Boyfriends with Girlfriends by Alez Sanchez- reviewed

So while reading up on LGBT writers, Alex Sanchez came up a few times. While Rainbow Boys  is one of his more popular novels,  I chose to begin with Boyfriends with Girlfriends.  Review and summary after the jump.

Mysterious Skin- reviewed

I remember seeing the film adaptation of Scott Heim’s Mysterious Skin a few years after it’s release. It wasn’t that bad though I didn’t really know what to make of it, besides the fact that both lead characters were seriously fucked up- in their own special way- . It was only later that I realized the film was adapted from a book and while perusing a bookstore that was closing its doors I came across and immediately picked it up. While my last review of Boy Meets Boy tackled young love for teenagers both gay and straight, this novel is a complete 180, dealing with much darker and more depressing themes.

How to survive a plague-you’re doing it wrong; a review of Michael Grant’s Plague

I read this a while back but I hadn’t found the time to review it yet, so hopefully it’s still fresh enough in my mind that I know what I’m talking about. Feel free to correct me if I screw up the order of certain plot points or other factors.

So the community- if that’s what you can call it- has pretty much forgotten about the events which took place in the last book (check out my review of Lies here). Grant is smart enough however to implement new catastrophes so that there isn’t a sudden void. Sure, I noticed that most of the first few books centered on the small kids and how it was practically only Mary Terrafino who took the initiative to care for them. Now with Mary gone, it’s suddenly like she took the problem away with her. The town has bigger fish- or lack of fish rather- to fry. The escape of the Britney/Drake monster is inevitable- that’s what happens when you leave a drunk to guard someone- and a mysterious sickness is killing people with extreme speed. Moody Lana is of little use, as her powers have no effect on the illness. To top it off, another kind of virus is infecting people with critters, which basically eat their hosts from the inside until it’s time for them to surface and cause even more havoc. All good stuff.

The major allegory I came across book is the idea of sex- or more precisely the consequences of having sex when you’re not ready, either physically or emotionally. Sam and Astrid are being torn apart by their sexual urges and the neglect/ suppression of them. Meanwhile, two kinds of plagues are killing the few people that are left in town- one in the form of a killer flu and the other in the form of lttle things nestling themselves inside the body- now if that’s not a PSA for the repercussions of (unprotected) sex I don’t know what is. There’s one more major plotline that is hinted at throughout the and is revealed to be true at the end, which ties into this whole sex theme, but I won’t go into that and spoil that one . The novel does focus on other things like Sam and a select few leaving town to go search for water, since their supply is dangerously low. This also gives insight into how the town functions when Sam is not present, and basically sets up the story for the next book. 

I haven’t started on the next book yet, I’m hoping to do that soon. If you’re into the series, hit me up with what you thought of it.

you can get Plague and all the other books in the Gone series here

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