This was so cute and it was my first book by the author and it had one of my favorite tropes: FAKE DATING!!! Four out of five stars. Can't wait to go back and reading Adib's other two books!(:

I absolutely adored this book SO much. Hunter is learning how to be himself, falling in love and making mistakes a long the way, I loved the friendships and the relationships in this one so much. I HIGHLY recommend this one!

Wow what can I even say about Kiss and Tell? There’s some amazing stuff in this book! So we have Hunter who is an out and proud gay boy in a boy band that is touring. He quickly meets the gay band member who opens for his band and they hit it off. But due to *issues* they start dating quickly. The romance is the thing keeping it back from a 5 for me, it was just too quick and not developed enough in my opinion.

This book did something neat where between the chapters were news articles and such about Hunter and the Band that REALLY helped to expand on so much that’s happening. That was a great touch.

Overall this was a very insightful book about being queer in the spotlight and I’d recommend this to everyone.

Another point- this author used the F werd very well in this book and it made me cry. I hate when authors use it cheaply.

Check this book out y’all!

This was so sweet and cute and had me in my feels a whole lot. Adib Khorram's writing always gets me in a way no other author has. Love!!

Hunter is a member of one of the most popular boy bands in the world. Not only is he in the middle of a huge tour with his band, but he’s also getting over a huge (public) breakup. As the only gay member of the band, he feels pressure to be the perfect queer role model, but what does that even mean?

I love a good boy band so this book was one I was super excited to pick up. I really appreciated the behind the scenes piece and the conversation about how members of boy bands are expected to look and act a certain way (especially when it comes to sex). I also enjoyed all the mixed media.

I personally wanted more development from Hunter. He seemed to act a bit entitled at times and really frustrated me.

Thank you to Penguin Teen and NetGalley for the advanced copy.

4.5 Stars

On the surface, Kiss & Tell promises a simple and straightforward story about a queer boy bander trying to navigate the spotlight, but in true Adib Khorram fashion, it's also so much more! While this is a very different story from Adib's previous books, it has that same level of thoughtfulness and heart at its center.

On the one hand, this is a super fun, fast-paced story about a mega-popular boy band blazing across North America on one of their biggest tours, but it's also asking a lot of deeper questions about the cisheteronormativity of the boy band market and what it means to be "visibly queer" online and on stage.

As a white cis gay boy, Hunter definitely holds a lot of privilege, and the fact that he's able to be out as a gay man with his label and have it be a non-issue is definitely part of that. However, he's still having to deal with people dehumanizing him and reducing him to nothing more than just a label, and he also finds himself being continuously forced into this "token gay boy" box. Whether it's the way he's told to dress, the kinds of press junkets he's allowed to do, or the content he's allowed to post, every aspect of his expression is carefully controlled by the people around him. There's a compelling contradiction between Hunter having an immense platform that comes with an incredible amount of power and also not having a lot of freedom to choose for himself as a result.

I really appreciate how this story makes the reader think about who boy bands are marketed towards and why. Generally speaking, the majority of boy bands are marketed towards younger audiences, and primarily cishet audiences, and they occupy a very strange liminal space where they're expected to be "wholesome" and "virginal" but also attractive and suggestive enough to be "desirable" to their audience. By those standards, Hunter already finds himself at a disadvantage of sorts, because his target audience (young cishet girls) can't romantically project themselves onto him. So his label feels that he has to make up for that quote-unquote "deficit" by really leaning into the stereotypical "twink" styles and mannerisms and molding himself into this perfect, wholesome queer role model for young people.

That dilemma further opens up the question of what it even means to *be* a role model, and how that concept in itself can be even more limiting in some ways. Especially as a queer boy, Hunter finds his every action to be put under a microscope, and he finds it harder to make himself seem "perfect" and "wholesome" when he's constantly being confronted by the misconception that sexuality and queerness is solely about the act of sex, when it's not. When his toxic ex drunkenly releases screenshots of Hunter's private conversations, that onslaught of commentary becomes even more pressing.

