The Lesbiana's Guide to Catholic School by Sonora Reyes

 

  

      The Lesbiana's Guide to Catholic School by Sonora Reyes follows Yami as she transfers to Catholic school due to being outed by someone who was supposed to be her best friend and also to keep an eye on her younger brother who is not hiding his problems as well as he thinks he is. The problem? Yami is a lesbian and no one knows, not her new friends, not her brother, and especially not her homophobic parents. 

      I don't read YA as often as I used to, but I really enjoyed reading this. It was everything a coming of age story should be, campy, cheesy, and full of corny pop culture references. I think Reyes did well in really getting into the mind of a 16 year old girl and writing about just how big problems can seem at that age.

      Despite how fun this was to read, I felt like a lot of it was repetitive and the ending felt pretty rushed. Plus, there's all this build up about the issues between Yami and her mother, but then the resolution is incredibly fast and she does a complete 180 from being homophobic to being totally accepting of her kids. I also didn't appreciate that the only reason she has that turnaround was that her son almost committed suicide. I would have much preferred to see her learn more about the LGBTQ+ community and come to an acceptance on her own. 

      While it did seem a tad immature, especially compared to other YA books like The Hunger Games, I have a feeling that I would have absolutely loved this had I read it at 16. I'm not the target audience so most of the issues have less to do with the book and more to do with me being 26, unfortunately. Either way, I thought it was a cute book and would personally rate this a 3/5.

Quotes

• Page 33
• “Liberty and justice for all” never applied to people like us.