Welcome to Litsy!

This book had all the elements of a YA romance I would love, but for some inexplicable reason never clicked for me, the characters in particular. It has two sporty teen lesbians, who are enemies, dealing with getting over their toxic exes, and who fake date. I just didn't care about them. I kept waiting for these girls to win me over but it never happened. I loved Quindlen's first book, so I'm genuinely puzzled about what didn't work for me.

I ABSOLUTELY LOVED THIS BOOK! There is a lot going on in Like Other Girls – effortlessly and deftly balanced, by the way – but at its core it's a story about a closeted butch lesbian teen struggling with and overcoming internalized misogyny. Also: lots of football, female friendship and solidarity, swoony romance, intergenerational queer mentorship, masculine of centre gender expression, anger management, and a whole lot of personal growth.

Mara's excitement and wonder when she sees an adult who's a butch lesbian 😭

Queer kids seeing queer adults thriving is so important

#QueerBooks #LGBTQBooks #LGBTQ #GayYA #QueerYA

A page-turning YA book with a nice balance between a sweet f/f cheerleader/football player romance and a plot about misogyny and homophobia in a conservative Florida high school. This book actually had me interested in football! I loved how frank it was about teen sexuality (including masturbation). Cute queer solidarity and a bi mom! I didn't want the villains as redeemed as they were though and I wished there had been more romantic buildup.

An outstanding contemporary #YA #audiobook about a lesbian teen, Saoirse. She meets Ruby, a girl staying in her Irish town and rom com aficionado Ruby convinces Saoirse to embark on a tour of rom com tropes. Saoirse is determined to keep the relationship not serious. Why? A recent BFF-turned-girlfriend break-up, a resulting friend breakup, and, most of all, her mom living in a care home because of early onset dementia that Saoirse might inherit.

I loved this epistolary novella so much, I wrote a blog post about it:
https://rainbowbookworm.blogspot.com/2020/06/LoveCreekwood.html

#bisexual #bisexualcharacters #bisexualrepresentation #gayya #lgbtq #lgbtqbooks #lgbtqcharacter #lgbtromance #gayromance

A wonderfully warm, heartfelt #YA about growing beyond the person your old friends think you are, 1st kisses, & queer friendship. Codi, JaKory, & Maritza (lesbian, gay, bi) are Netflix watching homebody BFFs. When they go to a party, Codi becomes friends w/ a closeted jock. Through him she meets a girl who might like her back. She finally has some teen adventures. But she hides it from her BFFs. Beautifully complex relationships, sparks of insight

"You grow up with these ideas about Teenagers, about their wild, vibrant, dramatic lives of breaking rules and making out and Being Alive, and you know it's your destiny to become one of them someday, but suddenly you're 17 and you're watching people cannonball into a swimming pool in the pouring rain, and you realize you still haven't become a real Teenager, and maybe you never will."
#QueerBooks #LGBTQBooks #LGBTQ #YA #GayYA

An #OwnVoices #YA about a trans feminine teen at a new arts high school. They start off identifying as gay, then move to they/them pronouns, then to the name Veronica. They are accepted into a ragtag group of fierce, adorable queer kids, who've come out in the Internet age. While the oppressive characters were done heavy-handedly, I was taken with Veronica and their friends, as well as a cute romance with Veronica's fellow Asian comic book nerd.

A hi-lo #YA Cinderella retelling about a teen girl, Ash, whose mom died recently. She's living with her (clueless) stepdad and (evil) stepsiblings. Ash is great at coding, and she makes an app called SendLove where girls being bullied online can get support. There she meets Charming. They fall in love. But Ash doesn't trust Char will like the real her. A heartfelt story about a teen with precarious housing, coming out, and being resilient.