I truly appreciate how Adib Khorram has crafted a sex positive story about a young queer man who's constantly being forced to grapple with the conception that he's either "not gay enough" or "too gay." Especially in a world where queer men are often seen as hypersexual, which is then seen as "shameful" (even though there's nothing inherently bad or wrong about sex), this story makes a powerful statement about embracing those parts of yourself that are deemed "imperfect" and being unafraid to to claim all those messy sides of yourself that don't neatly fit into any box. Being openly queer as a public figure is often a matter of Damned If You Do, Damned If You Don't. Every action you take is extrapolated and interpreted as a representation of the entire queer community at large when it shouldn't be, and Hunter having to fight against that feels incredibly realistic.

On a lighter note, I also enjoy how this story puts a different spin on the "fake dating" trope. While Hunter and Kaivan are technically dating for real and by their own choice, it still feels like a front at times since the label is intentionally playing it up for press. So you kind of get the best of both worlds, where you get to see this very soft, genuine romantic connection unfold over the course of the story, but there's also your typical "fake dating shenanigans" with all these public-facing dates put on for the fans.

Another highlight is the way the story makes use of multi-media interludes between chapters, where you get to see the snippets from various press junkets or interviews, transcripts from Kiss & Tell's documentary, as well as excerpts of blog posts and think pieces. I love the way those pieces of media are able to indirectly build out the "world" of the story and reveal more about the characters from an outside perspective, and it's even interesting to see how the events of the story are being spun by the press for online consumption. It was also nice to have media inserts that were not just interviews, because those added to the larger commentary of how being a queer boy bander complicates the cisheteronormative narrative popularized in the mainstream.

There were two tiny things that kept this from being a five-star book, for me personally. The first is that I wish Hunter's bandmates were a little bit more prominent in the story. Besides Hunter, the rest of Kiss & Tell is made up of more ethnically diverse pop stars—who are Vietnamese-, Brazilian-, and Indian-Canadian—and I wish we could have more directly seen the kinds of pressures that *they* face. There's a small discussion of that towards the end, when Hunter's bandmates sort of call him out for assuming that his queerness is a "bigger burden" than the racism they face online, but I think getting to see those experiences or discussions play out would have made that land even better.

My second tiny note is that I found myself wanting a bit more from the romantic relationship between Hunter and Kaivan. Throughout the story, it's made clear that Kaivan has somewhat of a superiority complex when it comes to the success of boy bands versus the success of traditional bands, some of which is definitely warranted when you consider the vast disparity between them. However, that leads him to saying some controversial things in his interviews where he openly questions the talent-level, creativity, and integrity of boy banders. When that eventually comes to light, it ends up feeling somewhat glossed over. I think there were more conversations to be had between Hunter and Kaivan to meaningfully reconcile those differences in order for me to feel fully on board with their relationship by the end. Even so, overall I did enjoy the romantic element.

As always, I remain absolutely floored by Adib Khorram's ability to craft a deeply meaningful and thoughtful story that's also able to balance humor, romance, and fun. As I said up top, even though this seems like a simple story on the surface, it proves to be so much more and offers the reader a foothold to better grasp deeper questions about societal expectations and self-expression. As with all of Adib's books, I enjoyed this so much, and I absolutely cannot wait to see what he writes next. No matter what it is, I will definitely be reading it!

When you hear "gay teen celebrity boy band romance" it's an exciting concept--it makes you want to read. Sadly, this book ended up being a bit of a bore with a weird arc/pacing issues. The highlight of the story is its multimedia nature, where interwoven with the prose are text messages, new articles, interview snippets, and more. This is the most interesting feature of the book and I almost wonder what it would have been like if it had been told a la Daisy Jones and The Six. But as it stands, this was not a book where I was dying to find out what happened, and I wasn't even rooting for the love interests to be together. The author did such a good job of planting seeds of doubt about one's intentions that I wasn't even happy when (spoiler alert) they got back together in the end. With the barrage of boy band romances we have nowadays--e.g., When This Gets Out, Along for the Ride, K-Pop Confidential--it's hard to know which one to pick up. And, to be honest, none of them have quite hit the mark for me and taken the trope/premise to its full potential. Maybe one day...

