As always, a copy of this book was provided by the publisher or author in exchange for my honest review. This does not effect my opinion in any way.

First things first: Full Disclosure is a remarkable standout. In my entire lifetime, I've never seen such a poignant exploration of what it means to be living HIV positive. Camryn Garrett is one of THE next great literary voices and if she wasn't on your radar already, she will be after this one is released. Not only is Full Disclosure one of the best debuts of the year--it is one of the best books of the year, period.

It takes a lot out of an author to craft stories with such care and honesty. Not everyone is up for the task, but Garrett does so beautifully. There's a line you simply cannot cross. There's a reality behind every sentence. There are facts that need to be represented with illnesses. Most importantly, every work of fiction can represent something in reality. For a book to discuss so much, so frankly, in such a small window of time, is a triumph. Full Disclosure is a rare read, indeed, for this reason alone.

Not only does it tackle the stigma and facts, and dismantle falsehoods of the disease, surrounding HIV, it touts a diverse cast that is nothing short of lively. Simone is one of the best lead characters I've read in recent memory--determined, hopeful, and so deserving of all good things in this life. I loved reading her journey and watching as she found her footing, chased her dreams, and made life her own. Further, the relationships explored within Full Disclosure felt real and complex in a really wonderful kind of way.

At its core, Full Disclosure is a truly stunning coming of age story that explores many true to life topics: sexuality in a positive and realistic manner, living a life with an illness so heavily misunderstood and unrepresented, and the subtle threatening nature our peers might have upon our happiness. It explores all forms of relationships in this life and does so with a tenderness that still remains blunt with honesty.

(It also hits a personal sweet spot for me in referencing musicals. We all know THAT is my true love.)

Full Disclosure is about many things. Mostly, it's about coming of age, living your life, and reflecting on the relationships we gain--or lose--on the way. The amount of life we witness in Full Disclosure should be applauded and admired. I'll say it again: Camryn Garrett is the voice/author to look out for.

In short? I loved seeing such a wonderful portrayal of the HIV virus. I loved that this didn't feel like a cardboard cut-out exploration of hard hitting topics and instead felt full of life and its diversity. It is hands down one of the most realistic YA releases of all time and should absolutely be added to everyone's TBR.

This was a very informative and impactful story about an HIV positive teen, and it’s a viewpoint that we rarely ever see. I’m so glad this story is out there to share with the world. While the book itself may not be my favorite because of some issues with the writing and the plot, I can’t bash it. I’m looking forward to more from this author in the future.

Thank you Netgalley and Random House Children for providing and ARC of this book for an honest review.

This book takes place in this day and age where HIV and Aids is still around and we know more about the disease but people are still scared to be around people who have it. When Simone is transferred to a new school all she wants is to be normal and keep her secret. Then she is fast falling for a classmate Miles and she struggles with telling him the truth or keeping her secret. Then a mysterious letters start showing up in her locker and it says I know your secret. Leave Miles alone or else I will tell him.

I enjoyed this read. It was something different than other YA books you read out there. I loved the representation of her two dads. One Hispanic and the other one African american. Overall it was a good read.

I thought this was just your typical young adult novel and was pleasantly surprised to find that it was so much more. I took a bio class on HIV and AIDS in undergrad and it was such an illuminating class that really helped me understand HIV and all the stigma around it . This is my first time reading about the lived experience though.

Simone was an excellent main character, she was relatable while still having her flaws. I thought this would end up some gossipy tv show type of novel with the blackmail and secrets but it wasn’t that at all. It was a very realistic look into disclosure and living with HIV.

Garrett’s debut novel not only successfully tackles discrimination through the lenses of race, sexuality, and having HIV, but also shows the possibility of living a full life despite it all.

Simone is just trying to navigate high school like a regular teenager--directing the school play, finding friends, crushing on a boy, being embarrassed by her parents. Simone has an extra component to deal with, however, because she's HIV positive and no one at her new school knows. She must decide who and when to tell, and how she will handle her health.

Full Disclosure was an interesting read because of it's diversity and how it deals with a little discussed topic, HIV. I don't think this one will work well for Gateway because the discussions about sex and masturbation are abundant and a bit much, but the other elements made it an important read.

