I don't even know where to begin with saying how much I loved this book. The Stone Rainbow (which is an actual thing in the story, something I love spotting) is Jackson Pedersen's coming-of-age and coming-out story. But it's so much more than that, as an exploration of what it means to be different in visible and invisible, real and perceived, ways, and how we overcome those things. This is a wonderful story for both young adults struggling with their own identity and adults trying to get into the heads of those they love, and lots of others too. There are only two things I would have changed about this story. The first is that I would have liked to learn that there was someone in Thompson Mills who had been hiding in plain sight and just needed some help being who they really are too. The second is that it may have been helpful to explain why some of the male characters enjoyed wearing makeup and pretty/colorful/"feminine" clothing, because it just seemed to be kind of thrown in there without any kind of explanation, even though it was clearly important to those characters.

The Stone Rainbow by Liane Shaw (out 17th of September 2019)

The Stone Rainbow is about Jack, a gay teenager in a small town dealing with everything that comes along with that stigma and having the courage to make things happen, namely the towns first pride parade.

This was a bit of a mixed bag for me. Honestly, if I had read this maybe, two years ago, it would have been a five-star read based on the fact that it’s a positive queer YA book. Two years ago, that’s all I needed to love something like this. However, over the past two years there has been a change in queer books published. Namely, there has been an amazing swell of own voice novels, written well, and subverting or completely doing away with the usual tropes that befall queer books. Suddenly, because there is so much more choice in the YA world for queer books, I’m no longer so easily impressed.

Overall, I liked the plot and direction of the novel and I thought Shaw did a really good job of addressing issues of masculinity, mental health and how not everywhere is as progressive as it should be. I enjoyed the diversity, particularly the disability rep and even though I thought the side characters could have been fleshed out more, I also really like the characters of Ryan and Cody, if only because I thought they were the most interesting and multifaceted characters that I would have liked more time to explore.

My main issues came down to our protagonist, Jack and the writing.

In terms of the writing, it was a little too in Jacks head the entire time, and that resulted in a whole lot of tell and almost no show. We were just presented information as fact from Jacks mind, but we were never given any actual evidence to back any of it up, to give is a sense of reality. For instance, in the beginning Jack is swimming, he hits his head. something that is very simple, but we didn’t see Jack hit his head, we just had jack relay the info to us after the fact. Or, possibly my biggest gripe: Jack is constantly calling his small town backwards and hick, talking about all the inherent and rampant homophobia, but we never get any actual scenes of these things until the middle to end of the book. There was no present, evidence of homophobia or even bullies really to give these claims any foundation to build off of.

The character of Jack himself was just a tad…annoying to me. He came off as one of those characters that nick picks everyone around them in a negative light without ever having any factual evidence to back up his statements. It seemed as though he had this cartoonish perception of what a small town should be like and then forced those stereotypes on those around him. Another for instance is the rumors. Supposedly the school is flush with rumors about Jack, yes, that he’s gay, but also that he’s a drug dealer. It was never addressed why this was a rumor, and once again we never saw any evidence of these rumors.

The romance was cute, with an added meet-cute, if not a little insta-lovey, but in a small enough way that I could get over it and still enjoy the budding romance. I also loved the desire for social change and the active steps they took to create their own small piece of progress.

Overall, while not my favourite queer contemporary, I think it has potential, and perhaps a younger reader, not so well versed in queer literature, would really get something more out of this than I did.

I received an ARC from netgalley.

I want to thank Netgalley for providing me an Arc of this book in exchange for my honest review.

This book was amazing.
It was honestly a very powerful an eye opening read.
I loved our main characters they made me laugh and cry with them.
It really highlights what it’s like to be gay in a small town and I loved it.
The plot was amazing and kept you on your toes and the interactions between the characters was amazing.
I gave it 5 stars.

