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alertnerd's Reviews (169)
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I was super excited to read this one when it was first announced, and I ended up being surprised by how slow it was at the start. It took me a little while to get invested in the plot and the characters, but once I did I ended up reading it in a couple hours. All the mysteries throughout the story made this a quick read. I wanted to know what the characters were hiding and what the secrets from their past were.
The first thing that jumped out to me was that the main character, Sam’s sexuality was established at the beginning and while it was an important part of his character, it wasn’t vital to the plot of the story.
The whole story I was waiting for somebody to cut James some slack, and I felt like he was very unfairly treated. He was going through a lot and his friends weren’t super supportive about it. Delia wrote him off as a troublemaker without even considering everything that he was going through with an abusive and homophobic father. I would have appreciated it if we had seen them attempting to help him but they just commented that he drank too much and it was never really discussed further.
I was also a little disappointed with the ending. I felt like there wasn’t a whole lot of resolution for the characters and everything wrapped up very quickly. It seems like there was some room left for a sequel?? I think this story and these characters would work really well as a series. If that’s the case, I look forward to reading more of these stories.
The first thing that jumped out to me was that the main character, Sam’s sexuality was established at the beginning and while it was an important part of his character, it wasn’t vital to the plot of the story.
The whole story I was waiting for somebody to cut James some slack, and I felt like he was very unfairly treated. He was going through a lot and his friends weren’t super supportive about it. Delia wrote him off as a troublemaker without even considering everything that he was going through with an abusive and homophobic father. I would have appreciated it if we had seen them attempting to help him but they just commented that he drank too much and it was never really discussed further.
I was also a little disappointed with the ending. I felt like there wasn’t a whole lot of resolution for the characters and everything wrapped up very quickly. It seems like there was some room left for a sequel?? I think this story and these characters would work really well as a series. If that’s the case, I look forward to reading more of these stories.
challenging
emotional
sad
medium-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Jonny Appleseed tells the story of Jonny, a Two-Spirit, Oji-Cree cybersex worker as he attempts to earn enough money to return to the reservation for his step-father’s funeral. Leading up to his return to the rez, Jonny takes us on a journey recounting stories of the women who raised him, the men he fetishizes himself for, and his first love.
I don’t even know where to start with this one. It is equal parts heartbreaking, uplifting, romantic, and emotional. Joshua Whitehead describes Jonny’s traumatic events, sweet moments with his kokum, his complicated relationship with his first love, Tias, almost in a stream of consciousness style. It really feels like we’re reading Jonny’s journal and he’s sharing memories as they come to him. This makes everything feel very real and like Jonny’s not just a character in a book.
The story is nonlinear which can make it a little confusing at times, but this just adds to the richness of the story. I believe if this story was written in chronological order, it wouldn’t have been as compelling.
This is the first book I’ve read by Joshua Whitehead and I’m looking forward to reading more in the future.
I don’t even know where to start with this one. It is equal parts heartbreaking, uplifting, romantic, and emotional. Joshua Whitehead describes Jonny’s traumatic events, sweet moments with his kokum, his complicated relationship with his first love, Tias, almost in a stream of consciousness style. It really feels like we’re reading Jonny’s journal and he’s sharing memories as they come to him. This makes everything feel very real and like Jonny’s not just a character in a book.
The story is nonlinear which can make it a little confusing at times, but this just adds to the richness of the story. I believe if this story was written in chronological order, it wouldn’t have been as compelling.
This is the first book I’ve read by Joshua Whitehead and I’m looking forward to reading more in the future.
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
fast-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I don’t even know how to put into words how much I loved this story. It’s empowering, uplifting, romantic as hell, at times heartbreaking, funny, and it took my emotions on a roller coaster ride.
Felix is Black, queer and trans and feels like he may have one marginalization too many. Due to the images he’s seen on TV (and the ones he hasn’t) and his relationship with his mother, he feels like he’ll never be loved and may just be unlovable. When a classmate sets up a gallery using old pictures of him and his deadname he vows to get revenge. When he starts to fall for who he thinks is behind the pictures, everything in his life changes.
Callender’s writing style is simple and straightforward which made this a super quick and easy read. I honestly couldn’t put it down because I was dying to know what would happen next and how it would end (and I’d just like to say I was VERY happy with how it ended).
