#messy perfect

[lgbtqreads]

Most Anticipated LGBTQ+ Young Adult Fiction: January-June 2025

Today’s post is sponsored in honor of the upcoming paperback release of Sydney Taylor Honor book Going Bicoastal, coming May 27th from Wednesday Books! *** The Last Bookstore on Earth by Lily Braun-Arnold (January 7th) The world is about to end. Again. Ever since the first Storm wreaked havoc on civilization as we know it, seventeen-year-old Liz Flannery has been holed up in an abandoned…

Most Anticipated LGBTQ+ Young Adult Fiction: January-June 2025

[libraryleopard]

Messy Perfect by Tanya Boteju is important representation for those of us who were queer teenagers leading GSAs while outwardly professing to be straight

[teanderthalrex]

Messy Perfect by Tanya Boteju

Boteju’s latest queer coming-of-age story about what it's like to be both queer and Christian and the vulnerability that comes with that.

Cassie Perera is a straight-A student and textbook overachiever, volunteers at her church on Sundays, attends a Catholic school, and somehow manages to live up to her parents' expectations of her.

And, well, she’s a lesbian. Not that she can tell anyone.

She’s known ever since she outed her childhood best friend, Ben, in an attempt to hide her own identity. And now Ben is back and Cassie has to find a way to make it up to him.

Just like everything in her life, if Cassie adds it to her spreadsheet of to-do items, it'll definitely happen. And she won't have to mention the messy queer part of her that doesn't fit nicely inside her rows and columns.

After a chance encounter with nearby school's GSA, Cassie gets involved, as an ally, and eventually ropes Ben into the group as well. Things go well, for a while.

There are some useful examples of community organizing (good and bad) in here that are gonna be helpful for queer teens today.

It's cute, sweet, and a good look into forced conformity (even when no one explicitly says so).

3.5/5 stars.

Content warnings for homophobia.