The Lesbiana’s Guide to Catholic School Review || Blog Tour

The Lesbiana’s Guide to Catholic School by Sonora Reyes

Genre: Young Adult Contemporary

Publishing Date: May 17, 2022

Seventeen-year-old Yamilet Flores prefers drawing attention for her killer eyeliner, not for being the new kid at a mostly white, very rich, Catholic school. But at least here no one knows she’s gay, and Yami intends to keep it that way. After being outed by her crush and ex-best friend, she could use the fresh start.

At Slayton Catholic, Yami has new priorities: make her mom proud, keep her brother out of trouble, and most importantly, don’t fall in love. Granted, she’s never been great at any of those things, but that’s a problem for Future Yami.

The thing is, it’s hard to fake being straight when Bo, the only openly queer girl at school, is so annoyingly perfect. And smart. And talented. And cute. Either way, Yami isn’t going to make the same mistake again. If word got back to her mom, she could face a lot worse than rejection. So she’ll have to start asking, WWSGD: What would a straight girl do?

Told in a captivating voice that is by turns hilarious, vulnerable, and searingly honest, The Lesbiana’s Guide to Catholic School explores the joys and heartaches of living your full truth out loud.

Goodreads  | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Indigo | IndieBound

When I first saw the title for this YA novel, I immediately knew that I had to add it to my TBR. As a Mexican-American girl who attended Catholic school from until I was 14 years old, this book called to me, and it did not disappoint! I mean…look at the first line of the book:

“Seven years of bad luck can slurp my ass.”

I have yet to read a book that so accurately exemplifies the Catholic guilt that I also experienced as a young person during my time (and for a while after) attending Catholic school. Yami is dealing with so much on top of guilt for not fitting into the narrow definition of a “good Catholic”, from fear of coming out to her mother and friends to coping with her father being deported from the United States. I appreciated how Sonora Reyes dealt with Yami’s very real fears, including the possible repercussions of coming out in her religious and “traditional” family. Despite how much she loves them and how much they love her, she is still fearful of being kicked out of her home and is forced to plan for such an outcome.

“She’s right. The bible says a whole lot of things that the Catholic church kind of just ignores. Why get so hung up over this one detail?”

Although this book focuses on quite a few heavy topics, it didn’t fail to make me laugh. Yami was such a fun character. I laughed out loud so many times because of her penchant for getting herself into uncomfortable situations in her efforts to avoid anyone finding out she is gay. She’s a bit of a mess, but all of her wackiness made her such a real character.

Her interactions with her friends and family, including her younger brother Cesar and her crush Bo, are also a big part of her journey and the book itself. I appreciated that the author focused on the immense amount of pressure that her mom puts on her to constantly watch out for brother, which is something so many Mexican girls are tasked with, no matter the age. Her crush Bo is also dealing with issues of her own as a queer Chinese girl adopted by white parents. I can’t speak to her experience, but the different representation in this book made it an even more enriching read. How Cesar and Bo’s experiences are woven through Yami’s own story was just beautiful.

“‘Bo, any way you engage with your own culture is authentic, because it’s yours.’ And damn, I kind of feel like I needed to hear that myself.”

Overall, I loved this book. It made me laugh, made me tear up a bit, and comforted me in ways I definitely needed. Even though the characters are really going through it, the book ends on a hopeful note that gave me the warm embrace that I hoped it to be.

Playlist

On to the playlist! I don’t know much about cumbia, regaeton, or some of the other genres mentioned that are typically in Spanish so I didn’t add songs of those genres, but I’m not feeling bad about it because as Yami says, how I engage with my own culture is authentic!!

• Someone to Spend Time With – Los Retros
• Para Siempre – Vicente Fernandez
• Dreaming of You – Selena
• Baila Esta Cumbia – Selena
• A Dios Le Pido by Juanes
• Amigos – Okills
• Feels Like I’m in Love – Kelly Marie

About the Author:

Born and raised in Arizona, Sonora Reyes is the author of the forthcoming contemporary young adult novel: THE LESBIANA’S GUIDE TO CATHOLIC SCHOOL

They write fiction full of queer and Latinx characters in a variety of genres, with current projects in both kidlit and adult categories. Sonora is also the creator and host of the Twitter chat #QPOCChat, a monthly community-building chat for queer writers of color.

