All Boys Aren't Blue

2/5 cw: queerphobia, sexual abuse, racismBumped this up on my to-read list because of some happenings in a local community and library with challenges, “hide the pride,” etc. Asked my partner, “Am I too radicalized and gay already?”, but that's not the core of my lukewarm feelings. There's valuable commentary in this book, particularly for young folk (and especially for young, queer, Black boys), in the realm of finding people who care about you in the way that the author's family and line brothers cared for and respected them. I studied these theories in college. The young adults at whom this book is directed may be interacting with its content for the first time.The work itself isn't outstanding, though. The writing is... fine. Johnson's journey is about becoming comfortable with being an “effeminate” queer Black boy and defining their own masculinity. It alludes to struggles and traumas, but doesn't write about them in a compelling manner. No one is required to share their coming out story, but in a “memoir-manifesto” in which the narrator struggles with coming out, and shares multiple times that they officially came out to their parents over the phone at 25, I was waiting for that scene the entire time. The books ends before it happens. I couldn't identify a call-to-action. The last handful of chapters is more a shill for the author's fraternity than anything.Then there is the explicit content for which this book (alongside the being gay, of course) is challenged. There are two chapters in which the author describes in step-by-step detail their sexual encounters. I think the author, in writing something so deeply personal, needed to write those details for their own catharsis, particularly in the case of the sexual abuse. I don't think the encounters needed to be shared in as much intimate detail to make a point. The author insists within the text that they didn't have appropriate sexual education, and were willing to risk their own embarrassment to educate others like them, but alluding to sexual practices (be that oral, anal, bottoming, topping, whatever) is just as useful as relating the minutiae of particular instances.I don't have an opinion on the topic of “young adult memoirs” just yet. Memoirs in general are hit-or-miss for me; I'm not a fan of the interconnected essay format, but I did miss Trevor Noah's [b:Born A Crime 29780253 Born a Crime Stories From a South African Childhood Trevor Noah https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1473867911l/29780253.SY75.jpg 50150838] while reading this. I do find myself wanting to promote more memoirs to the young adult audience, though, if only so they have more people to see themselves through.