Tell Me Again How a Crush Should Feel - Sara Farizan

Let me begin this post by saying how glad I am that more on bisexuality is finally showing up in YA literature (and literature and studies in general, for that matter) since it used to be so often pushed to the side, marginalized. Only a few short years ago any mention of bisexuality would lead to a comment such as, "bisexuality is just half way down the road to gay," or "bi people are just confused." But that's not the case. Well, in some cases people are confused, but that's usually more in early teen years when hormones are going crazy and sexual feelings are in their early stages, leading to arousal at, well, anything! But I digress...

 The subject matter of Tell Me Again How a Crush Should Feel is a dramatic departure from Sara Farizan's first novel, If You Could Be Mine, though the sensitivity, anxiety, and sexual frustration is still very much at the forefront of this new novel. Farizan is a fabulous contributor to the field of queer YA literature, and I hope she continues to publish for many, many years to come! But now, on to the review...
Ms. Taylor is eyeing the class like a hawk about to swoop down on some unsuspecting field mice. A really hot hawk with great hair and an appreciation for literature, I might add . . . which reminds me, I should stop crushing on her in class, especially since it's the beginning of the school year.
Leila is a young Persian girl going to school at an academy populated mostly by privileged children of affluent parents. Her father is a doctor, her sister is in college, working to become a doctor, and her mother holds high expectations for Leila once she graduates from high school. Things aren't terrible in Leila's world, but they're not great either. She's doing okay at school, and her parents are driving her totally insane . . . not yet, anyway. But things start to change when a new girl shows up at school and Leila has to start dealing with her "lady-loving inclinations."

 Though the concept is not original in itself, the setting and cultural diversity within the story make the narrative unique and keep it from becoming formulaic. Her father's prejudice is obvious, but so is his love for his children. Leila comes face to face with this prejudice when she auditions for a play:
"Only drug addicts and gays are actors. You don't want to hang out with those people, do you?" the good doctor asks.
That knocks the wind out of me. I understand it's a cultural think, and my father is a traditional, conservative Iranian man, but I've never heard him explicitly say something like that . . . . Imagine if he knew I am one of those people.
When Saskia shows up and starts confusing Leila with mixed signals, everything starts to go off course. Even in the midst of her anxieties and confusion, Leila's narrative voice continues on full of authenticity and humor, filled with irrational thoughts and skipping to ridiculously improbable conclusions. One night while hanging out with Saskia, she has a few too many drinks, and the narration goes into a hilarious stream-of-consciousness style:
I am totally coherent. Hahaha. Yeah. Totally . . . coherent. Those drinks were delicious! Delicious is a funny word. It should be spelled with an I-S-H like wish or dish! I wish for a dish!
"You can lie on the bed if you want," Saskia says. Bed! That's where sexy times happen! I'm not ready for sexy times!
Leila's family is frustratingly conservative, but understandable and sympathetic. The secondary characters, including Tess and Lisa are fully fleshed out and are a huge part of Leila's world. Saskia is annoying, but a mirror of so many similar people in real life. The whole cast works together to create tension throughout the narrative arc. Sexuality and sexual confusion are subtly worked through with sensitivity and nuanced storytelling.

 Farizan beautifully blends together humorous moments with tragedy, sadness and anxiety to give readers a wonderfully complex and ultimately fulfilling story.

Recommended

 (Note: This review is from an Advanced Reading Copy - Out October 7, 2014)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Living - Matt De La Peña

Image
The Living  recently received an Honor from the Pura Belpré committee. The award recognizes of a work which best portrays the Latino cultural experience in a work of literature for children or youth. As I was at the awards announcements, and having known people who served on the committee in the past, I was intrigued. I had read the winning title and the other honor titles, and was impressed with the choices. So here's my review of The Living : The novel begins with Shy, a young guy working for a snazzy cruise line, offering water to people on the Lido Deck of the ship to combat the heat. Everything is going pretty well until an older gentleman comes out and starts spouting of weird, disconcerting phrases: "You have seen the face of evil."Shy doesn't quite know what to think, so he moves on to a couple of ladies on the other side of the deck. Just as he's handing them their water bottles, he sees movement out of the corner of his eye and realizes the old guy h...
Read more

The Music of What Happens - Bill Konigsberg

Image
Max: Chill. Sports. Video games. Gay and not a big deal, not to him, not to his mom, not to his buddies. And a secret: An encounter with an older kid that makes it hard to breathe, one that he doesn't want to think about, ever. Jordan: The opposite of chill. Poetry. His "wives" and the Chandler Mall. Never been kissed and searching for Mr. Right, who probably won't like him anyway. And a secret: A spiraling out of control mother, and the knowledge that he's the only one who can keep the family from falling apart. Over the course of one summer, two boys will have to face their biggest fears and decide what they're willing to risk -- to get the thing they want the most. This is a phenomenal book, in my humble opinion. There aren't too many books dealing with male sexual abuse, particularly in YA. Sex and sexuality are messy parts of young adulthood, but what this book does really well is discuss consent and the ways in which physical cues can be misinte...
Read more

Girls Like Us - Gail Giles

Image
I have now gone out and made sure that I have all of the books longlisted for the National Book Award. I read and reviewed a number of these previously, so now I have five left to read and review. This is one of those five (but would I expect anything less from the fabulous team at Candlewick?) Girls Like Us  is a unique novel in a number of respects, most notably in the fact that both protagonists are identified (and self-identified) as mentally disabled in some way. Biddy has a learning disability that she was born with, while Quincy is a young girl who is disabled due to the fact that her mother's boyfriend hit her in the head with a brick, disfiguring her and damaging her brain. Once the two girls graduate from school, they move into a house together, becoming caregivers for both each other and an older woman, Elizabeth. The two must rely on each other for comfort, knowledge, and emotional strength, and Elizabeth manages to help them along the way. While I had moments of wo...
Read more