Autoboyography

Author: Christina Lauren
407 pages
Genre: Contemporary
Published: September 2017

Thoughts:
Mixed feelings.

I really like the overall idea. A young teen from a very liberal accepting family falling for a very religious devout young man from an extremely conservative family. You expect drama. And there is way too much drama. The relationship was not awesome in the way that it felt very unrealistic. It was instalove, really if someone is so in the closet how can they so easily jump to a relationship if you can call it that. Mayne issues arose because of the characters poor choices. What do I mean - Moving to such a place was not the best decision, it is NOT for the benefit of the family other than professional advancement and economic gain (the mother's job is not shown much, and the fact that the parents are oh so accepting could be seen as guilt for dragging the family to live in such toxic environment). -Being scared is understandable, saying things that you don't mean or hurting others without meaning happens. But the fact that people act impulsively, really hurt others and then it simply vanished in a few sentences; Tanner and Sebastian both do this often. In Tanner's part, he is the worst with Autumn his best friend and Sebastian pretty much every time he doubts his actions are horrible towards Tanner. -It is understandable that people can do or say those things, but it is not realistic to have them be brushed off so easily. (I do not think this is because of age, and that if I had read this when I was a teenager it would have felt it differently, but I will concede that I might let it pass more easily). Another thing, the plot was not all woven together as I wanted it to be. In the end, there were many treads that were left loose. Good things about it: -It portrays a very strict religion without being derogatory. -It tires (not extremely successful) to address the misconception of people about bisexual individuals. -It has the two sides very supportive families and those that are not. -It shows acceptance from part of friends and unlikely people. It is still a very religious town so that there are people especially those not necessarily close to you (Manny, he was not even a close friend) accept them so easily, pretty cool. -****Spoiler ahead do not read.... The ending is going to be ruined for you if you proceed. ****- The ending felt lacking. Too they lived happily ever after. You can't just again let what happened simply dissolve and when your oh so wonderful not boyfriend anymore shows up months later after zero contact suddenly jump back to the honeymoon phase of the relationship. What about all that happened? Are you simply not mention it? Do you erase it from your mind? It really can't be that simple, especially people who are portrayed in that age range like them. It makes sense that Sebastian had to actually take some time away from the relationship to consider what to do, his acceptance of himself would mean to leave his family, his education, the religion he had such faith in, it was a huge thing. Can't be taken lightly. But he did not even have to explain, ask for an opportunity, to anything, he simply showed up and that was it. How can Tanner trust him? I mean love blinds and all that but seriously, no. Not a good decision on their part. Maybe a bit less teenagy drama, prom that in the end was not all that important, the friends with benefits part (so unnecessary, again something that should not have been left just like that as if it was nothing), and maybe a good lets get together for a cup of tea, coffee whatever and catch up... They could have had at least a conversation to see if they both could be on the same page now and if giving it another chance was what they both wanted. End spoiler ******** And yet as I was reading this I could not put it down. The drama, the angst, the wish to know if they were going to have a happy ever after together or not. It is a very gripping story even if I don't love it. I still enjoyed reading it and could easily ignore the issues as I read.