Thanks to Penguin Teen for my eARC and BookishFirst for my finished copy raffle win! All thoughts and opinions are my own.

3 stars - 6/10

Content Warnings: Homophobia, Homophobic slurs, Sexual Slurs, Racism, Online Harassment, Sexual Harassment, Alcohol Use, Death of a Parent, Fatphobia, sexual content.

Kiss & Tell centers around a boyband, Kiss & Tell, going on their largest tour. One member, Hunter, is dealing with a very public breakup with his long-time boyfriend. This book has a lot to offer, showing the characters navigating being openly and proudly queer, as well as touches on some more heavy-hitting issues. I very much enjoyed this book, reading it fairly quickly, and found the overall story to be pretty fast-paced and a lot of fun in general!

I had high expectations for this one – I am a sucker for a good YA novel about famous singers. Unfortunately, this fell a little flat for me. It’s a pretty evenly paced book, which is fine, but it also means it didn’t really ever build up, and I wasn’t particularly invested in either the plot or the characters.

To that end, I liked Hunter and could understand what he was going through, but I also didn’t find him very compelling and was more interested in the side characters. I would’ve preferred seeing Kaivan’s POV more than Hunter’s. Additionally, most of the side characters were just in the background, especially the other band members. They all sort of blended together and were used to further Hunter’s own story.

That said, Hunter does learn and grow a lot over the course of the book. Even though the book at times comments on the fact that he has a very privileged white boy attitude towards his problems, it still feels extremely white gay boy-esque the whole way through in a way that I think undermines some of its strengths. We didn’t see much of the other boys’ experiences/struggles with fame, though we were occasionally told about it. I also wish we would’ve seen more / gotten a more complete arc about Hunter’s songwriting – to see Hunter actively be writing or engaged in the songwriting process.

I also appreciated the commentary in Kiss & Tell about fame and parasocial relationships, and I thought it was a particular strength of the book, even if it’s not very subtle about it. Not all the articles scattered throughout the book are/seem necessary, but it helps to get the point across and a lot of it was cleverly / well done – the think pieces, the critiques, how people talk about celebrities and celebrity relationships, the fans and fandoms, the trolls, etc. All of that just felt SO on point to me. All in all, it was a good read, though not my favorite. I think people will enjoy it and resonate with it.

Thank you to Dial Books for sending me a copy of Adib Khorram’s Kiss & Tell for an honest review.

Summary
From the publisher:

Hunter never expected to be a boy band star, but, well, here he is. He and his band Kiss & Tell are on their first major tour of North America, playing arenas all over the United States and Canada (and getting covered by the gossipy press all over North America as well).

Hunter is the only gay member of the band, and he just had a very painful breakup with his first boyfriend — leaked sexts, public heartbreak, and all — and now everyone expects him to play the perfect queer role model for teens.

But Hunter isn’t really sure what being the perfect queer kid even means. Does it mean dressing up in whatever The Label tells him to wear for photo shoots and pretending never to have sex? (Unfortunately, yes.) Does it mean finding community among the queer kids at the meet-and-greets after K&T’s shows? (Fortunately, yes.)

Does it include a new relationship with Kaivan, the drummer for the band opening for K&T on tour? (He hopes so.) But when The Label finds out about Hunter and Kaivan, it spells trouble — for their relationship, for the perfect gay boy Hunter plays for the cameras, and, most importantly, for Hunter himself.

What Works
I love author Adib Khorram‘s wit and sarcasm. There were several times throughout reading Kiss & Tell that I was lol’ing. Some of those laughs come from the humor of the every day — like, yah, foot massages are not as sexy IRL as they are in our minds. Some of those laughs came from Khorram’s scathing social criticism of just about, well, everything. I mean, I filled my Kindle with notes and highlights of passages that tickled me.

