gay – Page 3 – YA Pride

The (im)possibilities of Openly Straight

By Nathaniel|2020-03-28T13:42:06-05:00March 11th, 2015|Categories: Archive|Tags: gay, Queer Guys|

I first read Bill Konigsberg’s Openly Straight in April, 2014. Ten months later, reading it again, the questions it poses are as powerful as they were the first time. How do I really feel about being gay? I always thought I was okay with it. Am I though? Relative to many (most, even) members of the LGBTQ+ community, I have had something of a charmed life. I was never really in any doubt about my sexuality: like Paul from Boy Meets Boy, it just seemed obvious to me. I talk sometimes about my parents having two sets of [...]

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New Releases: March 2015.

By Nadia|2020-03-28T13:42:06-05:00March 9th, 2015|Categories: Archive, New Releases|Tags: Bisexual, gay, lesbian, LGBTQIA, New Adult, New Releases, PoC, Queer Girls, Queer Guys|

March 2nd (USA) Top 250 LGBTQ Books for Teens (Huron Street Press, 2015) Top 250 LGBTQ Books for Teens: Coming Out, Being Out, and the Search for Community by Michael Cart — (LGBTQAI+) Goodreads Summary: "A summary of the 250 best books for LGBTQ teens, written by experts on the subject and addressed to teen book buyers. Identifying titles that address the sensitive and important topics of coming out, being out, and the search for community, this catalog spotlights the best gay, lesbian, bi, transgender, and questioning books written for teens. The authors cover fiction of all [...]

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Review of I’LL GIVE YOU THE SUN

By Katie|2020-03-28T13:42:07-05:00February 13th, 2015|Categories: Archive, Book Review|Tags: gay, LGBTQIA, New Releases, Queer Guys, Realistic, Romance|

I'LL GIVE YOU THE SUN by Jandy Nelson I’LL GIVE YOU THE SUN is a complex story about FAMILY, secrets, GRIEF, love, growing up, FINDING AND BECOMING YOURSELF, self-esteem, and art. It’s perfectly described in one of the epigraphs with the following e. e. cummings quote, “It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are” (spoiler alert: It takes a whole lot of courage. And it’s incredibly difficult). The novel reflects on the journey to becoming that person. FROM GOODREADS: Jude and her twin brother, Noah, are incredibly close. At thirteen, isolated Noah draws constantly [...]

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New Releases: February 2015.

By Nadia|2020-03-28T13:42:07-05:00February 4th, 2015|Categories: Archive, New Releases|Tags: Bisexual, gay, lesbian, Queer Girls, Queer Guys, Realistic|

February 5th (USA) Unspeakable (Atom, 2015) Unspeakable by Abbie Rushton -- (LESBIAN) Goodreads Summary: "Megan doesn't speak. She hasn't spoken in months. Pushing away the people she cares about is just a small price to pay. Because there are things locked inside Megan's head - things that are screaming to be heard - that she cannot, must not, let out. Then Jasmine starts at school: bubbly, beautiful, talkative Jasmine. And for reasons Megan can't quite understand, life starts to look a bit brighter. Megan would love to speak again, and it seems like Jasmine might be the answer. [...]

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Author Guest Post: Love, War, and Fairy Tale Endings

By Vee|2020-03-28T13:42:08-05:00January 27th, 2015|Categories: Archive, Author Guest Blog, New Releases|Tags: gay, Historical, New Releases, Queer Guys|

by Danny M. Cohen Early on in my debut novel, Train, teenagers Alexander and Marko make their way through the midnight shadows of Berlin to The Fountain of Fairy Tales in Friedrichshain Park. Statues of Red Riding Hood, Snow White, Hansel, Gretel, and other familiar storybook characters surround the fountain and watch the teenage boys share a kiss. But this is no fairy tale. This is 1943 Germany and the Nazi machinery of deportation and mass-murder is ongoing. In writing Train, I wanted to tell the hidden stories of Hitler’s often forgotten victims—the Roma, the disabled, homosexuals, political [...]

