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Debbiereadsbook (1202 KP) rated Courting Light in Books

Oct 11, 2018  
Courting Light
Courting Light
A. Zukowski | 2018 | Contemporary, LGBTQ+, Romance
6
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
great for LGBT and young adult fans
Independent reviewer for Archaeolibrarian, I was gifted my copy of this book.

Josie volunteers to help at a summer camp for disabled children. But it's the camp leader, Sam, who draws Josie like a moth to a flame.

Something must have piqued my interest with this one because it came with a young adult tag and I said yes, I would read it. And I did like! Not love but I liked it.

Josie, by her own admission, only at camp to have something else on her CV other than school. Paired with Lucian, an autistic teenager, she learns a lot about herself and her life; and that of those around her.

The draw to Sam, the camp leader, is instant and powerful, and Sam fights it a long time before they finally give into each other.

At the end of camp, though, Josie is in for a surprise, as were we! And I did like the ending. From what Josie was saying, about what she thought in years to come, I really wasn't sure which way it was gonna go!

BUT only Josie has a say and ya'll know what I think about that! AND it IS young adult, very much so. What Josie does say, is well written and well delivered. I quite liked Josie!

It's a lovely, easy read, great for young adult fans, and for LGBT fans alike. Just maybe not one for me.

3 good solid stars.

**same worded review will appear elsewhere**
  
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Lou Grande (148 KP) rated Sarah in Books

Jun 29, 2018  
Sarah
Sarah
J.T. LeRoy | 2001 | Fiction & Poetry
5
6.5 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
There is so much wrong with this book, and not just because it features a victim of child sex trafficking as the protagonist. The story of JT LeRoy is more interesting than Sarah. LeRoy doesn't exist. The person writing these books was a white woman in her forties. However, she claimed to be someone like the character in this book: a male or intersex child prostitute raised by a drug addicted mother. The media EXPLODED over this. Garbage wrote a song about these characters ("Cherry Lips" on Beautiful Garbage); Asia Argento adapted Sarah into an unsuccessful film, and Gus Van Sant designed the cover! When it came time to make a media appearance, she hired her sister-in-law, who was kind of masculine, to portray the "character" of JT LeRoy.

Thing is, this book is basically Hogg by Samuel Delaney. He's a gay man who wrote a similar book three months before the Stonewall Riots. It's full of anger and rage, and it's more depraved and weird than anything LeRoy could conjure up. The parallels are clear: both feature underage protagonists who are largely nameless and passive, used for sexual purposes, usually at the hands of truck drivers. And Hogg is better in every way. It punches you in the face, where Sarah pulls back at the last second.

Is the story fun to read? Sure, in a sick kind of way. But the fact that it was done before, and better, and by someone who lives in the LGBT community, makes it hard for me to stomach. As it is, this feels like LGBT fanfiction.