I. LOVED. THIS. BOOK.

Seriously. I loved that this book was about a black queer girl with HIV and, while she certainly deals with more than her fair share of drama, it wasn't a book about suffering. It was happy and angsty and filled with references to so many amazing musicals and it made me sigh and giggle so many times. I don't have immediate plans for a class that I can use this in in the near future, but if I end up teaching sociology of identity or sociology of sexualities or sociology of HIV/AIDS any time in the future, I will definitely use this book for an assignment.

Did i mention that I LOVED this book???

Not a spoiler-free review.

Unfortunately, this book fell very short for me. I was pulled in by the premise—a teenage girl, born with HIV, navigating disclosure, sex and high school in general. For me, the negatives outweigh the positives.

I was uncomfortable from the very first page, when one of Simone’s fathers accompanies her to her first gynecologist appointment. As in, he was in the room when she changed into a gown, asked questions about her sexual health and had a breast exam performed. It’s fantastic that she’s close with her dads, but even my pediatrician asked my mom to step out of the room sometimes. I doubt any GYN would allow this, even if they were close personal friends of the dad.

Also with regards to the hospital scenes, Simone often asked questions that she should already know the answers to. She’s lived with this disease since she was born, so it is illogical that the doctor would have to tell her what numbers qualify a high or low viral load. I get that those questions were asked as a way to give information to the audience. It was just a lazy and unrealistic way to do it.

Next, there is Miles. There is very little tension with him. This isn’t a romance novel. It’s a novel with a romantic subplot that fuels the main plot (blackmail). There was no struggle in them getting together or when she told him she was HIV positive. She didn’t even really contemplate not seeing Miles when she got the first letter. It also seem unrealistic that teenage boy would react so calmly to being told his girlfriend is positive. Adults don’t understand HIV, let alone kids. He just sat there, let her talk, and asked questions. It’s what should be done, but it’s really not what would be done.

Speaking of things that should be done: following your doctor’s medical orders. (Minor spoiler) Simone and Miles have oral sex. Simones viral load is undetectable, and therefore untransmitable. However, her doctor told her not to engage in sexual activity until she had been undetectable for at least six months. The whole novel takes place in two months. They also discussed protection (dental dams were specifically mentioned by her doctor), but they did not use any.

The Drama Club aspect and Simone’s obsession with musical theatre were also strange. If you don’t have an understanding of these musicals already, I feel like you’re going to miss a lot of the references. Furthermore, I don’t know any high school in America, let alone one called Sacred Heart (re: Christianity), would put on Rent. There is sex and drug use and prostitution. I feel like the outrage over the show would have occurred before opening night and for different reasons than it did in the book.

********Major spoiler********
My last major grief is that the author presented gay men as predatory. The person who left the notes for Simone is a gay student with a crush on Miles. This narrative that gay men are always preying on straight men, or younger men, is damaging to the community and has been a point of contention for as long as there has been a gay community. I’m severely disappointed that an author who self-identifies as queer would put this in her book. I don’t know if this was an oversight or if it was calculated, but it did not sit well with me.
********end spoiler********

There was also the issue of the writing. It was very dull to me, and seemed like it lacked an editor. There is a scene where Simone is in a group therapy session for kids with HIV and they have a guest who previously attended the group. She recently had a baby and refers to her partner as both her husband and her boyfriend. There is another scene where Simone is supposed to go with Miles to watch a lacrosse game, but Miles is on the lacrosse team, so that seems weird. It was a bunch of little things like that, that took me out of the story and had me going back pages to re-read for something I missed.

This one is just a pet peeve, but goes along with the writing. She wrote at great length about Javier Muñoz (who is a Broadway actor, I guess), but only briefly mentioned Ryan White (who died from HIV/AIDS when he was a teenager after contracting it from a blood transfusion. His story mirrors Simone’s very well, and it was missed opportunity).

I know I’ve been hard on this book, but that is because it is about such an important and misunderstood topic. The author did give a lot of valuable information. She talked about PrEP, U=U, safe sex (even if her characters didn’t practice it) and HIV overall.

