The Reading Challenge Group discussion

This book has been at the focus of LGBT and YA fiction for a while now, and loved by many!

Exploring the realities of sexuality and discovering who you are, it's captivated the hearts of many people!

Discussion starts June 1st, and a discussion leader would be great! If you want to, just take the helm and post some questions or tidbits for people to answer/think about!

This one is on my list for the readathon, and I'm honestly so excited to get started. I've heard such good things about it.

Since I nominated it, I don't mind leading the discussion (tips/advice welcome since this is my first time).

Yes I've also been meaning to read this book for quite a while. It has won many awards (listed on the GB page) but mostly I've read some amazing reviews, which I can post later on in the month since most have spoilers.

Shall be starting it later today :O)

I'm going to join in on this one. I've owned this book for at least 18 months if not longer it's about time I actually read it.

Me, too. My ebook just arrived from the library!

So far, really liking it. Ari's voice has a poetical quality to it, mixed in with the teenager language. What are your impressions?

I'm joining too, but not til after the readathon!!

Finished it yesterday. So beautiful.
Kept marking sentences too. Lots of them.

"I thought it might be a great thing to be the air.
I could be something and nothing at the same time. I could be necessary and also invisible. Everyone would need me and no one would be able to see me."

"But the worst part was that those words were living inside me. And they were leaking out of me. Words were not things you could control. Not always."

Gah, I'm hoping to start reading this later today! I'm super excited!

My thoughts at 80%

I love the writing style it's so gentle, sweet and sincere and like Veronique I have highlighted so many beautifully written sentences. However, I'm having a hard time believing that these boys would talk like that I've never met any 15/16 year old boys that do.

Some of the events also seem a little off to me especially (view spoiler)[The sponge bath as Ari seems to be identifying as straight at that time. (hide spoiler)]

The parents are also worth a mention I'm loving them.

Clare wrote: "My thoughts at 80%
I love the writing style it's so gentle, sweet and sincere and like Veronique I have highlighted so many beautifully written sentences. However, I'm having a hard time believing..."

I totally agree with you regarding the parents. They do go through their own transformation too. So often, the parents are on the margin, fulfilling a somewhat stereotyped role, but not here where they actually felt real. That did surprise me.

Pondering about the boys talking. I think they can in real life but often do not. Dante by nature is expressive anyway and brings Ari out. Talking to adults would be harder but not impossible. I have one example - I attended the release of the last Harry Potter book, queueing outside the Waterstones in Piccadilly (crazy I know). I'd never done this but felt I had to be there to experience it. Well, it was brilliant. I was surrounded by adults and teenagers alike, all sharing their love of the books, but especially a group of boys, who through the night really talked, how they loved HP, grew up with him, couldn't say this to their other friends, the problems of growing up (one actually said he hated his short size). We really talked, played cards, talked some more. It was great.

Gah, this would be the perfect time for a re-read as I read this about 1 1/2 years ago and absolutely loved it. Maybe going to pick it up once more around the end of the month...

I agree with you Clare and Veronique! I loved their parents! Especially because I'm so frustrated with how parents normally are super ignorant in young adult novels. Ari and Dantes parents finally delivered that feeling I know from my own parents. They cared, they participated, they guided their sons. I'm still thankful that at least this book portrais loving parents that care for their children.

I also have to agree with you, Clare, about some things feeling a bit off.
I didn't have much of a trouble imagining both boys talking the way they did though as it seemed to fit their characters very well and I could totally see them talking like that. (Maybe it's a European thing?)

I finished this last night!

I'm on holiday right now so I can't write a full review til the weekend, but I honestly adored this book! I spent the majority of the book nodding along to Ari's thoughts and feelings, and its good to see the representation that sometimes people struggle to deal with things and emotions and generally just feel too much!

May we tempt you Alessandra :0)

Holly - it is such an easy book to love.

I know we talked of the LGBT and growing up aspect, but I also really enjoyed the portrayal of being of Mexican origins, and what that means. Saenz shows this in a very honest and fresh way (and sometimes funny too, playing against stereotypes), both from the physical point of view (whether you look like one or not) and the cultural one. In fact, I felt this could apply to anyone with immigrant parents.

I just finished this last night. I also really enjoyed the parents, and how they have real struggles, make mistakes, (view spoiler)[but ultimately love and accept the boys as they are. I do wonder, though, how realistic that is - the ready acceptance that both sets of parents showed for their sons. (hide spoiler)] Especially in Texas.

And yes, the cultural aspect of Mexican Americans added an extra layer, too. That's another whole level of stereotypes being challenged!

I really enjoyed it, even though I don't often read things set so close to our time and reality. :D

(I realize I just stereotyped Texans. Sorry!)

My digital copy of this just came through from the library! I'm hoping to start it in the next day or two.

Just starting. I can see what Veronique was saying about Ari's voice in the story. I'm very excited this novel.

I adored Ari as a character! His voice just comes across as so real and grounded. But the story still has that magical tone of being a well written book with a lot of musings.

I hope you enjoy it Amanda and Renee!

I started last night and got about half way through. It's an easy read, but at the same time there is real depth to the characters. I agree that the parents are great - it seems there is something in each of them that I can relate to. And Ari and Dante are great characters.

Can't wait to finish it!

Ari hit really close to home for me, at least the part of not being sure who he is, what he wants, just wanting to disappear, fade into the background, etc. I admired Dante a lot because he's more what I wish I was, lol.

I feel the exact same way Allison! There's definitely something to Ari's character that makes you really relate. I read it and basically nodded to all of his thought processes and feelings.

Same here :0)

Really enjoyed this book - the way it is written, the voice of both Ari and Dante. And I also loved the portrayal of the parents too - carrying all the grief and difficulty that they did in their life but still so in tune with their children.

The more I think about this book the more I realise it fits so perfectly with the month.

Of course there's the LGBT aspect, but there's also the minority of the Mexican-American culture, the minority of introverts, the minority of people who struggle with mental health.

The issues that are presented in the book are done so in a way that is fundamentally realistic, while not feeling like token gestures. And the culmination of all of them means the boom isn't merely an 'lgbt story' or a 'Mexican story'. It's just about two young boys trying to figure out the world.

This is so true, Holly. I had to think for a minute about the mental health aspect, but you're right, even that's in there!

I just finished the book and enjoyed it much more than I expected. It's a great young love story, but Holly is right, there is so much depth to the book.

I want to know what happens next... For me that is a sign that the characters and the story really grabbed me. I wouldn't have picked this up had it not been a group read, I'm glad it was.

I just finished this book, and absolutely loved it. I think it was beautifully written and am loving reading everyone's favorite quotes (I'd say mine is definitely "To be careful with people and with words was a rare and beautiful thing"). I think this is a book I might have "missed" if it hadn't been a group read. Thanks for suggesting it Veronique!

Gah! I have been reading this as an ebook from my library, but in the most frustrating format. It won't allow me to highlight (which is true of borrowed paper books, but the Kindle-format borrowed books always allow highlighting and I've gotten spoiled). Plus, I cant seem to read it before my loan period ends... Then I have to wait on the list again to take it out. So frustrating!

So I broke down and ordered it for my Kindle.

Now maybe I can actually finish. It's a lovely story and I am totally savoring the writing so it will still take me awhile. But now in a good way.

I feel like I've been chipping away at this all summer. Not just because of library loans but also because I want to linger over the language, the way Ari expresses himself. It's a very quotable book.