YA contemporary. Canadian. Two teen cousins who live on opposite coasts are brought together in Ontario by the death of their grandfather. After the funeral, they find themselves together at the family cottage that neither has been to since they were kids. Both are queer and Toronto Pride weekend is fast approaching, and they (plus the little sister of one of them) set out on an unapproved-by-parents road trip to the Big Smoke. Hijinx but also learning and affirmation ensue.
I read plenty of YA and middle-grade, and most of the time it doesn’t feel like being outside of the target age range for the book matters even a little bit to my enjoyment. But it did in this case. And I don’t think it had to – that is, I think it could have been written otherwise. Now, to be fair, there will be a particular demographic for whom this book is exactly what they need. It will speak to them, it will teach them, they will feel seen and heard, they will feel possibility and excitement for life in the face of the shame and barriers that queer kids can experience in even the most supportive environments. And I’m certainly open to the idea that that fact means that none of my criticisms are worth making. But…the book is painfully didactic at points. The Canada it constructs is very CBC, which I suppose is better than some of the more reactionary alternatives, but is nonetheless a very particular kind of simplification of the world and of “Canada” centred on whiteness (for all that it has multicultural – a term I use very deliberately – representation). But most of all, I think the storytelling was simplified in ways that it didn’t need to be – I think youth can handle, say, the more complex all-at-onceness found (admittedly with the occasional mildly didactic passage too) in something like Felix Ever After, rather than this book’s carefully metred, stepwise pedagogical journey.
I certainly didn’t hate this book. I’m glad I read it. There were definitely moments clearly intended to evoke Big Feels that worked on me. But I think that it could have been done differently and better – not, I should say, primarily to cater to way-older-than-the-target me, but because youth can not only handle but frequently value and appreciate books that are more sophisticated, critical, and challenging.
Originally posted by Scott on Goodreads.