Ryan and Avery by David Levithan - Review

If you've read this blog for any amount of time you might know that I blow hot and cold on David Levithan. I maintain that Every Day is one of the worst books I've ever read, but I liked Two Boys Kissing. When I saw this in a children's and young adult bookshop in Retford when I was there with friends over Easter, and my friend Lucinda recommended it so I picked it up. After I'd slogged through the end of The Listeners by Maggie Stiefvater I picked this up. It's funny because Lee's stepdad put one of our bookshelves back together on the second day after our move, and unpacked a box of books that were nearby. He said, "These are all gay books!" which yes, was true, because it was a box marked LGBT. So yes, they were. He also told me I didn't need any more books which obviously isn't true!

Anyway, that meant this was ready available for I picked it up. I needed something cute and easy to read and this ticked all the boxes for me. It was so cute and just what I needed. I feel like David has come on a lot in ten years and is mroe accurately reflecting the teen queer community than he maybe did in the past. 

Ryan and Avery live in towns some two hours apart in the middle of nowhere in America, you know how it goes. This is the story of their first ten dates together. It goes backwards in time as well as forwards so we know that they're pretty serious about each other at the beginning of the book, and we get to see how they got to that point. They met at a queer prom in Ryan's town and now have to drive hours (for a Brit this is loopy!) to see each other. 

Ryan is gay and lives with his parents, who are not accepting of him and who try to stop him seeing Avery. He is close to his aunt, whose name I forget, and he is totally falling in love with Avery and it's adorable. He has some friends and is out at school, but his home life is pretty rotten and I felt sorry for him. 

Avery is trans, and gay, and lives with his parents. They have always been accepting of his transness and his queerness - in fact sometimes they're a bit TOO accepting and do his head in - and so they accept Ryan very quickly too. 

Their dates are so cute. The whole book is cute but also has real depth and drama. I would recommend it to any romance fan, and I'm giving it five out of five. 

Sweat by Emma Healey - Review

I bought this book on Amazon for 99p, I think at the recommendation of my friend Janet? It seems likely. I haven't read Emma Healey's other book but I've heard good things about it. But this one didn't really land for me, so I wouldn't be in a rush to read the other. Still, you never know these things until you try them.

It is absolutely weeks since I read this so I'm having to cast my mind back a bit. I do know that I only gave it three out of five. It was trying to be something that it didn't quite manage to be. 

It's about Cassie, who works as a personal trainer in a gym. She's working one day when her ex. Liam, walks in. She tries to avoid him but realises he is now blind. Fuelled by anger over what he did to her in their relationship, Cassie poses as her colleague Steph and begins to guide Liam through weekly sessions. She runs into his friend, who I think is called Daniel, who tells her that Liam has a brain tumour which has caused him to go blind. He wants Cassie to reconnect and reconcile with Liam, because no one really understands what went on between the two of them. Cassie refuses, but she feels like someone is following her, so she starts to follow Liam, playing with him, to see if he's faking his illness and playing with her. 

It almost feels like this revenge thing would be not understandable, but acceptable, because there are flashbacks to when Cassie and Liam were together. Bit by bit, little by little, he played with her self confidence, wore her down, and abused her domestically. It started ouff innocent and innocuous, with like getting her to go out for a run and persuading her to give up alcohol, stuff like that, but it ended with the fridge locked and her unable to contact anyone. This was a really good portrayal of how domestic abuse starts and spirals. I also thought that Cassie's parents reaction to the abuse when she finally tells them about it is that he's 'just looking after her' and only wants the best for her, etc etc. I really liked this bit.

But the ending just didn't quite work for me. I'm not sure what I wanted to happen, but this didn't get there for me. As I said, three out of five.