “just a fluffy read” — which is still is in many, many points — it’s funny, and cute, and certainly not melodramatic. It was also more than that, but not overly more than that. I think this book was exactly what it was trying to be, not overly complicated or glamorous, and I appreciate that, and I also appreciate how it spoke to me personally, hence why I just can’t let it sit rounded down to 3 stars.