Mini Reviews: A Collection of LGBTQ+ Books in Honor of Pride Month

Hello, everyone! I hope you’re all doing well. I haven’t done a book review in nearly a month, which is kind of surprising, but I wanted to do these reviews as a collection, so I’ve been working on them for a while. These are all from my Pride Month TBR which I set at the beginning of June.

Quick disclaimer that there are going to be no unmarked spoilers in any of these reviews. If there are any, they will be marked and hidden.

Title: Picture Us in the Light
Author: Kelly Loy Gilbert
Genre: Contemporary, Realistic Fiction, Young Adult
Series: None
Page Count: 361

Synopsis: “Danny Cheng has always known his parents have secrets. But when he discovers a taped-up box in his father’s closet filled with old letters and a file on a powerful Silicon Valley family, he realizes there’s much more to his family’s past than he ever imagined.

Danny has been an artist for as long as he can remember and it seems his path is set, with a scholarship to RISD and his family’s blessing to pursue the career he’s always dreamed of. Still, contemplating a future without his best friend, Harry Wong, by his side makes Danny feel a panic he can barely put into words. Harry and Danny’s lives are deeply intertwined and as they approach the one-year anniversary of a tragedy that shook their friend group to its core, Danny can’t stop asking himself if Harry is truly in love with his girlfriend, Regina Chan.

When Danny digs deeper into his parents’ past, he uncovers a secret that disturbs the foundations of his family history and the carefully constructed facade his parents have maintained begins to crumble. With everything he loves in danger of being stripped away, Danny must face the ghosts of the past in order to build a future that belongs to him.”

Content Warnings

suicide, depression, car accident, death of loved one, immigration fears, child abduction

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This book was a lot to take in. It was also very sad. And I loved it.

“‘You promised,’ he said finally, stepping back. ‘I’m not going to forget that.'”

There’s a lot involved in this story, with what happened to Danny’s friend group a year ago and also the situation with his parents. Part of the plot was pretty easy for me to predict, but there were also some twists that I didn’t see coming at all. Gilbert’s writing was so imaginative, you could totally tell that Danny was an artist through the way he observed things and how his mind worked. I will say though, some of the sentences were really long and I had to read them a few times before I understood them.

All of the characters were crafted so well, with their own strengths and flaws, and all the flashbacks throughout the story really showed how their friend group and relationships were.

“Maybe what you need most in life is people who will fight for you; maybe that’s all that matters.”

A few parts in the story are told in second person and it takes a little while to figure out what those sections mean. I thought those parts were really cool and added a bit of mystery to the story. (Not that the storyline already had enough mystery in it.)

Danny’s parents. I both liked them and was annoyed by them at times. I loved how supporting they were of Danny’s choices, and how they wanted him to do what he loved, which was art. But some of the choices they made just didn’t do it for me. I need to ramble about some of their choices, and they have some spoilers, so if you don’t want to read them, skip this. If you do, click the text for them.

First, the argument that Danny has with his parents after being talked to about putting the tribute in the newspaper for Sandra. Yes, I know you’re all mad at each other and I get that, but people should know, parents especially, that you shouldn’t be arguing while you’re driving. It can lead to things getting worse and possibly lead to an accident if you get caught up in the argument and don’t pay attention to the road, similar to what happened with Danny.

Second, when Danny finally finds out about his sister, and he gets told about his parents going over to the Ballards house. Your kid is not going to remember you. You can’t just knock on someone’s door and expect that you’re going to get your child back. And you should definitely not go and try to hug the kid. From the kid’s perspective, two strangers suddenly barged into her house, tried to grab her, punched her dad, and demanded that she was their rightful child. That’s going to freak the kid out.

Anyways, sorry for that two paragraph long rambling session about Danny’s parents.

“The people who matter to you most–you aren’t always going to occupy that same space in their lives, I guess. Maybe that’s what I always loved most about art, that it was a way of multiplying myself so I could feel like I was always a part of more than I really was.”

Overall, this book was so good, even with my annoyances with Danny’s parents. There was a lot going on, but I loved the way things flowed in this novel.

My Rating: 4.5/5 dragons

Title: Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe
Author: Benjamin Alire Sáenz
Genre: Contemporary, Realistic Fiction, Young Adult
Series: Aristotle and Dante #1
Page Count: 359

Synopsis: “A lyrical novel about family and friendship from critically acclaimed author Benjamin Alire Sáenz.