For such a short book, I was really impressed by how fleshed out all the side-characters felt. There were a lot of them, and I felt like we got a pretty good idea of who each of them were, and each of them served a different function.
Most importantly though, the love story is EVERYTHING. It’s cute, it’s romantic, it’s swoonworthy, everything about it was perfect. I sat there reading with the biggest, dopiest grin on my face for most of the scenes.
Shortly after finishing, I was already ready to re-read it and I’m currently ordering everything Kacen Callender has written.
Felix is Black, queer and trans and feels like he may have one marginalization too many. Due to the images he’s seen on TV (and the ones he hasn’t) and his relationship with his mother, he feels like he’ll never be loved and may just be unlovable. When a classmate sets up a gallery using old pictures of him and his deadname he vows to get revenge. When he starts to fall for who he thinks is behind the pictures, everything in his life changes.
Callender’s writing style is simple and straightforward which made this a super quick and easy read. I honestly couldn’t put it down because I was dying to know what would happen next and how it would end (and I’d just like to say I was VERY happy with how it ended).
For such a short book, I was really impressed by how fleshed out all the side-characters felt. There were a lot of them, and I felt like we got a pretty good idea of who each of them were, and each of them served a different function.
Most importantly though, the love story is EVERYTHING. It’s cute, it’s romantic, it’s swoonworthy, everything about it was perfect. I sat there reading with the biggest, dopiest grin on my face for most of the scenes.
Shortly after finishing, I was already ready to re-read it and I’m currently ordering everything Kacen Callender has written.
emotional
fast-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The Black Flamingo tells the story of Michael as he comes to terms with his identity as a mixed-race gay man through poetry and drag.
There’s so much I could say about this story, but I don’t even know where to start. The writing is beautiful, I was engaged from the first page, and I ended up reading the whole thing in about two hours.
I don’t read a whole lot of books that are written in verse, so I didn’t really know what to expect going into this. Sometimes stories that are written in verse can feel disjointed or make me feel like I’m not getting the full story, but I didn’t feel that way at all with this one.
Atta’s writing style is captivating and beautiful, and it made this impossible to put down. The way the story sails through Michael’s life -- from when he was a child to his time in college -- made this a very quick read.
Atta was able to balance so many important topics -- racism, homophobia, internalized homophobia, complicated relationships with parents -- in so few words without feeling like anything was brushed aside or underdeveloped. I most identified with the parts about being biracial, and that really helped me identify with Michael.
Even if you don’t read this book (I don’t know why you wouldn’t) at least read Dean Atta’s poem “How to Come Out as Gay” that he includes at the end of this book. It is truly stunning.
There’s so much I could say about this story, but I don’t even know where to start. The writing is beautiful, I was engaged from the first page, and I ended up reading the whole thing in about two hours.
I don’t read a whole lot of books that are written in verse, so I didn’t really know what to expect going into this. Sometimes stories that are written in verse can feel disjointed or make me feel like I’m not getting the full story, but I didn’t feel that way at all with this one.
Atta’s writing style is captivating and beautiful, and it made this impossible to put down. The way the story sails through Michael’s life -- from when he was a child to his time in college -- made this a very quick read.
Atta was able to balance so many important topics -- racism, homophobia, internalized homophobia, complicated relationships with parents -- in so few words without feeling like anything was brushed aside or underdeveloped. I most identified with the parts about being biracial, and that really helped me identify with Michael.
Even if you don’t read this book (I don’t know why you wouldn’t) at least read Dean Atta’s poem “How to Come Out as Gay” that he includes at the end of this book. It is truly stunning.
emotional
hopeful
sad
fast-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I read this in one day and absolutely loved it. I think Kacen Callender said it best when they said this book “has the potential to save and change lives.” The subject matter is so important and this is a story that needed to be told (and needs to be told more after this).
My favorite part was watching how Ben and Nathan’s relationship grew. The development of their relationship felt very natural. I loved how Nathan was always there for Ben and supported them through everything.
I also really liked the ending. Usually in YA books the moral of the story is usually “forgiveness is the most important thing” and ends with the characters forgiving the people in their life who maybe don’t deserve it. I was really relieved to see that Ben didn’t forgive their parents because they really really didn’t deserve their love.
