chilling, magical, good time, i'm quite please this was published 3.5 stars what a beautiful cover also

An utterly fantastic contemporary tackling sexuality, complicated friendships, and living with AIDS in the modern era. Readers will be especially delighted by Simone's casual prose and her love for musicals, as well as the relationship she has with her parents. While light-hearted at times, Garrett isn't afraid to get serious about topics like sexuality and being positive. It's rare to see characters with any disability/status get to enjoy sex.

This deserves all the love.

Will be posted on Goodreads with a link included in about a month.

***Thanks to NetGalley for providing me a complimentary copy of FULL DISCLOSURE by Camryn Garrett in exchange for my honest review.***

5 BLOWN AWAY STARS

Born HIV positive, Simone lives in fear her classmates will discover her condition, like in her old school and she’ll be forced to start over again. Her overprotective fathers can’t protect her from school bullies. Simone has best friends, is directing the school musical and maybe a boy interested in her. Then a letter threatening to expose her HIV status appears in her locker and all Simone’s new relationships seem in jeopardy.

I love reading what I think will be a good book and discovering a groundbreaking masterpiece. I was shocked to discover Camryn Garrett was only seventeen years old when she sold FULL DISCLOSURE because this novel reads like she remembers the era when HIV and AIDS came into fruition, which I do.

Simone is such a complex character, brave yet flawed. She has every reason to distrustful based on her previous experiences, yet Garrett shows that Simone’s history doesn’t mitigate the pain her friends feel when she hurts their feelings.

My only issue was I doubt any doctor, let alone a gynecologist would want to give a teenager a pelvic examination with her fathers in the room. Most doctors would suspect abuse when parents insisted on staying, even if they knew the fathers. I get that the scenes were supposed to show how close to Simone the dads were and how blurry the boundaries, I just can imagine a doctor not at least suggesting the teen might want privacy.

FULL DISCLOSURE is a phenomenal, important book that would make a great classroom read. I cannot wait to see what Garrett writes next.

I was initially drawn to Camryn Garrett's debut YA novel Full Disclosure because its premise was one I hadn't personally seen explored before in a book - what it is like to be a teenager living with HIV. While this is not a topic that is relevant in the lives of most readers, it is an interesting and important one nonetheless. Author Garrett was inspired to write this novel after reading up on international adoption and discovering that one of Angelina Jolie's adopted children was the only child in that particular orphanage who did NOT have HIV. Garrett decided to explore the life of a "positive" adopted girl in her first novel, and Full Disclosure was born.

Full Disclosure follows seventeen-year old Simone Garcia-Hampton, the adopted daughter of two gay dads, on her journey at a new school where she is hoping no one finds out about her HIV-positive status. She is fresh out of her former school where her best friend betrayed her by revealing her status, and the results were disastrous. Simone, who loves musicals and has Broadway aspirations some day, is directing her school's production of the controversial show Rent, which focuses on a topic that hits close to home for her. While the musical has been getting most of her attention lately, one of the school's lacrosse players has caught her eye - Miles. As things begin to heat up with Miles, Simone's positive status becomes an issue like it never has before - how does she tell a guy she is interested in that she has HIV? To make matters worse, Simone has an anonymous stalker who is trying to bully her into telling Miles her secret or else her secret goes public.

It feels wrong to take pleasure in reading a book that explores such deep and often devastating topics such as HIV, racism, and sexual orientation, but I can't deny that Full Disclosure was an entertaining, albeit informative, read. Garrett has created a strong African American lead in her character Simone, and has written a compelling, touching story about what it is like to be treated like a pariah by a society who will never understand what it is like to be you.

On the other hand, while Garrett explores many topics that teens may be able to relate to such as sex, sexuality, and race, it often feels like she is attempting to tick off boxes to make Full Disclosure as diverse as possible. Simone's parents are gay AND a mixed race couple, her best friends are a mix of asexuality and bisexuality, and Simone herself is possibly bisexual too. I would have preferred to have seen diversity worked into the story more seamlessly as opposed to the entire cast of main characters having something about them that makes the stand out from the "norm."

Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf Books for Young Readers for a digital ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

I found the first chapter of this book to be problematic regarding the visit to the GYN Dr. for first time. Dad went with her, even though teen expressed her discomfort. Nurse said "We aren't going to do a vaginal exam today.." but then told teen to take off her underwear and put on gown. Dad was still in room, she changed behind curtain. Dr. comes in asks questions that are very awkward for teen re: sex with dad there, and then says we'll do the breast exam now with DAD STILL IN THE ROOM. A) if no vaginal exam, no need for underwear off B) teen expressed discomfort and dr didn't ask dad to leave C) teen should not be changing or have breast exam with dad in the room. The rest of the book has a lot of potential and addresses a very important topic. I urge the publishers to edit the first chapter to repair the issues. I would have rated this higher without those. My concern is that a teen reading this may think this is typical of a gyno appt, and it is NOT. This could result in teen allowing inappropriate actions at dr visit after reading this.