I particularly enjoyed how Khorram incorporated media interviews, articles and fanfic into the book as a way to highlight racism and homophobia in the entertainment industry. It was especially on the mark with regard to how we in the queer community can uplift each other or eat one another alive.

To give credit where it’s due, I do not think I’ve read so much about the ins and outs of gay sex in a YA book ever! Especially with regard to the social stigma related to positional preferences. Y’all know how I feel about sex positivity in YA, so this was a major win.

So too was the inspection of how and where queer and racial politics do and don’t intersect. I mean, 👨‍🍳 😘. And the way the media constantly misspelled Kaivan’s name and fetishized his band’s Iranian-American heritage?

“Memories” demonstrates an exciting evolution of their exotic, Middle East-infused sound … saffron-flavored bubblegum pop … a delightful and unexpected single, delivering poppy fun with diverse elements. – (quoted from an uncorrected, advanced reader copy)
Obviously Canadians will be the final judge of this, but Khorram did a good job incorporating Canadian English into the book without it being overkill, eh? Overall, he does a lot of small things with language I really loved, like a mention of a flashing lights warning! And not automatically assuming someone’s gender, etc.

What Doesn’t Work
Unfortunately, a lot of what’s great in Kiss & Tell lends itself to the things that ultimately didn’t work for me. Notice how a lot of my praise involves words such as “commentary” or “criticism”? At times, I felt like I was reading a persuasive essay more than a novel. More often than not, the characters felt more like ciphers for the cause than, well, characters.

The book spends so much time criticizing the way the entertainment industry treats people of color; but, the only other member of Hunter’s band — wow, this is the first time I’ve mentioned the main character in this review — who gets any real development is the only cishetero white guy.

I’m not criticizing that Khorram is criticizing a gay white guy for not recognizing his own privilege, or that a bunch of teenagers don’t know how to call each other out “properly.”

I just didn’t quite understand how these conversations hadn’t happened yet, in 2022? I don’t see how the band members could even possibly hide the racism and homophobia they faced from each other.


To be honest, I don’t feel like I know much of who Hunter is either, and after rereading the summary, perhaps that’s on purpose. He spends much of the book being whatever “glayvor of the week” The Label wants him to be. Kaivan was much more developed, even though his motives were often thrown into question.

I think that leads into why I had trouble buying Kaivan’s and Hunter’s relationship. I love a good insta-love story, truly. And I totally understand insta-lust. The thing is, Hunter constantly tells us he likes Kaivan so much, but I couldn’t see why, especially when they’re not particularly kind to one another

Final Thoughts
I’m an avid re-reader of books, and while I’m glad I read Kiss & Tell for the interesting ideas it sets forth, it’s not one I’ll come back to. I will say that Khorram has been on my TBR list for a while now and this novel has made me more excited, not less, to read his other works. Kiss & Tell is worth a read if you’re interested in internet and entertainment politics, but you probably won’t be aching to “kiss and tell,” as it were.

Kiss & Tell is out on March 22. This is definitely one to pick up at your local library.

This story was truly amazing!!
This story follows Hunter Drake, a red headed queer Canadian in a a boy band with his best friends. It starts off with him trying to deal with a break up with his band mates twin brother, as we all know labels will do anything to bring the spotlight on something good before images are ruined. So when Hunters ex posts stuff brining his image down, the label comes up with an idea. They want Hunter to fake date one of the openers on their tour.
We get to follow along as Hunter grows, learns and falls in love. Hunter is scrambling to figure out who he wants to be while in the spotlight. But just like the rest of the band, he’s trying.
On top of queer representation, they also have representation of a great handful of races.
It was a truly beautiful story!

This story captured my heart and gave it a squeeze. And a book promoting sex positivity and boy bands… yes please!