Aristotle is an angry teen with a brother in prison. Dante is a know-it-all who has an unusual way of looking at the world. When the two meet at the swimming pool, they seem to have nothing in common. But as the loners start spending time together, they discover that they share a special friendship–the kind that changes lives and lasts a lifetime. And it is through this friendship that Ari and Dante will learn the most important truths about themselves and the kind of people they want to be.”

Content Warnings

car accident, bullying/beating

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This book had a very real look on life, I feel like. The way the characters interacted and also the events that happened really showed what life is like.

“That afternoon, I learned two new words. ‘Inscrutable.’ And ‘friend.’ Words were different when they lived inside you.”

The dialogue in this story was on point. I loved the interactions between Ari and his mom. It really showed how close their relationship was. They had this easy, relaxed way of talking with each other. Same with Dante; Ari’s banter with him was so funny and it showed how close they had grown. Dante and his dad were close as well. They had a comfortable relationship and could tease each other or make witty remarks.

The pacing in this book was not exactly fast, but it wasn’t slow either. It starts at the beginning of summer before Ari’s junior year and finishes at the end of the summer before his senior year. The beginning felt a little rushed to me. It’s not really rushed, it just feels like some things could’ve been more fleshed out. We are told that Dante and Ari get closer, and it kind of is shown, but I feel like they meet and then some time passes and they’re best friends. Anyways, I don’t know. Just something I thought about.

“‘That means I have to finish writing my book.’ ‘Writing a book isn’t work.’ Dante’s father laughed really hard when he said that. ‘You have a lot to learn about work.'”

That quote was really funny to me, as a person writing a book, I just had to add it in here. Writing a book is most definetely work.

Like I said above, this book had a pretty real look on life. I’m trying not to give too much away, but someone in this story gets beaten up just because they’re different. This (sadly) realistic event happens a lot and I think that that event made Ari and Dante have a new perspective on things in life.

This book was so good and I’m really excited to read the sequel, Aristotle and Dante Dive into the Waters of the World, which is coming out in October!

“‘In your dream. You were looking for me.’ ‘I’m always looking for you,’ I whispered.”

My Rating: 4/5 dragons

Title: The Henna Wars
Author: Adiba Jaigirdar
Genre: Contemporary, Realistic Fiction, Young Adult
Series: None
Page Count: 400

Synopsis: “When Dimple Met Rishi meets Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda in this rom-com about two teen girls with rival henna businesses.

When Nishat comes out to her parents, they say she can be anyone she wants—as long as she isn’t herself. Because Muslim girls aren’t lesbians. Nishat doesn’t want to hide who she is, but she also doesn’t want to lose her relationship with her family. And her life only gets harder once a childhood friend walks back into her life.

Flávia is beautiful and charismatic and Nishat falls for her instantly. But when a school competition invites students to create their own businesses, both Flávia and Nishat choose to do henna, even though Flávia is appropriating Nishat’s culture. Amidst sabotage and school stress, their lives get more tangled—but Nishat can’t quite get rid of her crush on Flávia, and realizes there might be more to her than she realized.”

Content Warnings

racism, homophobia, bullying, character being outed

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This book has just the right amount of sweetness and seriousness to it. There were definetely some heavier topics handled in this book, such as racism and homophobia.

“‘I love you, Apujan.’ she whispers. ‘And I’m so damn proud of you. I hope you know that.'”

First, I’d like to talk Nishat and Priti’s relationship. It’s so good! Their sisterly love for each other is shown so much in this story. Yes, they do have their occasional disagreements, but all siblings do. I love how much they supported each other. I also really enjoyed the cultural representation in this book. The Bengali food, wedding, and clothing were very interesting to read about.

Chyna was the main “villain” in this story. She was disrespectful, racist, and a bit arrogant. She spread lies and rumors about Nishat’s culture and she didn’t really experience any consequences for it, which I found annoying.

Nishat and Flavia’s relationship in the beginning was a little. . . awkward at first, I guess you could say, since Chyna was Flavia’s cousin. But all that aside, I love how their relationship grew. They weren’t really enemies-to-lovers, more like acquaintances/rivals-to-lovers. I loved Nishat as a protagonist. She grew a lot in this book, learning how to be herself, as a lesbian, even with her parents not approving of it.

“It’s strange to think about how much our parents really sacrifice for us. But then, I’m stuck on the fact that Ammu and Abbu can leave their entire world behind, yet they can’t pause for a moment and consider who I am. How can they sacrifice everything for me and Priti, but they can’t sacrifice their closed views of sexuality to accept me as I am?”

I will admit, at first, I was a bit annoyed by Flavia. When she decided to do henna for her business, she ignored Nishat’s discomfort at having some appropriate her culture, simply saying that it’s not just for Nishat to have. I feel like she could’ve done a better job at acknowledging Nishat’s feelings about it.