Does a great job of shedding light on the experience of an HIV positive person, dispelling popular misconceptions but without making the picture entirely rosy - portrays the risks and difficulties and how to manage and even overcome them. I did not feel overly invested in the characters or the romance, however - they mostly felt like a cast created to support Simone and her story rather than having full lives and stories of their own. I thought Miles was a fine if slightly bland romantic interest, but the declarations of love had me shrugging instead of celebrating. I I was also disappointed that the rich vein of half-brother Dave and his relationship with the family was not explored as thoroughly as it might have been. I did think that Simone was a wonderful lead, flawed but still likable, clear-headed and perseverant without seeming unrealistically adult. A valuable and enjoyable, if slightly imperfect, read.

Before coming into this book, I knew nothing about HIV, but now I feel like I know enough to help educate other on the subject as well. The book was very well written, would definitely suggest even if you don't care about HIV. Also, the copious amounts of theatre references is a plus. The book as a whole feels like an update "Simon VS.", in a good way.

i can't really start with anything i disliked because the only aspect that made me feel negative Things about was how much of the focus was on sex, and since i am a rather sex-repulsed individual. however, this is a book about sex and sexual health and i knew that going into it so i literally have no reason to complain.

so i guess i'm gonna talk about things i did like. garrett's writing style was about as memorable as a conversation. there weren't any quirks or stylization, but it provided an easy discussion about sexuality and sexual health, which was the entire point of full disclosure. garrett did their job well with this aspect, and the novel provides much needed insight on the issue of hiv stigma. it's not a "gay disease" as washed-up vine star nash grier believes (once believed?). many people are born with it, and it has nothing to do with sexual activity.

i know of one other book about a girl born with hiv, and it does not even acknowledge the aids crisis, which is an extreme disservice to the lgbt+ community who suffered so much during the epidemic. if you're going to write a book about hiv, you need to at least acknowledge the crisis that swept the us in the 80s. full disclosure contains not one, not two, but six lgbt+ characters of varying identities and ethnicities. i particularly appreciate the asexuality representation. just because one may not like having sex does not mean that we should not be left out of conversations about sex altogether, and i'm really pleased garrett included it. asexuality is a very big part of sex and needs to be recognized more as a valid dialogue about sex.

i really enjoyed reading scenes with miles. a lot of the lighter, sillier scenes had me smiling the entire time, which is quite rare for me. i found myself wishing we'd gotten to read from his perspective a few times, especially after the visit to the principal's office. i would've liked to see him yell at his parents for being assholes.

we stan girls being proactive about their sexual health. many parts of the us don't have any sex ed, and the parts that do are abstinence-only, which never actually works. more people, not just girls, need to be brave enough to do what simone and lydia do--see doctors, ask questions, start birth control and prep. full disclosure is about living healthy with hiv, something i rarely see when i see hiv-related content at all. most of it is doom and gloom he's-gonna-die-soon, but we never really see people who have hiv and are thriving. this isn't a story about being sick, and it provides hope for those affected both directly and indirectly with hiv.

i may edit this and add more in the future, since i don't have my notes with me right now. but i will say that this was a very educational and very entertaining story. two birds with one stone and all that. garrett has created a wonderful story, and it would have five stars if simone didn't hate cats.

An incredible book that truly feels so very teen. I'm so excited for this book to come out very soon, and I'm so glad that Camryn Garrett wrote this book.

I wanted to love this one - the premise of it was fantastic - but the reality of it fell kind of flat for me. I did love the diversity of the characters and I'm always happy to see teenage characters living with HIV in books because that seems so rare in publishing but the "normalizing" of it is a great thing. However, as a theatre director myself, the school musical subplot was unrealistic in a lot of ways that kept taking me out of the story. I also had a hard time connecting with Simone and was uncomfortable with some aspects of her story, like her father accompanying her into a gynecological exam. This book had a lot of positives but there were enough parts that took me out of it to make this not especially high on my classroom library purchasing list.

I actually almost teared up at one point, which is surprising because it wasn't at a particularly sad scene; it just made me feel things.

I'll be honest and say that this book was weird for me, not because of the topics it handles, but because of how explicitly it talks about sex. I can't entirely say I was comfortable with that, but I do accept that it was both positive and informative, which is how these talks should be in young adult literature.

But the topic—HIV and AIDs—was something I wasn't weird about. I am extremely passionate about the AIDs crisis, so much so that I've been reading whatever comes my way about that period. While this book doesn't take place in the 80s or the 90s, it addresses the stigma that AIDs and HIV still carry, and how it affects people in the contemporary.