Hunter is in a boy band and a star, something he never expected. Being famous is hard especially when you’re the only gay member and you have a nasty break up with your band members twin. When he’s supposed to have this picture perfect “gay” image that a lot of pressure to amount to.

This story is a really interesting look into first break ups while also being famous. A look into an industry and the romance that comes along with it. And how being a picture perfect image isn’t always what others expect. It was funny and had devotional moments, but also tackled tough subject matter; Body shaming, slut shaming, sexual harassment, and homophobia. I enjoyed Hunter and his complexity. And the taboos of sexuality in media.

This is one of the rare reviews where my enjoyment and objective quality don't have the same rating--my enjoyment is 5 stars, the objective quality IMO is 3 stars. Average the two.. around 4 :)

I thought the way Khorram wrote this book was very masterful in creating such a multi-faceted, interesting main character and building a world that so wonderfully critiques fan culture. The main character, a gay white boy the hottest current boyband, goes through a ton of shit that is handled with SUCH nuance in this book, which I really enjoyed. By adding in excerpts from various media such as interview transcripts, emails between their record label management team, and social media posts, the book shows how ridiculous and even insidious the culture surrounding boyband obsession is, which I believe is what this book does best.

The main character is very flawed, but in a realistic way that I don't often see from YA novels. Often I read YA books where the main characters just do Very Shitty Things that I don't really think can be justified by their age, and I see others defending them by saying "they're just teenagers they're allowed to make mistakes!!1!1," which never fails to annoy me; however I think everything Hunter does in this book is very well-written with nuance to show the extreme pressure he's under, and how his privileges and marginalization overlap to show why he is the way that he is. This book contains a lot of commentary on what it is to be a gay person in the spotlight through showing his label doing homophobic things to him Such As forcing him to dress more twinkish after he's ousted as bottom via his vitriolic ex -_-

The parts that I think objectively bring down the quality of this book are the lack of development the side characters, except for Kaivan and Aiden, receive as well as the romance plot which I found to be a bit clunky. None of the other members the band really have fleshed out identities and roles in the story beyond serving as the occasional "stop acting like you're the only oppressed person in this group Hunter, we have members of color that are going through similar things to you but you never talk to them about it Ever for some reason" moments that serve to show the main character his white privilege.

The book also serves a romance between Hunter and a member of his opening band (Kaivan) which I found to be very sweet and enjoyable to read at times, but rather clunky at others. Some scenes between them just made so such sense, and really furthered the story, especially when we see Kaivan develop on his own; however, I just didn't think everything in that plot was completely necessary (I'm sorry I'm being so vague here, I'm trying not to spoil lol). I found Kaivan to be a very compelling character, and I thought his usage as the love interest rather than the main character was very interesting from this author and definitely served the plot well IMO.

Overall I enjoyed this book SO much. It definitely had an addictive quality to it, as I read/listened to it all in one sitting (4 hours straight). The issues with the romance subplot and side character clunkiness didn't remove from my enjoyment whatsoever, because I found so much of the commentary in this story to be so artfully crafted and nuanced in a way I've never seen a boyband book written before, and I would definitely recommend it. However, I do wish the side characters were handled with more care as it would've made the story EVEN BETTER. Thank you Netgalley/Penguin Teen/PRH Audio for the advanced ebook and audiobook copies of this story!

Thoughts and Themes: I was so happy to receive an advanced copy of this on Netgalley and then have the publisher send me a physical advanced copy. I took a little bit to actually read if because I had just finished another boy band book and was worried that this would just be like that. I am so glad that I am wrong because I really enjoyed so much of the nuance in this book. This book covers a lot of themes and you would think that it would be overloaded but it isn’t, each theme flows with the other and they each wrap up well. This book touches on friendships, coming out, racism, fame, dating, queerness, and more.