What first dragged me to this book was the cover, it was colorful mysterious. I had no idea what it beheld and reading the description I wanted to read it more. So, I dipped in, starting to adore Jack the way he wants to be less afraid, wants to embrace himself and just be himself. Not sure that makes any sense. But being yourself, in this society is hard, because it’s always someone who wants to rain on your parade, so to speak- to be evil, cruel and stomp on you. But back to the book at hand, Jack I think is adorable – especially around the new kid, Benjamin. He’s trying not to be awkward, but somewhat fails and Benjamin is saying things straight out even though it might surprise anyone. Even though that Benjamin is completely out as a gay person and Jack is, well he’s somewhat out, but still somewhat “in the closet” if you can say it like that… he’s scared of what people thinks about it and what reaction and gossips will come of it. Then, further reading I came to love Jack more, care for him, want to hug him and tell him everything is going to be alright, even though I have no idea if that’s the truth or not. When going in to the book I thought his mother was honestly going to be a bitch, but to be fair having a gay son is hard for her, but she’s trying, I know lots of people who’d kick them out and not care. But she tries, even though the gay- thing is hard. But again, I’m rambling…. This book isn’t just all fluff, it has so much… struggling with being out, accidents, scared, loneliness, freaking out over things…. And more. I’m literally at the edge of my seat pushing pages and pages for what’s happening next…. rooting for the main character, Jack to be who he wants to be, and to be proud of it. Damn this book make me feel so much.
I Especially if you didn’t already know it love Benjamin and Jack, those characters kind of placed themselves in my heart, I can’t even explain it. More than I just giggle and grin and make weird noises because that’s what I do. This book needs to be read, simply because “Love is Love” and “kindness rules.”

This review will be posted on my blog in August!

The descriptive bit: Jack is seventeen and gay. He’s come out to his Mom … and it didn’t go perfectly. In fact, he’s sure that his Mom is still pretty sad about the fact that he’s gay. He isn’t out to everyone in his life because they live in a very small town with its fair share of jerks. Then Jack meets Benjamin – a new student at school who is out and proud. Just when things are beginning to look hopeful for Jack… the homophobia in town steps up a notch and suddenly Benjamin is the victim of a terrible crime. This book is a sequel to Shaw’s book Caterpillars Can’t Swim but I haven’t read that and had no trouble with this plot.

My thoughts bit: This is a great book. The characters are well developed and the plot is intriguing while maintaining focus on what it is like to be queer and young in a very small town.

Jack has a couple of pretty unique friends. Ryan lives with Cerebral Palsy and is in a wheelchair. He’s also the guy who pulled Jack out of the river when he fell in. (There’s more to that story but I’m not going to spoil it for you.) Cody is another interesting character. He is a brusque, loud, jock who is on the swim team and has agreed to teach Jack to swim. Cody’s character struck me as quite realistic… I loved the way he grew and changed in the book.

At the root of this story is the fact that Benjamin is out and proud and Jack is out to as few people as possible. Sure, there are some people who know but he just lets the rumors fly and prefers not to draw attention to himself. When Benjamin creates a piece of artwork at school that is a vehicle for him to declare his sexual orientation he becomes the victim of an attack.

The attack rattles Jack. He’s always known that keeping his head down was the best way to protect himself but having something happen to Benjamin is jarring. In response to the attack, Jack decides that he wants to put on the town’s first PRIDE parade. I liked the way the author wrote about how difficult it can be to swim against the tide in a small community. While there are some supportive adults in the novel, there are also some who demonstrate a clear dislike for people who are queer. I think that’s a pretty typical breakdown of what might happen.

This is a novel that will make you feel good about people, it’s hopeful and has a genuine feel to it. I would happily recommend The Stone Rainbow to anyone who enjoys YA with queer characters. In particular, I think this would be a great novel for kids in their early teens who might be coming to terms with their own sexuality or gender identity.

The warnings bit: Please be aware, I’m by no means an expert on what may or may not have the potential to disturb people. I simply list things that I think a reader might want to be aware of. In this book: attempted suicide, homophobia, hate crime (violent attack)

I received an ARC of The Stone Rainbow by Liane Shaw from Second Story Press via NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review.

My attention was caught as soon as I saw it was a readalike to Silvera. Which is a lot to live up to. But I was not disappointed. The characters were fleshed out nicely and I became really invested in following them on their journey.