Sonora currently lives in Arizona in a multi-generational family home with a small pack of dogs who run the place. Outside of writing, Sonora loves dancing, singing karaoke, and playing with their baby nephew.

Website | Twitter | Instagram | Goodreads | YouTube

Thanks to TBR and Beyond Tours for including me in this blog tour! Let me know if you plan on adding this to your TBR or if it already is.

Miss Meteor by Tehlor Kay Meija and Anna-Marie McLemore || Book Tour

Title: Miss Meteor
Authors: Tehlor Kay Mejia & Anna-Marie McLemore
Genre: Young Adult
Pages: 320
Publisher: HarperTeen
Release Date: September 22nd 2020
Content warnings: Bullying, homophobia, transphobia, fatphobia, xenophobia

Disclaimer: I was given a free e-arc from the publisher through Hear Our Voices in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of this review. All opinions are my own. 

“There hasn’t been a winner of the Miss Meteor beauty pageant who looks like Lita Perez or Chicky Quintanilla in all its history. But that’s not the only reason Lita wants to enter the contest, or why her ex-best friend Chicky wants to help her. The road to becoming Miss Meteor isn’t about being perfect; it’s about sharing who you are with the world—and loving the parts of yourself no one else understands. So to pull off the unlikeliest underdog story in pageant history, Lita and Chicky are going to have to forget the past and imagine a future where girls like them are more than enough—they are everything.” – Goodreads

What I Liked

☄️ Lita: Lita was such a refreshing character to read about. She is unapologetic about who she is in all of her quirkiness, even if that means people making fun of her or ignoring her altogether. Despite how people treat her, she never ceases to be kind and caring. I also liked how her body image as a plus-size girl is not a big point of issue. She does mention how it affects how people see her, but it isn’t something she is super focused on. Proud plus-size girl rep is so wonderful and reading about her experience in the Miss Meteor pageant was a lot of fun.

☄️ Chicky: I really identified with Chicky, which is probably why she ended up being one of my favorite characters. Despite the fact that so many people in her small town are so dismissive of her, and even though she isolates herself, she remains as much of herself as she feels she can be. I enjoyed seeing her development as she goes from someone who runs away from others to keep herself protected to someone who is proud of who she is, especially in regard to her pansexuality, and is willing to stand up for herself and those she loves.

☄️ Cole: I found Cole to be such an interesting character. He is a trans boy with a sister who is a bully to all those who are different from her, with the exception of her brother. Despite homophobic comments she makes to others like Chicky, she usually avoids making any comments to allude to her brother’s trans identity. This ends up being more of a way to try to hide Cole’s identity than being respectful of him. Cole is the darling of Meteor, which she wants to protect. The town’s support of him is conditional on him not being “too out there” with his identity and continuing to be their sports star, and he knows this.

He is initially not very outspoken about how awful his sister and friends are, but as the story goes on, we begin to see him make comments that make people question the things that they say and the way that they act. It’s unfortunate that he has to constantly educate and correct people, but I truly appreciated him as a character and the perspective he brought to the story.

☄️ The sister relationships: I personally don’t have any sisters, so I always love reading about sister relationships. Their banter was so much fun and I found myself laughing at their interactions many times throughout the book.

☄️ The friendships: I loved all of the friendships in this story, specifically that of Chicky and Lita. Despite the time that has passed since they stopped being best friends, they have always longed for one another’s friendship. They are exactly what the other needs and they each provide a safe space to reveal who they are. Not only do they uphold one another, but they come to extend that to both Cole and Junior as well.

What I Didn’t Like

There was honestly nothing that I didn’t particularly like about this book. I wasn’t aware that it included magical realism elements until I started the book, but I don’t think that took anything away from my experience (since I haven’t had a great track record with magical realism in books). Obviously, it should just be a given to me now that any book by Anna-Marie McLemore will have magical realism in it…and I will still continue to read anything they release.