Another thing was Flavia’s compassion. When something happened to Nishat (I won’t say because of spoilers; it’s in the content warnings), Flavia told Nishat: “Look, I know you’re angry about what happened, but you’re too caught up in … whatever this is. Victimizing yourself. You don’t even realize what a brat you’re being.” Nishat had every right to be upset about what happened and I don’t understand why Flavia needed to say that. What Nishat needed then was support from anyone who’d give it, not someone telling her that she was overreacting.

However, after that, I came to like Flavia a little more as the book progressed. Her and Nishat’s romance was sweet and I like how they settled their differences and were able to become friends. Overall, this book was a lot of fun to read. While it did focus on heavier topics, they were handled well and the lighter topics balanced them out really well.

“But sometimes just being yourself–really, truly yourself–can be the most difficult thing to be.”

My Rating: 4/5 dragons

Title: I’ll Give You the Sun
Author: Jandy Nelson
Genre: Contemporary, Realistic Fiction, Young Adult
Series: None
Page Count: 371

Synopsis: “At first, Jude and her twin brother Noah, are inseparable. Noah draws constantly and is falling in love with the charismatic boy next door, while daredevil Jude wears red-red lipstick, cliff-dives, and does all the talking for both of them.

Years later, they are barely speaking. Something has happened to change the twins in different yet equally devastating ways… but then Jude meets an intriguing, irresistible boy and a mysterious new mentor. The early years are Noah’s to tell; the later years are Jude’s. But they each have only half the story, and if they can only find their way back to one another, they’ll have a chance to remake their world.

This radiant, award-winning novel from the acclaimed author of The Sky Is Everywhere will leave you breathless and teary and laughing—often all at once.”

Content Warnings

alcohol use, bullying, death (car accident), sexual assault/rape, divorce, suicide ideation (implied), drug addiction

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I almost never cry when reading books, but something in this one got to me because my eyes were not completely dry during some parts of it. I have found my first five star read of the year. I know I said in my June Monthly Wrap-Up that it was 4.5, but I changed my mind This story was heartwarming and heartbreaking all at the same time.

I’ll Give You the Sun is told from two different perspectives: Noah, when he’s 13 and Jude, when she’s 16. I like how the story was balanced between them, and how one person didn’t show up very much in the other person’s narration part. This way, it was easier to know each character at their age. We knew Noah more at 13 and we knew Jude more at 16. There wasn’t a lot of having to adjust to character’s different ages because so-and-so was literally 3 years older two pages ago. However, the chapters were extrememly long which made it kind of hard to find stopping points, but that wasn’t too much of a problem. I just kept reading until far too late into the night.

“This is what I want: I want to grab my brother’s hand and run back through time, losing years like coats falling from our shoulders.”

The characters in this book were perfect. And by that, I mean they were human. They had flaws and imperfections. Noah and Jude were very different from one another. While Noah was quieter, loved to draw, and kind of the odd one out, Jude was wild and adventurous, and seemed to be able to fit in anywhere and everywhere. And of course, the side characters as well. Brian, who’s fascinated with space and carries a suitcase full of stars; Guillermo, the most praised sculptor; and Oscar, who may seem all bad-boy on the outside but has a complex life on the inside.

The relationships in this book, on my gosh. They tugged at my heartstrings so much. The character and relationship development between Noah and Jude was so precious and sad at the same time, especially towards the end of the book. Also, the relationship between Noah and his mom, with all he had to go through, before and after the incident.

“We breathe and drift. I’m imagining us swimming through the night sky to the bright moon and hoping I remember the image in the morning so that I can make it and give it to her.”

Also, the writing in here is beautiful. I love the way the characters’ internal thoughts are written. I liked how Noah had drawing captions placed sporadically throughout his chapters and Jude had sayings from her grandmother that she commented on.

This story had a lot of complex relationships and character development in it, and I loved everything about this book so much. It was funny at times, it was heartwarming at times, and it was completely heartbreaking at others.

“‘Or maybe a person is just made up of a lot of people,’ […] ‘Maybe we’re accumulating these new selves all the time.’ Hauling them in as we make choices, good and bad, as we screw up, step up, lose our minds, find our minds, fall apart, fall in love, as we grieve, grow, retreat from the world, dive into the world, as we make things, as we break things.”

My Rating: 5/5 dragons

Have you read any of these books? Are any on your TBR? What are some LGBTQ+ books you recommend?
Chat with me in the comments below!