(no subject)
Becoming Chloe by Catherine Ryan Hyde
Driveby Synopsis: Jordan undertakes a mission to prove to his new friend Chloe that the world is a beautiful place worth living in
Checklist: Hard to say. I'l have to go with Getting thrown out and physical abuse though it was never expressly stated that his homosexuallity is WHY Jordy got thrown out/almost killed. I think it's implied.
Notes: This is exactly what I'm talking about. Jordy is living on the streets when he rescues an eighteen year old girl during a rape. It becomes clear that there's something very strange about Chloe, in that she doesn't understand a lot of things and seems to have the mentality of a child. Jordy makes it his mission to take care of Chloe, and when Chloe spills her story to a dying man (but not Jordy), the man makes Jordy promise to get Chloe psychiatric help. The more help he gets her, the more miserable Chloe becomes. If she can't take her pills, she wont get any better, and if she doesn't get better she might hurt herself, so they come to a compromise. He'll show her the world is a beautiful place and he'll take her to see all the things she never saw before, if she promises not to hurt herself. But if Jordy can't prove anything to her,then he has to let her go. So they travel across America, climb mountains, see waterfalls, helicopter over the grand canyon and ride horses on the beach.
Oh, and by the way, Jordan is gay. It has nothing to do with the plot, except that it might be the reason he was homeless to begin with. This book is not about how shitty Jordy's life is because he's gay, but his mission in helping his friend get better. This is exactly what I'm talking about.
Target by Kathleen Jeffrie Johnson
I don't think the book belongs here but I'm going to write about it anyway, because it confused me. :/
Driveby Synopsis: Grady West begins life at a new school after being brutally raped by two strangers.
Notes: The best way I can find to describe this book is to say that it's kind of like Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, only gayer. Grady doesn't talk, he doesn't eat, he's lost all his old friends because he can't face them or explain to them how a 6 foot plus guy can get raped by two men and not fight back. He doesn't understand it himself. By the time he starts at his new school, he seems to be doubting his sexual orientation? Except he never wants to have sex ever. He has homoerotic dreams about token gay student Fred, and I get destinct vibes about how he sees his new extremely obnoxious but likable friend Jess, and yet he obvious thinks things innapropriate about Pearl, too. I'm still not sure if this book is something that belongs in this project, but I'm writing about it because books like this are also very rare: boys getting raped, boys suffering from anorexia. Also I like Jess, because he obviously cares about Grady even though everything that comes out of his mouth is offensive.
So there's that. *shrug*