I do wish the novel had addressed the association between sexuality and the stigma around AIDs/HIV more (it did, just not a whole lot), but the discussion about HIV and AIDs was still incredibly important as is.

I'm very grateful I was allowed to read an ARC of this. Even though some parts of it didn't jive with me (and there were so many writing inconsistencies that I kept hyper-focusing on—probably because it's an ARC, I hope), I really enjoyed my time in Simone's world. Also can I have Miles, please? He's such a sweetheart, the world doesn't deserve him.

-Book Hugger

What a topic that needed to be written about! This book touches on a sensitive yet important topic, and the storyline of how it played out was perfect.

Totally worth reading. Everyone needs to read this fantastic debut. I'm trying to find the words to do this one justice but I'm not sure that's possible right now.

The Quick Cut: A teen girl born with HIV finds her life in upheaval when a blackmailer threatens to tell everyone about her status if she doesn't stay away from a boy.

A Real Review:
Thank you to Knopf Books for providing the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Your health can be such a big part of who you are, but it's an area that stays relatively private. So if someone were to use it against you by threatening to make it public, what would you do? How would you feel? This is the mental headspace that Simone finds herself in.

Simone is a teen girl who was adopted by two loving, gay dads. Although she is surrounded by love, there is a part of her life that is a struggle: she was born with HIV. After an unfortunate encounter at the last high school she attended, she is hoping for a fresh start in San Francisco. All seems well with her new friends, the student director position in the school play "Rent", and her budding romance with Miles when a note appears in her locker. It threatens to out her HIV status unless she creates some distance from Miles. Who found out and why are they doing it?

Simone's story is such a brilliant one and not just for the tale. This book manages to not only say such a powerful story about taking your own power back, but it also sheds a lot of light and education on how HIV actually works. I would like to think I'm an educated person, but even I found my mind blown by the facts in this book.

Her struggle with when to tell someone her HIV status felt very genuine in the angst and terror. Considering the horrifying past circumstances, it frightens me that anyone could have experienced something similar to this in reality. The nuanced look at how someone in her shoes looks at the people in her life and who she can trust with the ultimate secret about herself is so essential. I felt her pain, that weighing decision, and the heaviness of that choice in its impact.

With a powerful story that tells an important tale about HIV, this one is gripping.

My rating: 4 out of 5

A delightful story about being truthful to yourself.
I would recommend this book.
Thanks to the publisher and Net Galley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review

I had been looking forward to reading this book for months, and it did not disappoint! I LOVE this book and I can't wait until it's available so I can tell everyone to read it!!! Thank you for the opportunity to read and review this book! I'll have a full review closer to the publication date at kaitplusbooks.com :)

This book needs to be hyped up more than it is. Why aren't more people talking about it?

4.5/5 stars, round up!

I started and finished this book in just a few hours. Once I opened it up, I couldn't put it down!

Clocking in at just under 300 pages, this is a quick read that delves into the serious subject of HIV. This book follows Simone, a 17-year-old high school girl who was born HIV-positive. She was adopted by her two gay fathers as a baby, who are literally some of the best parental figures I've seen in a novel. We follow her months after she transfers to a new school in San Francisco, where she has started fresh after her secret was outed in her previous school. Here, she seems much happier with her 2 best friends and her new relationship with Miles, the guy she's been crushing on. Everything seems to be looking up for her, but all that gets put in danger when someone leaves a note in her locker telling her to stay away from Miles. If she does, she can live her life like nothing happened, without Miles of course. If she refuses? Her HIV status will be exposed to the entire student body. From here on, we see Simone struggle to hold onto her happiness and find the confidence in those closest to her in order to rise against the prejudice she faces.

I LOVED THIS BOOK. I fell in love with our 4 characters, and Simone is seriously such a badass. She knows her worth, and her determination to just live a normal live, regardless of her HIV status, was so powerful. Her relationship with Miles is just the sweetest thing, even though it happened a lot faster than I expected it to. I adored the heartfelt scenes she had with her friends. I also loved that her fathers played an active role in her life and not just shadows in the background. Everyone had a purpose, and it all worked wonderfully. My only issue was the the culprit was someone I suspected from the beginning, so scenes accusing of others around her were annoying to me. Besides that, and some of the insta-love in the beginning, I had no further issues.

This is seriously a really good book, and I highly recommend giving this one a shot!

Thank you so much to the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.