YA LGBT Books discussion

This month's winner is a personal favorite - Nobody's Butterfly by Claire Davis and Al Stewart

Cobweb ghosts are so inconvenient—especially grumpy ones with bad breath. Don’t they know silence is golden?

Johnny Strong is the expert; he hasn’t spoken in two years. Not one word to anyone except the ghost. The main purpose of life is to avoid people and not get noticed. Friends? He doesn’t need them; and certainly nobody wants him despite what the ghost says.

Until a new boy appears at Windybank—Finn Lyons, teenage wizard. He eats frogs, concocts potions, and is always hungry. Not only does Finn stand up for Johnny; he actively seeks his company and soon becomes part of life.
First love; family and words; a heady mix to go in the potion but how will it all turn out?

Hubble bubble; Johnny Strong’s in trouble! Silence is not always golden in this sweet, zany story of the purest magic at Christmas.

Content warnings: (view spoiler)[ mental health challenges, depression, grief, past abuse (hide spoiler)]

I look forward to seeing what our members think of this one. If you want to comment on something that may be a story spoiler, you can hide it by putting <*spoiler> (without the *) ahead of it, and <*/spoiler> (without the *) after it - eg. (view spoiler)[hide the info. (hide spoiler)]

My past review:
These two authors have a knack for giving me unusual characters - the guys who are damaged, lost, neuroatypical, down on their luck, and pushed into uncomfortable roles. And yet they manage a tone that has light touch, a matter-of-factness to it, a determination and warmth, that wrings the heart but is not manufactured angst. They make these men multifaceted, rounded, fascinating, heart-breaking, and ultimately uplifting. With this YA book they have done it again.

Johnny is an older teen who is in a care home. We don't ever get all the details of why his past life fell apart, but what happened has left him without family, bruised at heart, and so lost that he hasn't spoken aloud since he arrived two years before. The other kids in the home come and go, and none of them have tried to get close to weird Johnny who freaks out and hates sports and is an easy target at school. His best moments are in his room, talking to the "ghost" in the spiderweb outside his window, finally spilling his hurts and fears and questions to the only confidant he trusts.

Enter Finn, a boy his age who first arrived very ill in a wheelchair. Now healthier, Finn pushes into every part of Johnny's life, teasing him, supporting him, calling himself Johnny's wizard. He's funny and skinny and crazy and hoards food, and sees things that may or may not be there. But he also hears the words Johnny can't manage to say, and wants to be around him. Finn is a gift to a very isolated boy who desperately needs someone on his side, someone who sees the ordinary in him more than the extraordinary. Finn in his playful off-kilter way, just assumes Johnny will be along for the ride. And Johnny can't help warming his heart at the flames of Finn burning bright in his drab world.

This is lovely, heartwarming, and the villains here turn out to be human too. Highly recommended tale of two damaged sixteen-year-olds finding new life through their connection to each other.