Something I really enjoyed about this book was how Hunter has to navigate being gay and out while being famous. I think it was great to see how he navigates this and how he messes up with his relationships, friends, and more. Hunter spends a lot of time in this story figuring out what it means for him to be Gay vs what it means for the label. I thought this was a good thing that the book addresses in showing what the world’s expectations are of a famous out queer teen and what Hunter wanted.

Something else that I enjoyed that this book points out and Hunter struggles with throughout the book is Hunter is a White Gay male, Kaivan is a person of color and so are several of the band members. Hunter is so focused on him being Gay and how that affects his image and the things he has to do to preserve that image, that he fails to realize the racism that is affecting those around him. I think a lot of the conversations that Kaivan has with Hunter regarding this are so important to include and pause at to take in. I liked that Hunter just doesn’t get it and we know he won’t ever fully understand but I think its important that his friends call him out on this.

Characters: In this book you get to meet several characters through their interactions with Hunter. Something that I really enjoyed about this book was the diversity in the band and in the love interests. I thought that the diversity in race/ethnicities for the band members and Kaivan was something that was done well and a great addition as they interact with Hunter.

I really enjoyed all of the relationships in this story as I think they all showed different sides of Hunter. I liked getting to see his relationship with Kaivan develop even if I first thought that it was a little quick. I liked to see the way that Kaivan explained certain things to Hunter and didn’t let him get away with pitying himself and thinking that he was the only one going through things.

I also really enjoyed the relationship that Hunter has with his friends and most importantly his best friend, Ashton. I really would have liked to see more of their friendship as this seems to be affected every time Hunter gets into a relationship. I also would have liked to see more interactions between Hunter and Aiden since I think this is a huge part of the story.

Writing Style: This story is told in first person through the perspective of Hunter which is something that I really enjoyed. I think that the story is much more impactful because we only get to see Hunter’s feelings throughout all of this. We don’t get to see the way the other band members feel about certain things he says and does unless they share that with him. We don’t get to see how Kaivan really feels if he doesn’t share that with Hunter.

Something else that I enjoyed about this book were the snippets of articles online, interviews, and emails from others. I liked that this was included because it adds to the story. There were things that the reader knew that Hunter still hadn’t discovered which made me want to read to see if he would ever find this information out. I thought that was an important piece because of the information that is revealed throughout the story.

CW: racism, homophobia, slut-shaming, bullying, sexual harassment

I appreciated that Kiss & Tell explored what it would be like to be an openly gay boy band member. The discourse of how sanitized boy bands are when it comes to sex & rock 'n roll was interesting and not something I've thought of before. I wished that Hunter would have had more personal growth though, he acknowledged he was privileged being cis and white, but it still felt as though he didn't fully understand the racism that some of his band mates were constantly facing. Overall he felt a little whiny and spoiled to me.

I enjoyed the mixed media, but at times felt like there was too much of it back to back.

Thank you to Penguin Teen for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I’m not typically a fan of books about celebrities, but I absolutely love Adib Khorram’s work so I knew I had to pick this one up. And I’m so glad I did!

Now, this book is very different from the Darius books, but like Darius, it has the most lovable characters who make mistakes and are messy but are still so so lovable. The main character, Hunter, is an absolute mess and makes so many mistakes, but there was never a time that I wasn’t rooting for him.

This book touches on so many important issues like anxiety, body image, stereotypes, slut shaming and the way celebrities — especially queer celebrities — are treated by the media and society in general.

Kiss & Tell has really solidified Adib Khorram as a must-read author for me.

Thanks to Penguin Teen for this ARC!

Release date: March 22, 2022

From the first paragraph, I knew this book would be a good one. I immersed myself into the book from the first chapter and I cannot say enough good things about this book! Honestly amazing! The writing is incredible and the plot is just one to die for. I am absolutely obsessed with this book. My favorite part would have to be the character development throughout the book. Character development is something I look forward to and this book did not disappoint.

As someone who loved Darius the Great Is Not Okay, I was really excited for this book and its boy band concept. At first, I found the story compelling, but partway through, I had issues with the flat characters, forced messages, and constant Canadian stereotypes. Unfortunately, this one is not for me.

