Ratings16
Average rating4
Stonewall Honor Book * A Time Magazine Best YA Book of All Time "A book for warriors, divas, artists, queens, individuals, activists, trend setters, and anyone searching for the courage to be themselves.”—Mackenzi Lee, New York Times bestselling author of The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue It’s 1989 in New York City, and for three teens, the world is changing. Reza is an Iranian boy who has just moved to the city with his mother to live with his stepfather and stepbrother. He’s terrified that someone will guess the truth he can barely acknowledge about himself. Reza knows he’s gay, but all he knows of gay life are the media’s images of men dying of AIDS. Judy is an aspiring fashion designer who worships her uncle Stephen, a gay man with AIDS who devotes his time to activism as a member of ACT UP. Judy has never imagined finding romance...until she falls for Reza and they start dating. Art is Judy’s best friend, their school’s only out and proud teen. He’ll never be who his conservative parents want him to be, so he rebels by documenting the AIDS crisis through his photographs. As Reza and Art grow closer, Reza struggles to find a way out of his deception that won’t break Judy’s heart—and destroy the most meaningful friendship he’s ever known. This is a bighearted, sprawling epic about friendship and love and the revolutionary act of living life to the fullest in the face of impossible odds.
Reviews with the most likes.
hi i'm emotionally compromised but my gay little heart is so happy
Well written but waaaay too long and set in a period in time I'm not sure kids will be moved to put in the work for the 300+ pages, though it is about important queer history, so maybe that'll move a few. Not much happens here other than slow builds to relationships/sex (graphic but in a loving and consensual way, which YA needs way more of!) and it's through the lens of a friend/love triangle of three teens, yet this feels more like something adults will appreciate. So far one of my readers has quit on it, but I'll push it to more and see if I can find the right kids for this.
Absolutely amazing. No cons. It made me cry and only one other book has been able to do that. It teaches so many important lessons.
‘Because there's no future without a past.'
* 105 sticky tabs were used in the reading of this book.