Final Thoughts

The second that I saw this beautiful cover, I knew I had to read Miss Meteor. The dark hair, the thick eyebrows, the jalapeño cupcake! Yes! Overall, I truly enjoyed this book and it did not disappoint. I found myself reading late into the night because I wanted to see where the story would go next, which hasn’t happened in awhile. The atmosphere of this book definitely lent to how excited I was to keep flipping the pages.

I think as a teenager, a book like this would have been so valuable to me. Although I grew up in a pretty big city with a predominantly Latinx community, going to a school with all but a few Latinx kids, I still identified with Chicky and Lita’s struggles in finding who they are and who they want to be within their communities. This is such a beautiful story about friendship, self-acceptance, and family that I would recommend, especially if you are looking for a book with Mexican-American and LGBTQ characters.

My Rating: ★★★★☆

Favorite Quotes

“In a town this small, for girls like us, survival is based mostly on how well you can camouflage, not on dredging up the bloodred and sunshine yellow of your secrets and splattering them across your chest.”

“For instance, probably a third of our town’s five-thousand residents are Latinx- but Meteor ‘doesn’t care if we’re purple’, so long as we’re not too loud about it.”

“Fresa taps my upper lip and glances at Uva Quintanilla. ‘Depilatory or cream bleach?’ ‘Fresa!’ Cereza shouts. ‘It’s nothing to be ashamed of,’ Uva says. ‘We all have to do it. With the many blessings of being who we are come a few curses.'” (*Shudder* I identified with this so much…oh how I have struggled with my Mexican mustache 😄)

“Then we’re off in the night air, the stars thick above us. They’re distant as dreams and close as relatives. They’re as much mine as I am theirs. They’re mirrors of my body and heart.”

“Because I am a girl worth the space I take up. I am a girl this world, this town, and most of all, the people who love me, will not let go of.”

Playlist

As part of the Hear Our Voices tour, I put together a playlist for the book. I basically just chose the songs based on the feel of them. I pictured Miss Meteor sort of like a movie and picked songs I felt would fit into very cinematic representations of general scenes. For example, “Toyota Man” while the Quintanilla family works in their diner (the lyrics are also on point), “Mujer Latina” as a song playing as the sisters get Lita ready for the pageant, “Queen of the Rodeo” as the song that plays during the dance scene, and “Shining Light” as the end credits.

1. “Toyota Man” by Neon Indian
2. “Mujer Latina” by Thalía
3. “Como La Flor” by Selena
4. “Beautiful Dreamers” by Grant-Lee Phillips
5. “Friends” by Los Retros
6. “Siempre Tú” by Enjambre
7. “Made To Last” by Semisonic
8. “High Horse” by Kacey Musgraves
9. “Queen of the Rodeo” by Orville Peck
10. “Shining Light” by Ash

Miss Meteor Playlist on Spotify

About The Authors

Tehlor Kay Mejia is the author of the critically acclaimed young adult fantasy novel We Set the Dark on Fire as well as its sequel, We Unleash the Merciless Storm; Miss Meteor (co-written with National Book Award nominee Anna-Marie McLemore); and her middle grade debut, Paola Santiago and the River of Tears.

Her debut novel received six starred reviews and was chosen as an Indie Next Pick and a Junior Library Guild selection, as well as being an IndieBound bestseller in the Pacific Northwest region. It has been featured in Seventeen, Cosmopolitan, and O The Oprah Magazine and named a best book of 2019 by Kirkus and School Library Journal.

Tehlor lives in Oregon with her daughter, two very small dogs, and several rescued houseplants.

Anna-Marie McLemore (they/them) was born in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains and taught by their family to hear la llorona in the Santa Ana winds. Anna-Marie is the author of The Weight of Feathers, a finalist for the 2016 William C. Morris Debut Award; 2017 Stonewall Honor Book When the Moon Was Ours, which was longlisted for the National Book Award in Young People’s Literature and winner of the James Tiptree Jr. Award; Wild Beauty, a Kirkus Best Book of 2017; and Blanca & Roja, a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice. Dark and Deepest Red, a reimagining of “The Red Shoes” based on true medieval events, will be released in January 2020.

Thanks for reading! Are you interested in reading Miss Meteor (which comes out today by the way 😉)? Have you read any other books by Anna-Marie McLemore or Tehlor Kay Mejia? Let me know in the comments!