'The Lesbiana's Guide to Catholic School' is a unique experience for me. Sadly it's not a positive one.
There is so much to love about it, ranging from the diversity (the main developing couple is a Latinx lesbian, Yamilet, and a Chinese lesbian, Bo, and they are really cute together) (and queer siblings FTW!) to how it quite cleverly uses bait-and-switches and subverted expectations for some of its elements - which I'm sure if it had come out ten years previously, would definitely had been played straight and predictably. Some characters are cool, sweet and likeable, while others are not, but they are complex and flawed and messy. 'Lesbiana's' is important contemporary YA fiction that I'm glad I read, and I do like it...But the more time I spend away from it once I'd finished and thought more about it, and reflected on it, as soon as the initial excitement and rush has worn off... some things about it bug me, disturb me, make me uncomfortable, and not want to revisit it.
I'll try to explain myself, starting with the little things.
Apologies for the vagueness of these reasons below; reasons for me allowing my doubts to firmly set in concerning 'Lesbiana's', but I don't wish to spoil too much, for I don't want to discourage anyone from wanting to read it, regardless.
Anyway, here goes:
For a book titled 'The Lesbiana's Guide to Catholic School', Catholic school itself barely factors into it as a whole, and doesn't make that much of an impact. It pretty much disappears for the majority of the second half. It just feels like a run-of-the-mill school setting for a YA book, not something so intrinsic to the story's plot and themes. Positively, in part, it exists as a convenience and to prove points regarding anti-LBGTQ+ bigotry in Catholicism, and super religious schools in general.
In fact, a few settings - and characters - don't feel that fleshed out, important or memorable to me, once I was done with the book. Side characters in particular suffer from underdevelopment. Likely a result of Yamilet's first-person perspective as a limited, ignorant and self-absorbed teenager (through no fault of her own, of course).
There are moments, plot devices, quirks and character traits, especially at the beginning, that seem significant and like they would come up again later, such as when contradictions to said moments occur. But they never do. They are never mentioned again, not in dialogue or anything. Some elements are brought up again, but others aren't. It's not a messy novel, or it doesn't feel like it, but occasionally it reads as forgetful and not well structured.
For its strong, loving LBGTQ+ representation in YA lit, 'Lesbiana's' mentions only one trans person, in one throwaway line of dialogue, and that's it, their existence is never acknowledged again. They are literally just a name put in once on a page. There's no mention of enbies, genderfluid or gender nonconforming persons existing (as far as I can tell from my research, the author, Sonora Reyes, uses they/them pronouns, so... not fully #ownvoices? Don't get me wrong, it is #ownvoices, it just... maybe could have been more?). It is an unfortunate shame to see in a critically acclaimed queer YA novel in 2022.
And now for one of the big ones; one of the big reservations I had over 'Lesbiana's' and its impact and status as a modern and important LBGTQ+ YA publication - which I mostly agree it is - but here's the spanner in the cogs: It uses the queer-character-dies-or-almost-dies-so-a-straight-character-will-stop-being-a-homophobic-piece-of-shit cliché.
I hate this. How it uses a queer person's pain and suffering - or even death - to further the development of a horrible straight person is only one of its problematic aspects and takeaways. It was in 'The Love and Lies of Rukhsana Ali', and other LBGTQ+ YA fiction. Seriously, why are we still doing this? 'Lesbiana's' is better at the cliché, in that it is clear throughout that the queer characters' feelings and struggles are prioritised over the straight characters'. However, it is very obvious that the "reformed" homophobic character in question would have remained homophobic and would have committed horrible acts no decent human being would have done if said queer tragedy hadn't taken place. Like, queer people are people and have feelings too, who'd have fucking thought?!
I'm not saying it's an unrealistic storytelling device, but it nonetheless has unfortunate implications attached to it. In-story it feels melodramatic and unnecessary, existing to have something tragic happen near the story's climax when things are getting too mundane, repetitive, maudlin, or optimistic. It leans towards a lighter-but-no-less-harmful-and-damaging version of the Bury Your Gays trope, and authors should tread it very carefully if they decide it has to be included in their story.
All this comes down to another big gripe of mine: in conclusion, I hate Yamilet's mother.
Sure, she's not as bad as certain other homophobic characters - specifically, homophobic adults - but that isn't saying much. I honestly don't care whether she is realistic or not, she shouldn't get a reward and a free pass, after everything she's said and done to her own children, just for doing the bare minimum of parenting; at the very end or any other time in the book. No one should receive lovey-fairy-daisy brownie points for decency, and not after all the horror Yami's mum inflicted on her kids, inadvertence and ignorance be damned. For example, one child is hurt and suffering, and she is devastated, but the other child is also hurt - injured, in fact - and she doesn't give a shit, and she screams and vents all her negative feelings towards her traumatised non-favourite, and this is never, ever addressed. And how about when another gay child, who isn't hers, is injured, beaten bloody (again sorry for the vagueness, but I'm stepping away from spoiler territory eggshells as best I can), and she doesn't care about that either because, to her, it makes sense since they're gay and so deserve it, and this is never once addressed either!!! (The only thing focused on is the child getting kicked out of their own home).
Yami's mum's development is rushed at the end - no "redemption arc" should be rushed - and she gets away with too much and is forgiven far too easily. Maybe I have become an unforgiving sort of person, but when some actions are brought to light and called to task, while other actions are forgotten about, it's hard for me to overlook and take seriously, no matter if someone "deserves" forgiveness.
Side note: Religion should never be used as an excuse for bigotry. Outright hateful bigotry. This fundamental fact of life is so obvious and old hat by now that its dusty cobwebs have grown dusty cobwebs, and it's incredibly sad that, in 2022, a lot of adults still don't see it, or they refuse to see it.
Trust me, no one is as heartbroken as I am that 'The Lesbiana's Guide to Catholic School' turned out to be a book I couldn't love once the warmth and the novelty of its diverse-though-could-have-been-better cast faded. I mean no harm or insult to people who like and love it, with my honest review, and absolutely, positively no offense is meant to the amazing and hardworking author, who put their work and story out there, through my criticism.
Maybe it's me. Maybe over the years I've become cynical and harder to please. Maybe I'm merely getting older; too old for YA. Maybe I have no right at all to criticise a book like this to begin with, as a white cishet female. I don't think I'm being oversensitive, however. I may have been burned and left jaded and blindsided by disappointment lately, but I don't regret growing more critical of the media I consume. 'Lesbiana's' is, at least, definitely the best of the middling LBGTQ+ YA books I've read this year, and the years before. I can't bring myself to overlook its flaws, however, and praise it to high heavens.
I wish Sonora Reyes and their fanbase nothing but the best, and the best for the future, and there is always room for self-improvement anywhere, and everywhere.
Disillusioned ramblings passing off as a review, signing off.
Final Score: 3/5
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