A YA LGBTQ romance about coming out, falling in love with your best friend, fighting for what's right, art, and fandom. I enjoyed this a lot--the writing was great, and I thought the aspect of the story involving some of the characters' over-involvement in their friends' lives (including shipping them) was handled well. ( )

Started out as your run of the mill coming out story and turned into a pretty cute romance. Unfortunately? The plot was MASSIVELY predictable. I guessed pretty much everything that was going to happen. (Then again, I've read a boatload of coming out stories over the years.) It wasn't much of a surprise.

Things I liked: even though this was primarily gay, the two other major characters were both lesbians and got together in the end - usually in coming out stories there's just the main character and the love interest.

I didn't like how the girls were generally portrayed, though. They seemed shallow, which was disappointing. ( )

Review courtesy of Dark Faerie Tales

Quick & Dirty: An excellent story about a teenage boy who is in love with his straight best friend.

Opening Sentence: “Nah,” I say about the brunette at the next table.

The Review:

Fan Art is unbelievably adorable and given the recent announcement in America, this is the perfect time for my review. Without sounding politically incorrect, this is the first book, let alone love story, I’ve read from a gay guy’s perspective. There’s probably plenty of them out there but because this was my first it’s set a very high benchmark for future books on the same topic. In recent years most YA books incorporate a gay character, usually the best friend, so he (it’s hardly ever a lesbian) is usually side lined. Reading the story from a gay teenage boy who is ‘in the closet’ was a unique experience.

The author doesn’t use the stereotypical version of being gay: overly feminine, very organised / super smart, excellent fashion taste and lots of female friends. Jamie isn’t feminine, squirms when girls come near him and his best, and only, friend is Mason.

“Oh,” she says, suddenly interested in the menu. “Sorry, I just thought we had something in common. I can totally relate, you know?”
This is why I don’t date girls. They’re weird. They talk about everything and assume you want to too. I don’t get it. It’s as if their bras are filled with words.

Jamie’s trepidation in coming out, more importantly, in coming out to his best friend came across so clearly that I felt Jamie’s emotions as my own. His confusion, the hurt he felt when seeing Bahti and Mason together, and the emotions the graphic art brought out were palpable.

Eden squeezes my hand back and says, “Sometimes I wish things weren’t so complex.”
“Like, so I wouldn’t have to come out? Yeah?”
“Like, if people didn’t care, if love was love.”
“Love is love,” I say, more to myself than to Eden, as I scan the room for Mason.

Although we think that our society has become more open minded and people are more accepting of our differences, this book highlights that we have a long way to go. The book isn’t just about Jamie’s dilemma of falling in love with his ‘straight’ best friend, it looks at other characters facing problems because of their sexual orientation. Eden, like Jamie, had come out to her family but not at school. Unlike Jamie’s supportive mother, Eden’s parents are trying to change her mind into becoming straight by encouraging her focus on religion. It pains me to think how others can judge someone else’s feelings and I hope that more people read this book to increase awareness and obviously because this is a fantastically awesome read!

Notable Scene:

No. No, no. No.

I did not just do that. I can’t believe I just did that! Mason and I have been friends since third grade, and I have never looked at him like that. Other guys, yeah, but not him. It should be in the Bible. Thou shalt not check out thy best friend.

I wait a minute to catch my breath and the last shred of my sanity before I follow Mason into the locker room. I head for the sinks and splash water onto my face in an attempt to straighten out my thoughts. I’m okay with my bent thoughts-I have them all the time-but checking out Mason? That’s going too far. He’s my best friend. And everyone knows best friend crushes are the worst-even guy-girl friend crushes-drama, angst, broken hearts, you name it. It’s bad-real bad. And straight-guy-gay-guy friend crushes? I don’t even want to think about that apocalypse.

FTC Advisory: Katherine Tegen Books/HarperTeen provided me with a copy of Fan Art. No goody bags, sponsorships, “material connections,” or bribes were exchanged for my review. ( )

This is completely glorious. Beyond glorious. The characters were beautifully written, extremely dynamic, and, I felt, stayed well away from the stereotypes that seem to completely overwhelm queer young adult literature. It wasn't extremely unique, in the sense of the high school writing students telling the stories, but I felt like it dealt with a lot of things that I, personally, haven't seen handled well often in any book, let alone a young adult book, and I felt like Sarah Tregay did a very good job of dealing with friends and self and high school and morally vs ethically right in the text. I enjoyed every single thing about this novel and could not put it down this evening once I picked it up. ( )

It was a bit predictable and I figured out the ending about half way through the book... but I gave it an extra star for the cool graphic art in the middle. We need more lgbt books for young adults. ( )