I’m glad everything wasn’t wrapped up super neatly with Hannah either. It made sense that Ben was still mad at her and couldn’t completely forget what she had done to them.
My favorite part was watching how Ben and Nathan’s relationship grew. The development of their relationship felt very natural. I loved how Nathan was always there for Ben and supported them through everything.
I also really liked the ending. Usually in YA books the moral of the story is usually “forgiveness is the most important thing” and ends with the characters forgiving the people in their life who maybe don’t deserve it. I was really relieved to see that Ben didn’t forgive their parents because they really really didn’t deserve their love.
I’m glad everything wasn’t wrapped up super neatly with Hannah either. It made sense that Ben was still mad at her and couldn’t completely forget what she had done to them.
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
medium-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
First off, I loved all of the characters. There was a lot of really good rep in this book. The main character is a Black, Jewish, bisexual girl. Her brother has bipolar disorder, and her love interest has Ménière's disease. From other reviews, I’ve seen that the Jewish rep was well done and Colbert’s depiction of bipolar disorder was accurate.
I also really liked all the relationships, especially Little and Lion’s relationship and Little’s relationship with her step-dad, Saul. Too many people view step siblings and parents as “not real family” and it was nice to see them portrayed as such a loving family.
However, I really felt like the love triangle was unnecessary. I’ve seen a lot of people mention this in their reviews and I agree that it is a little overdone having a bisexual main character in a love triangle with both a male and female character.
On top of that, I could not get myself to like Rafaela. I tried really hard, but I just ended up disliking her more. She seemed inconsiderate of everyone’s feelings, was overly flirty with Suzette when she knew that was inappropriate and didn’t seem to take anything seriously until things got really bad.
I expected this to be a very quick and easy read, but it took me a little while to get into it. I still look forward to reading more of Brandy Colbert’s work.
I also really liked all the relationships, especially Little and Lion’s relationship and Little’s relationship with her step-dad, Saul. Too many people view step siblings and parents as “not real family” and it was nice to see them portrayed as such a loving family.
However, I really felt like the love triangle was unnecessary. I’ve seen a lot of people mention this in their reviews and I agree that it is a little overdone having a bisexual main character in a love triangle with both a male and female character.
On top of that, I could not get myself to like Rafaela. I tried really hard, but I just ended up disliking her more. She seemed inconsiderate of everyone’s feelings, was overly flirty with Suzette when she knew that was inappropriate and didn’t seem to take anything seriously until things got really bad.
I expected this to be a very quick and easy read, but it took me a little while to get into it. I still look forward to reading more of Brandy Colbert’s work.
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Remy Cameron is known in school for being Black, gay and adopted. When his English teacher assigns an essay asking him who he really is, he has a hard time seeing himself through all the labels other people have attached to him.
This was a super quick, easy and light read. I think it was the first book that I’ve read where the main character is adopted and I really, really appreciated that. It’s not a perspective that we see very often in fiction.
I found myself not really falling in love with the characters in this though. It’s a curse of a lot of YA books that I read, but I find myself always disliking the main character’s best friend and that happened again here. I could not get behind Rio and I rarely understood her motivations or really anything about her. She felt very flat and a little unnecessary.
The romance between Remy and Ian was my favorite part. Even though Remy was almost unbearably awkward at the beginning (all the second-hand embarrassment!!), their interactions were always super sweet. I loved the focus on consent in their relationship as well as how Remy always respected that Ian wasn’t ready to be out.
This was a super quick, easy and light read. I think it was the first book that I’ve read where the main character is adopted and I really, really appreciated that. It’s not a perspective that we see very often in fiction.
I found myself not really falling in love with the characters in this though. It’s a curse of a lot of YA books that I read, but I find myself always disliking the main character’s best friend and that happened again here. I could not get behind Rio and I rarely understood her motivations or really anything about her. She felt very flat and a little unnecessary.
The romance between Remy and Ian was my favorite part. Even though Remy was almost unbearably awkward at the beginning (all the second-hand embarrassment!!), their interactions were always super sweet. I loved the focus on consent in their relationship as well as how Remy always respected that Ian wasn’t ready to be out.
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes