The Lesbiana's Guide To Catholic School

This past week I surprised myself by reading not one but two YA books. It's not like I have anything against YA, it's just a little too angsty for me and all the teenage feels I can't and don't want to deal with.
The Lesbiana’s Guide to Catholic school is different from what I was expecting from a title like this, the story has more layers than I would have guessed, the characters are wonderful
I think this story will resonate with a lot of people for different reasons, mostly I think it's great to have queer representation that's as diverse as this one.

Some trigger warnings are in place of this one; homophobia, racism and talks about suicide.

Really much better than expected. This debut is very well-written and will resonate with YA as well as adults for the winderuk storytelling and diverse representation.

A really well written, Young adult book. This will be a great window book for many readers. A swing up book.

Honestly, I didn’t know what to expect from this book but I absolutely loved it. There’s a lot of different and tough topics covered within this book and they’re handled so well, taking into consideration that the main character is a teenager and therefore handles these situations in a different way to adults.

It’s heartwarming, heartbreaking and hopeful. This is the kind of book I wish was around when I was growing up.

4.5! But rounding up ‘cos I got so invested in this one!
Such a rollercoaster of emotions. I laughed out loud, I cried, felt frustrated and full of joy!!

It was so evocative of teenage life. Really captured the struggle to find your people and be your true self whilst navigating other’s expectations.

There were so many important issues explored: racial and cultural identity, queerness, mental health, religion and familial expectations. Some of it was hard to read and very emotional. But, it’s important to have young adult fiction that deals with these topics and it was balanced out perfectly with lots of fun moments.

The main characters were fabulous. I adored the close sibling dynamic between Yami and Cesar, that was a real highlight. Plus, the romance element was just how I like it. Yami and Bo’s love story had a great slow build up with lots of awkwardness, sweetness and silliness.

The ending felt very hopeful and uplifting. Will definitely be keeping an eye out for other books by this author!

Sonora Reyes' novel 'The Lesbiana's Guide to Catholic School' has been highly recommended, including being nominated for a Goodreads award so I was excited to read it. Yami is a senior in high school who, along with her brother Cesar, transfers to a new local catholic school. Not only are they two of very few people of colour who attend the school but Yami is also a lesbian. She was outed by her best friend at her old school so keen to cloak her true self and survive at this new school. This is made difficult by beautiful out and proud lesbian Bo who takes Yami under her wing.

The clash between religious teachings and the themes of self-acceptance and community are central to Reyes' beautifully written narrative. Having been raised catholic and attended catholic school myself, this shines a light on the naviety and outdated principles which are underlying at such institutions. We did not have any LGBTQ+ students in my year group but how realistic is this - how many of them were hiding their true selves and doubting whether they would be accepted by parents and their school community. Yami's story and her relationship with her family, friends and staff at school raises a lot of important questions, managing to be uplifting whilst also being realistic.

Overall, I would recommend Yami's story. Yes, her relationship with Bo is heartwarming but come and read for the dynamic between Yami and her brother Cesar. They were the real true love in this book and their ups and downs were the heart of the story. 4 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher who provided an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you Netgalley and Faber and Faber Ltd. for an arc of this book in exchange for an honest review!

The Lesbiana's Guide To Catholic School by Sonora Reyes revolves around Yamilet, a sixteen-year-old queer girl that tries to survive school without outing herself. Which is easier said than done. Bo, the only openly queer girl at school, makes it hard for Yamilet to think straight.

First things first, I absolutely enjoyed this book! It's not an easy read, because it deals with a lot of heavy topics like racism, homophobia, emotional abuse and more. But still it's an important read. Please, see the content warnings for more!

The mostly funny chapter titles are amazing and I absolutely adore them. The only thing that threw me off a bit was the formatting of the digital version of the book, because the sentences would cut off midsentence and continue in the row below. It made it quite interesting to read, but still enjoyed it very much.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this eARC of 'The Lesbiana's Guide To Catholic School' by Sonora Reyes.

This book was so quick and easy to read, I instantly fell in love with the characters and just everything about this book. Other reviews will do this book better justice than my review but let one thing convince you to read this book: you'll never find such a perfect Catholic school story that handles a multitude of topics in the most honest and natural way.

Truly, how perfect *is* this book? (Truth is, absolutely. Absolutely perfect.)

The writing lacks nothing. It fits the characters, the atmosphere, and the plot, it's precise in every single scene. I never wanted to put this book down because the writing kept pulling me in, and that rarely ever happens to me.

The characters are so well-developed and complex. Definitely not all of them, and perhaps some people will mind that, but I think even these side, SIDE characters are nuanced enough to have real story/character ARCs.

Do you know what else is nuanced? All the discussions in this book, and there are many. Whether we're talking deportation, identity (in many interpretations), depression, grief, guilt, culture, parental conflict, or coming out. All of it is handled with utmost care and did EXACTLY what I want a novel like this to do.

And lastly, shall we discuss the plot? The plot is beaded together with so many little details that create the perfect whole. I wouldn't change a single thing, a single word - nothing. I'm going to smack everybody who says that YA is dead or inaccessible to adult audiences, and I'm going to smack them with this book. It is top-tier YA perfection.

A fun, light hearted read that I read in an afternoon. This will leave you with a smile on your face and makes me very excited to see what this author does next.

It’s a charming queer YA coming of age, fast paced, easy to read and generally easy to have a happy time with. Whatever roughness it has is at an acceptable level for a debut, and if you go in expecting a relaxing time, it does not disappoint.

Thanks to Netgalley for an arc.

This was an interesting book dealing with religion, family and self-acceptance. I liked the relationship between Yami and her family members, particularly her brother Cesar. The dynamic between Yami and her mum was complex and while I liked the ending, did feel a little under-explored to me and I felt there could have been more of a discussion between them.

This book was quite fast paced, making it a quick read, however in places the pacing didn't quite work for me. There would be jumps in time from one paragraph to the next that didn't feel all that natural and there were also new chapters for a single scene.

I liked Bo and while she didn't feel fully fleshed out enough for me to feel fully invested, I was happy that Yami had her in her corner. Also, I really liked Bo's parents.

Overall, this book deals with some interesting themes and has a good resolution. Due to some of the things I liked less, I give this book 3.5 stars rounded up to 4.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Obsessed. The PERFECT YA book. I truly cannot believe this is a debut novel!

Evoked all the emotions, I literally couldn't put it down. It discussed heavy topics including homophobia and racism so well. It was so heartwarming and the characters were so fleshed out I truly cared about them.

100% recommend to anyone who likes to read YA.

This was such an amazing story! Usually didnt read YA but the cover catched my attention! The cover is the perfect match for the book. This was the first of many yeahs for me for this book. Started it and couldnt put it away because it was so well written. I was sucked into the world quickly and laughted and cried with the characters it was a very impressiv journey into adulthood, the struggels of live, of who you are and who you wanna be/become.

I've read a lot of upbeat YA romance titles in the last couple years that explore the experiences of queer teens of colour, but Sonora Reyes's The Lesbiana's Guide to Catholic School is distinctive in not only centring the voice of a Mexican-American lesbian, but in digging into questions of class and cultural privilege. When the book opens, our narrator, Yami, is in a precarious position: she's transferred to Catholic school along with her slightly younger brother, Cesar, to keep him out of trouble, but because he's got a scholarship and she hasn't, she needs to find work to cover the fees. Meanwhile, her mother only seems to care about Cesar's potential, and while Yami secretly feels she's her father's favourite, he was deported to Mexico some time ago and they mostly communicate by text. Even worse, Yami is certain that if her mother finds out she's a lesbian, she'll kick her out - so she also needs to build up a secret fund to allow her to rent her own apartment if necessary.

I blazed through this sweet, fun book, but I do wish that the tensions that marked its first half had been more convincingly explored in its second, rather than smoothed over in a way that felt a bit untrue to the earlier character dynamics. [SPOILERS FOLLOW] The exception was the way Reyes handles Yami's relationship with her dad - while his rejection of her was heartbreaking, it was brave to show how he can both have been a loving and supportive parent and be homophobic - the rejection also gave her mum a plausible motivation to come out in support of her children. In contrast, Yami's relationship with her mum, which feels so painful in the early chapters, wasn't developed as well. Once Yami comes out to her mum, her acceptance of her sexuality seems to overwrite her sidelining of Yami earlier on in favour of Cesar - I wanted to see this addressed. Also, I wondered what would have happened if Yami had come out first, rather than Cesar - would her mum have been so accepting? This also hurt Yami's romance with Bo, which felt too idealised for me to buy into it, but I did love her more complicated relationship with Cesar and the way they return to the Mayan refrain 'in lak'ech ala k'in' to show their solidarity with each other.

So, not perfect, but definitely worth reading. Also, LOVE the cover.

Thank you NetGalley, Faber & Faber and Sonora Reyes for providing me with a copy of The Lesbiana's Guide To Catholic School.

I enjoyed this book a lot! Yami as our MC is great and so relatable. I enjoy her so much. The struggles, the successes, the growth, it is all amazing. This story captures the context of coming out so perfectly, the uncertainty of how someone else will react and just how often you have to come out, over and over again.

Not only is Yami our MC with so much of her own teenage chaos going on, but she is also a wonderful story teller for all the other queer stories around her. I really appreciate the support cast in this book. I really appreciate the intersectionality that that is displayed and explored in this book for numerous characters.

There are some twists and turns here, nothing graphic but please check the trigger warnings. I believe that telling these stories is so important but you as the audience need to be in the right place to receive them. Always take care of yourself.

Will post to socials closer to publication date.

The writing style in this was so fun!!! The cast of queer characters are absolutely adorable and you really root for them all the way through the book. This book is also quite insightful while being very accessible and is a really good YA release.