randi_jo's profile picture

randi_jo 's review for:

2.25
informative lighthearted fast-paced

 Read for Banned Books Week 2022. Did I like it? Not really. Did I hate it? Also no. Was probably great for its time, but did not age gracefully. Also, I can't tell if this was aimed towards YA audiences or not since so much of this was aimed at people above legal drinking age.

In terms of information about the LGBT+ community, it's decent, if not dated in some areas. Best for gay, lesbian, and maybe trans information. Asexuals get mentioned and then steamrolled (and at one point accused of being liars since, to paraphrase: 'anyone who doesn't imagine having sex all the time with multiple people are lying') and bisexuals have some information but mostly get a consolatory pat on the back because their sexuality isn't really seen as an "endgame" sexuality. There's some weirdly worded trans-gatekeeping (and some transphobia mixed in), but otherwise reading this is like reading a 2012 Tumblr text post but with slightly better formatting.

Narrator was annoying and highly opinionated, even accidentally suggesting in the 2014 version that you can only have love in monogamous relationships and therefore shitting on every polyamorous person ever (this has been fixed). The only thing that really made this worth reading were the testimonials from the other LGBT+ people; many were more informative than the actual material being presented, especially towards the end.