e-Audio, 09:28:06
Narrated by: Karla Serrato
Release Date: May 17, 2022
Published by: Balzer + Bray
Read from: May 25-27, 2022
Stand-alone
Source: Library’s Libby
TW: Hate Crime, Self Harm Attempt, Depression, Homophobia, Outing, Racism
For Readers Interested In: Romance, Realistic Fiction, LGBTQ+ (Bisexual, Gay) , Racial/Ethnic Diversity, Sparkly Covers, YAA sharply funny and moving debut novel about a queer Mexican American girl navigating Catholic school, while falling in love and learning to celebrate her true self. Perfect for fans of Erika L. Sanchez, Leah Johnson, and Gabby Rivera.
Sixteen-year-old Yamilet Flores prefers to be known for her killer eyeliner, not for being one of the only Mexican kids at her new, mostly white, very rich Catholic school. But at least here no one knows she’s gay, and Yami intends to keep it that way.
After being outed by her crush and ex-best friend before transferring to Slayton Catholic, Yami has new priorities: keep her brother out of trouble, make her mom proud, and, most importantly, don’t fall in love. Granted, she’s never been great at any of those things, but that’s a problem for Future Yami.
The thing is, it’s hard to fake being straight when Bo, the only openly queer girl at school, is so annoyingly perfect. And smart. And talented. And cute. So cute. Either way, Yami isn’t going to make the same mistake again. If word got back to her mom, she could face a lot worse than rejection. So she’ll have to start asking, WWSGD: What would a straight girl do?
Told in a captivating voice that is by turns hilarious, vulnerable, and searingly honest, The Lesbiana’s Guide to Catholic School explores the joys and heartaches of living your full truth out loud.
*MY THOUGHTS*
I’m not even going to pretend that I didn’t grab this because I wanted to know more about the cover and the title. Y’all should know I’m a sucker for BIPOC characters on the front cover. If they’re there, I’m gonna read it. And although I was a little late to get to this one, I was super glad I didn’t miss it completely.
I know this was strictly a cover buy because I normally don’t go for anything that has religion as a large theme in the book. Especially since it was about Catholicism. As a Catholic I find that I don’t like to read books that talk about my religion. It’s always put in a bad light and never shows the good parts of it. But for this book the cover was just too good for me to not read this at all. So I gave it a shot. And although the school played a big part in this book, it didn’t bother me. It basically made me cheer for Yamilet even more. The things they said at that school made me close the book for a little bit. I’m no where near a radical and the things that they did in this book were terrible. And the outcome? Gah it kind of makes me tear up.
The romance was SO. CUTE. The way they got together was not funny, but also hilarious when it finally happened. I LOVED seeing them find their footing together also. I did wish that it happened sooner than it did because for real, she could have been with them that whole time! And they were SO CUTE! I loved the thing they did for Yamilet’s birthday and I loved what Yami did to ask her to prom. It was so cute!
This was a character driven story and I think I enjoyed it so much because I loved all the characters. Besides Yami, her mom was my favorite and then her brother and Jamal. They all had something about them that drew me to them. I loved her mom because she felt SO. REAL. Yes she seemed kind of awful at some points, but the support she gave them in the end was irreplaceable. And then there was her brother. I hurt for him so bad. Everything just kept piling on to him. I felt terrible about that. It really made me want to help him get the help he needed my own self. I don’t know how Yami and her mom ever let him go, like stopped hugging him again.
The plot was the reason I didn’t give this 5 stars. It was too much up and down. It seemed like it was too much up and down in the story. I didn’t really care for that part. I know it was dumb because it’s a coming of age story and there’s only so many things that can happen in a realistic fiction world lol But I think I just felt it more because when it was nothing really happening, I found myself tuning it out. (Like as much as I liked it, I wanted so much more to happen during the Christmas holiday.)
The narrator was great tho. I loved that they found an own voices LatinX narrator. She did an awesome job not only on Yami, but also on the other characters. I loved that she was able to make the male character and the other female characters all different from each other. It always floors me when narrators help me escape into the book and forget that I’m not listening to a group of people talking or watching a movie and watching these things play out. She was one of those narrators for me. Which is why I felt it was so jarring when I was knocked out of it because the plot was slow.
Since this was about her being at a Catholic school, I just knew it was going to be teachy and preachy, but it wasn’t. It was more so about Yami just trying to be herself and still navigate where she was. This was a heavy but very important read. Be kind to yourself and check your triggers (especially during Pride Month) but still, enjoy it.
Overall, I give this
