(no subject)
TITLE: nothing pink
AUTHOR: Mark Hardy
SUMMERY: A young, homosexual, and Baptist teenage boy comes to terms with how his sexuality affects his religion in 1970's midwest. In the midst of two church services a day, visiting the poor, and hiding his gay porn magazines, he finds love for the first time in a boy named Robert.
RATING: 8
REVIEW:
What appears to be a fluffy, trashy, fruity young adult novel turns out to be quite more than that. It's a great commentary about the relationship between religion and sexuality - how they can coexist, how they can't, etc. The time setting fits this theme extremely well, and the fact that it's in first person, which I usually find incredibly annoying, really fits well with the story as well. It shows you his thoughts, but not obnoxiously. It has a personal tone to it, but not in an annoying way. It enables you to view what he's thinking as he goes through falling in love for the first time, dealing with his parents finding out about his sexuality, and coming to terms with God as He relates to that sexuality.
In terms of coming-of-age books, this is one that is easily relatable. Our parents have disapproved of all of us at some point. It portrays an important moment for every teenager: the point in time when you realize that your parents won't always be happy with you, and that's okay; you don't need to live a life of pleasing everyone, you need to please and be yourself, even if people aren't okay with that. The main character has to learn that in order to be happy, he's going to have to sacrifice the pride his parents have in him. He has to learn that being himself is never wrong, even if people tell him it is.
It's written by a young author as his debut novel, making it refreshing and authentic to teenage readers. It's short and sweet, not drawing out the coming-of-age moment for ever like a longer novel might. The main character and his problems are, regardless of his gender, painfully true and his thoughts on himself make your heart bleed. Throughout the book, whenever he complained about how "gay" he looked, I wanted to hug him and convince him he was wrong.
All in all, the only nitpick I had is that the summery on the inside cover flap was sort of misleading, and let me to believe there would be more romance than there actually was. Other than that, though, it's a wonderful and refreshing read for someone who is sick of literary brilliance and pretension. I was looking for something that had quality, but was fluffier and easier to read than the English books I had been reading, and that's what I got. I recommend it to anyone who's looking for a fun, quick read.