I think my main issue with Kiss and Tell is the lack of character development. Hunter is in a band with four other members—members who are also marginalized and face their own struggles—but these other characters barely make an appearance. This is something I’m *maybe* willing to overlook if the main character is complex enough, but I found Hunter self-centred and one-dimensional. Because the characters are flat, the romance also falls flat, and I was a little confused by what the author was going for as Kaivan and Hunter basically start dating because their label suggests it. One of the articles in the book calls this out as a publicity stunt, which is probably meant to counter actuality, but I never felt like this was disproved since Kaivan and Hunter have no connection.

This book does tackle many relevant social issues, especially concerning what it is like to be queer in the public eye, but I found that it comes across as preachy at many points. This was a major issue for me with the articles and emails between each chapter, since they often give takes that directly oppose what is actually going on, which quickly becomes repetitive. What really frustrated me is the way certain characters, such as a queer country musician, only exist to make a point. Callum is just a means for the author to critique the way queerness is only deemed acceptable in certain (clean) forms—which is an important point—but this felt forced to me and took away from the powerful messaging at the core of the story.

As a Canadian, I also want to comment on the representation of Canada and Canadian culture in this book. I was really disappointed to see it reduced to stereotypes as we are presented with a hit song called “Poutine,” toque-wearing hockey players, a “sexy Mounties” themed music video, and quotes like “What the maple-flavoured fuck?” After so much of this, I wasn’t convinced that it was purely ironic, and I expected better from a book that directly deals with the harm of stereotypes as Hunter struggles to live up to the expectations of being “the perfect queer kid.”

While this one was a miss for me, I still appreciate the thoughtful messages and the diversity throughout the story. I can tell by the many positive reviews that it will resonate with many, and I still look forward to more of Adib Khorram’s work in the future.

I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I have some mixed feelings about this book. The overall story and idea is fun but I just couldn’t get into it and I think that’s mainly because I found Hunter to be a very unlikeable main character. I had a hard time ever really empathizing with him, especially when he just took everything out on everyone around him. His “growth” felt kind of forced as well. I felt like he deserved more criticism but was let off easy. Overall, it just wasn’t a story I personally enjoyed or connected with, despite the many Vancouver references, unfortunately.

From the author of Darius the Great Is Not Okay comes a novel about being queer in the public eye. Set to be published on March 22nd, Adib Khorram’s Kiss & Tell is a fun and binge-worthy book that still tackles tough topics that many teens can relate to.

This book really dives into what it’s like to always be in the spotlight and I loved how honest it was about fame and what it can do to a person. Readers see the way Hunter has to grapple with figuring out who he is as an artist and person, while the media, his record label, and his fans all try to tell him who he should and shouldn’t be. Not only does Hunter struggle being young in the public eye, but also with being queer in the public eye. The focus of this novel was more of a coming-of-age-in-the-spotlight story and how the media, the internet, and all these external people are now influencing and picking apart everything you do and Khorram does a great job of showcasing Hunter’s experiences in a fun, but also real, way.

Despite the tough topics, readers can’t help but root for Hunter and want to see him discover his true self. The little bits of romance sprinkled throughout the story were fun and seeing Hunter want to make things work with Kaivan, his friendships with his bandmates, and his grasping onto his Canadian Roots makes him such a fun and relatable character to read about.

What makes this novel really unique is the mixed media aspect of it. While most of the novel is in Hunter’s POV, there are snippets of news articles and transcripts from interviews that showcase the influence of the media on Hunter and the rest of his bandmates' lives.

If you were ever a fan of a boy band (or still are) then this is a great peek behind the curtain of what it’s like living the rockstar life and having everything you do picked apart. However, the glitz and glamor of stardom still shine and you’ll be wanting to go to a Kiss & Tell Concert by the time you’re done reading this book!

*I received an ARC from Penguin Teen in exchange for my honest opinion.