Each year I look for a great YA LGBTQ novel to buy for my friend Tom for his birthday. I've done this for the last four years and he's loved all of them. So the pressure is on now to deliver. I had high hopes for Autoboyography. I think the title alone will make Tom smile. After finishing it, I'm a little hesitant because the main relationship was a bit too shallow insta-love, but overall the book definitely has the main thing I'm looking for: all of the feels.

Here are the past books I've gotten him:

Simon Vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda (so excited for the movie)
The Great American Whatever
Boy Meets Boy
If I Was Your Girl

Should I just get him another David Levithan book? (There are so many good ones to choose from.) Or go with this new one? Still debating.

On the one hand, I really liked how this book handles religion and sexuality with sensitivity. On the other, I didn't buy Tanner and Autumn's complicated friendship. It's highly unusual for a teenage girl to be so physically affectionate with a boy who is just a friend (unless he is openly gay). It is also unusual for a teenage boy to be so physically affectionate with a girl who is just his friend -- especially if he knows she *likes* him and he doesn't reciprocate. Very weird territory. I didn't get it, but maybe I'm too old to get kids these days. Still, I truly didn't like that they end up having sex after Tanner is emotionally crushed by Sebastian breaking up with him. It felt unnecessary to the plot. Autumn just wanted to lose her virginity and took advantage. Tanner just wanted to escape his feeling of rejection. It's gross that they both used each other for sex and unbelievable that they got over it so quickly. ( )

I was so afraid to read this book, I hate how people usually see Mormons as this cultist group that hates the gays and burn the women, it was refreshing seeing a book where faith and sexuality can coexist inside someone. Sebastian was everything I wanted to see, and I really liked how, even if Tanner didn't have the same faith, was always respectful and didn't make fun of his boyfriend's prayers. ( )

I’ll probably try to write an actual review of this later, but right now I’m just teary eyed with happiness and so emotional. It was just a purely good, heartwarming book and I love it so freaking much. ( )

Unpopular opinion time!
1 star.
Because it's pretty much meh from where I stand.
Maybe others will find this book exactly what they need. But for me it hit the jackpot of things I avoid in my reading, in no particular order:
- First person POV
- Religion
- Insta-love

I can deal with any one on its own IF the story and writing are good. But put together? It ought to be something TRULY SPECTACULAR. Sadly, this is not the case here.

The writing is ...interesting, I guess? It reads easy, but doesn't really ensnare. Personally, did not feel the need to pick up the book after putting it down. (Actually, that dark and creepy corner with possibility of murder? Way more exciting.)

Since I did not make it far (1/10) I cannot tell you anything about further on.
Except, I flipped to the end and now can safely say that divorce from reality seems to be a common theme for WAY too many writers.
Also - why does most everyone insist on defined endings? I could happily embrace some will-they-won't-they. Open endings are nice when done properly. (hint: nope, not here)

FINAL VERDICT : TRY IT ON FOR SIZE BUT BE WARNED ( )

This is a wonderful book that operates on many levels. The plot and storyline are well done, the setting allows for a certain extra tension as well as giving an opportunity to reflect on the impact of religion on who we are and who we become.
In addition to accepting the challenge for how many books I will read in a year, I always set out to explore genre and subject matter I have not previously explored. I tried out a few YA books last year and found them to be great and this year, I added YA-LGBT.
Love is the most complicated and wonderful thing there is. However, in books dealing with adult romantic relationships, the author deals with adults, people who already know what love is, who in many books pair love with sex. In fact, is real life, many people never fully understand the difference between the two. Adult romances may deal with adults who are confused about their sexual orientation, but whether or not they are uncertain about it, they certainly know the difference between “being in love” and “being in lust.”
In dealing with adult protagonists, authors are denied access to the innocence and confused pain and terror adolescents feel.
Good YA writers understand well the difference between the crushes, loves and bewildering passions adolescents feel and those experienced by adults. They help readers remember the first time we were in love, something that happened just as we were also experiencing the rising passions of sexuality and often leaving us confused about which was which.
For young people who find love in members of their same sex, the pain and confusion is greatly increased. (Suicide among LGBT teens is incredibly frequent).
Moreover, because adolescents are reaching out to discover their place in the world, to grow into what it means to be an adult, they become very tribal and are capable of delivering verbal blows and judgments that their victims will carry all their loves.
In Autoboyography, one boy is reluctant to accept his sexuality and thinks himself “bi” while the other denies his sexuality altogether. He suffers from the usual teenage confusion about sexual preference and is also burdened with a repressive, judgmental and condemnational family and religious strictures.
Autoboyography is a great book. Is a great fictional read yet also a painful reminiscence of our own youth and a book that genuinely confronts how far religion sometimes falls from the call of the divine to love. ( )