 Popsugar Reading Challenge category: A memoir that explores queerness.
All Boys Aren't Blue: A Memoir-Manifesto, by George M. Johnson This book is aimed at teens, particularly Black and/or queer boys who are trying to understand themselves and their world. George grew up stereotypically "feminine," hung out with girls, and had other queer people in his extended family. The whole family had his number early on. And yet, no one normalized it for him by saying, "It's okay if you like boys." He had to figure out dating and sex in the silence of the closet, and he describes an early sexual experience that was physically painful. He also describes the tangle of confusion, betrayal and shame when he was molested by an older cousin (now deceased), and how this too was something he thought he had to keep silent about. For years George fantasized about being a girl, because that was the only way he could picture being with a boy romantically or sexually. He finally figured put that he isn't trans - he just had no model for a gay relationship. The book-banning crowd is inevitably upset by the graphic sexual descriptions, but part of his reason for writing it was to demystify, to stop treating sexuality as unspeakable. Adolescents are going to think about sex, and in his own early experiences he had no information to draw from except porn, which isn't exactly known for being realistic. There are undoubtedly teenage boys right now hiding away copies of this book, thrilled to learn that there are other boys with the same feelings - and looking forward to talking about it out loud.
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