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Author Interview: Danny M. Cohen

By Nadia|2020-03-28T13:42:08-05:00January 27th, 2015|Categories: Archive, Author Interview|Tags: gay, Historical, New Releases, Queer Guys, Realistic|

Today we are talking with author Danny M. Cohen about his debut novel, TRAIN, which comes out today! Happy release day Danny! Train by Danny M. Cohen (Unsilence Project , 2015) About the book: TRAIN is a YA historical thriller with a particular focus on the Nazis’ persecution of homosexuals. This novel is self-published in partnership with Unsilence Project. “This thriller gives voice to the unheard victims of Nazism — the Roma, the disabled, homosexuals, intermarried Jews, and political enemies of the regime.” (via Danny Cohen's website) Over ten days in 1943 Berlin, six teenagers witness [...]

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Review: Stranger by Rachel Manija Brown and Sherwood Smith

By Vee|2020-03-28T13:42:18-05:00January 13th, 2015|Categories: Archive, Book Review, Teen Voices|Tags: Aromantic, asexual, Black, gay, Latin@, PoC, Polyamory, Queer Girls, Queer Guys, Trauma|

Stranger (Viking Juveline, 2014) Many generations ago, a mysterious cataclysm struck the world. Governments collapsed and people scattered, to rebuild where they could. A mutation, "the Change,” arose, granting some people unique powers. Though the area once called Los Angeles retains its cultural diversity, its technological marvels have faded into legend. "Las Anclas" now resembles a Wild West frontier town… where the Sheriff possesses superhuman strength, the doctor can warp time to heal his patients, and the distant ruins of an ancient city bristle with deadly crystalline trees that take their jewel-like colors from the clothes of [...]

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New Releases: January 2015

By Nadia|2020-03-28T13:42:19-05:00January 12th, 2015|Categories: Archive, New Releases|Tags: asexual, Bisexual, gay, lesbian, New Releases, Queer Girls, Queer Guys, Trans|

JANUARY 1ST (UK) The Art of Being Normal (David Fickling Books, 2015) The Art of Being Normal by Lisa Williamson -- (TRANS) Goodreads Summary: "Two boys. Two secrets. David Piper has always been an outsider. His parents think he’s gay. The school bully thinks he’s a freak. Only his two best friends know the real truth – David wants to be a girl. On the first day at his new school Leo Denton has one goal – to be invisible. Attracting the attention of the most beautiful girl in year eleven is definitely not part of that plan. When [...]

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Orphan Blade by M. Nicholas Almand & Jake Myler: Review

By Nadia|2020-03-28T13:42:20-05:00December 23rd, 2014|Categories: Archive, Book Review|Tags: Fantasy, gay, graphic novel, Horror, New Releases, Other Media, Queer Guys, Speculative|

“Orphan Blade is pretty gruesome,” the email warned. “You don’t have to review it if you’re not a fan of blood, gore, guts and monsters.” Nonsense! I thought blithely, cheerful and ready to accept whatever queer YA literature might grace my inbox for review. It’s a graphic novel. How gross can it be? As it turns out, gross enough to make me wince, flip through pages, and shiver with the kind of deep, primal disgust that comes with Jake Myler’s illustrations. Myler explore all the textural unpleasantries of skin – boils, scales, slime, and of course, what skin flaps in jagged shards [...]

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The Question of Queering the Mainstream Novel: A Conversation with authors Rachel Manija Brown and Sherwood Smith

By Nadia|2020-03-28T13:42:21-05:00December 5th, 2014|Categories: Archive, Author Guest Blog, Author Interview|Tags: Fantasy, gay, publishing, Queer Girls, Queer Guys, Representation, Speculative|

The story behind the story is sometimes, as they say, stranger than fiction. Stranger is the title of a Viking November release by Rachel Manija Brown and Sherwood Smith and, if you read this book, as I did (when Rachel asked me, in my paranormal YA novelist persona Tate Hallaway, to blurb it,) you might not think much more beyond how awesome and captivating a story of superpowers and survival in a post-apocalyptic future it is. Stranger (Viking Juveline, 2014) This book, however, almost didn’t get published. Sure, okay, you’re thinking, lots of great books don’t get published, what’s [...]

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