Boyfriends with Girlfriends is Alex Sanchez's latest entry into the Genre of LGBT teen fiction. It is about a guy(who is gay) and his friend who is a girl(who is Bi) meeting up with another guy(who is bi) and his friend who is a girl(who is gay) and their romantic struggles.
If you love David Levithan but wish he was Less Poetic, More Preachy, Less Romantic, More Sex-Obsessed, More Obnoxious, and Less Original then Boyfriends With Girlfriends is the book for you. I'm not sure I can explain to you the extent to which I do not like this book but I think I might be able to show you.
I stopped reading about a fourth of the way into the book after a scene in which one of the main characters sleeps with another boy, because he can. That's the only reason, he wants to see what it'd be like. I'm not even sure that the other guy was gay, it was weird. Their being in 7th grade makes it even weirder, more uncomfortable, and mo
re gratuitous. Call me sheltered and naive but I don't think that many or really any 7th graders serf adult websites and sleep with each other in the middle of school.
Essentially, all of the book that I read can be summed up by saying "Bisexuality is real" that is the whole point. The author keeps pounding the point and pounding the point and it gets really annoying after a while.
There is this one part where the girl(the one who's bi) is talking about how she thinks she's straight but she has crushes on girls all the time, had a romantic dream about a girl, and whatever. But she still thinks she's straight. But then she meets this girl(the one who's gay) and she's never felt this way before and things with her boyfriend start breaking down and IT"S LOVE AND IT"S BI, WHICH, BY THE WAY, IS REAL AND GREAT AND FINE AND WONDERFUL, IT"S LOVE GOSH DARN IT!!!!!
There is also the problem of the narration, which says Exactly and Explicitly what each character is thinking and feeling, there is no nuance. I am not a huge fan of flowery writing but I do enjoy a clever turn of phrase or a poetic observation, this book is bare bones, bare bare bones. "Character X sees Character Y walking towards him, "He's really cute, especially his ears and his nose" thinks Character X." is about the level of this writing. Levithan is a master of the phrasing. His books make you feel things very deeply and he can just come out with observations in his writing that just describe your whole life in ten words. Sanchez either does not or can not do that and the book suffers because of it.
When one is writing a romantic novel one must appeal to the romanticism and sentiment inside the reader, Sanchez simply doesn't do that. I could never really care about his two male heroes because they were 1) Total Clichés and 2) Obnoxiously written. Their dialogue physically hurts me and I don't like them really at all.
If you are looking for a book about Bisexuality(Which is Real and Great and Fine and Romantic and Did I mention it's Real?) and Homosexuality I would recommend Boy Meets Boy by Levithan(who I seem to keep talking about) which is everything this book is not:charming, romantic, moving, and well written.
1/4 Stars
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4 comments:
I don't think that's either sheltered or naive. But maybe I've just been to school in the middle of middle-class suburbia and am also both sheltered and naive.
You basically said you read a fourth of the book, and chose to review it. That's pretty irresponsible. Your opinion on it won't be 100% valid, seeing as you took just a snapshot, and judged the whole novel on that. People in the seventh grade have gotten pregnant, so while I was anything but loose, and had a totally non rebellious upbringing, that didn't shock me at all. Who cares? And why not identify the parts of the book (clunky dialogue, brow beating message) that were the real issues? When it comes to art, there's no room for personal conservatism, cause while the book was definitely the author's worst work to date, it certainly had merits, which you'd miss having left it so soon. A good review, otherwise, just seems a bit odd to review just a fraction of a book.
Actually, If you look at the whole review, you will find that I did address the browbeating message and the poor writing. I used the scene in 7th grade to show that the author had 1) a faulty idea of how teenagers behaved and 2) was trying to push the envelope at the expense of plot, characters, and dialogue.
I am sure that 7th graders have gotten pregnant, but I find it difficult to believe that two middle class 7th grade boys would sleep with each other just to see what it would feel like.
I do not, and never have, considered myself conservative at all. I do not object to language, sex, or substance use in books as long as it is 1) not gratuitous and 2) actually needed in the plot. The scene that I referred to was not needed for the plot and it was certainly gratuitous.
It is probably true that I missed some of the novel's merits but I am of the opinion that if a book can't pull you in in the first fourth then it probably isn't that great.
Also, my main problem with it was the writing. The writing isn't going to improve over the course of the novel.
...a writer who puts in sex/cursing/substance use, etc. for mere shock value is a lazy writer. One does not have to be socially conservative to recognize gratuitous writing.
As for reviewing a book that he had only 1/4 read....if it has not improved by then it is not going to. There are too many good books to waste time on a poorly written one, and it is certainly his right to review it.
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