This book was incredible and hold such a special place in my heart already. I cannot wait for the rest of the world to get their hands on this gem.

The Lesbiana’s Guide to Catholic School is a quick and light despite confronting several heavy topics, and provides some much-needed representation in the YA contemporary genre. Yami is easy to relate to—as are the rest of the characters—particularly if you’re, like me and like her, an oldest sibling and a queer child in a religious household. Despite this, though, I just couldn’t get invested in this book.

My primary issue is with the writing style itself, I think. It just didn’t work for me, personally, and I found myself reading just to get through the book rather than out of any real enjoyment. Nonetheless, I don’t want to rate this too poorly, because it’s really just a matter of my personal taste and because if nothing else I appreciate the representation in this book.

Thank you NetGalley for my ARC!

"Seven years of bad luck can slurp my ass." is officially my new favorite way to open a book. Sonora Reyes has an excellent writing voice that draws readers to immediately connect with the hilarious, tough (but actually is a cinnamon roll), Yamilet. The story was original and I thought the setting of a Catholic school was a great choice for a queer romance. While I absolutely fell in love with Yamilet, I did find myself wanting more character development of some of our side characters. The whole time I found myself begging for more info about the big blow up fight that happened between Bianca and Yamilet before the start of the book (I understand that leaving this out is a plot device and I respect that BUT I WANNA KNOW!!!!). I also fully recognize that I am supposed to like Cesar, Yamilet's brother... but I don't. He was kind of a toot to her and Yamilet is the apple of my eye.

Overall I really liked this book and I will be recommending it to everyone with a pulse.

My class is a little too young for this book but it is a fantastic YA novel. Quick read with great representation.

Yamilet or Yami is a high school student that is trying to make the best of high school. This is interrupted when she mistakenly comes out to her best friend, Bianca, who ultimately betrays her by outing her. In addition, Yami is trying to steer her younger brother, Cesar, from trouble as he keeps getting jumped by his peers. Yami and Cesar begin a new chapter at a new catholic school to hopefully escape their turbulent pasts. In their new school, they are both able to meet new friends and a potential love interest for Yami? Except she already committed to acting as straight as possible to avoid any new complications so she constantly asks herself WWASGD: what would a straight girl do?
Reyes does a spectacular job unraveling the complexity of an identity as a young adult through multiple characters. Logically, the main focus is of Yami’s sexuality and her coming to terms with it but she also discusses her Mexican heritage and the macro and microaggressions she experiences by her new white schoolmates. Yami refuses to be silenced about the racism she experiences, which attracts other like minded friends.
In addition, Reyes expands this conversation to other characters and one of my favorites is Bo (Yami’s new love interest). Bo is a proud lesbian with a Chinese background. Her two parents are white but celebrate Bo’s background by frequently dining at authentic Chinese restaurants and decorating their home with Chinese furniture and decor. One of my favorite moments was when Bo confided in Yami and expressed how even though she loves her adopted parents and their enthusiasm to celebrate Bo’s ethnicity, she still questions the authenticity and if it is performative. This is an extremely relatable train of thought as I often question this from my peers. It’s easy to throw up some decorations or rave about the cuisine of a culture but it’s quite rare to have someone genuinely interested in the culture for the right reasons. It also highlights how one’s identity has many components to it. While one might be more comfortable and confident in one component, there are others that can still cause insecurity and discomfort. I absolutely loved Reyes’ discussion about this topic and know many BIPOC readers will also relate to it.
I found the writing to be so captivating. The writing style combined with the fully developed characters made the book impossible to put down. There were so many moments where I wanted to hug so many of the characters as they struggled with common high school problems but Reyes allowed me as a reader to be proud of them when they emerged from their journeys. Reyes did a fantastic job embedding absolutely adorable high school romantic moments in the book that made me gush. Being able to gush like this is one of my favorite feelings when I read young adult and I’m so impressed Reyes was able to inflict such a wide range of emotions to her readers. This was my top anticipated release for 2022 and it certainly did not disappoint. In fact, it has become a new favorite that I will be recommending to everyone!
Content warning for racism, homophobia, immigration, suicide ideation, and hospitalization of a character.

The Lesbiana’s Guide to Catholic School was a cute, funny read. It was enjoyable and found it had the perfect amount of snark to it. I did find that the character development lacked was lacking and that hindered it a little bit but overall, I can see a lot of people enjoying this YA contemporary.

The Lesbiana’s Guide to Catholic School is a friggin’ gift and should be read by everyone who is Brown or Queer or different, and wants to be reminded, at any age, that they’re not alone. I laughed, I cried, I cringed a little, because despite this not being MY story, it felt like my story, our story. This book tackles tough topics, such as racism, homophobia, immigration, and suicidal ideation, while leaving you hopeful that people will see the error of their ways, and be accepting of all humans just as they are.

5 stars

Hello, Sonora Reyes! From this day forward, I'll be reading EVERY book you write as soon as the arc or published version appears!

Yami (nee Yamilet), the m.c. of this fantastic YA contemporary novel, is in a tumultuous point of her teenage life. From the title, readers can correctly guess that Yami is queer and on her way to Catholic school, and that pairing alone is sure to create some strife. While the school may be new to her, the identity is not. Yami has been fully aware of her sexuality for some time, but she is also not exactly out, and much of her challenge throughout the book has to do with knowing when and where and why she wants to BE out. Other characters join her in their related considerations. In addition to grappling with how others might receive her sexuality, Yami finds herself in a racially minoritized situation on campus, experiences some challenges based on her socioeconomic circumstances, and especially grapples with some pretty intense family drama. She is - in short - dealing with A LOT.

Fortunately for Yami, she's surrounded by several folks who play really important roles in her life and who have varying degrees of awareness about who she is. The ancillary characters - and Yami's relationship to them - absolutely make this novel for me. Reyes pays careful attention to the kinds of responses folks can have to queerness within and outside of families and institutions, and a wide range of possibilities gets covered here in a responsible and realistic way. Not every response is predictable, and I appreciate this fact very much.

Along with the aforementioned features, this novel also encompasses general bullying, racism, microaggressions and macro assaults for all kinds of reasons, experiences of undocumented people, mental health crises, and much more. The portrayals of these issues are believable, layered, and age appropriate.

My college-level children's lit class (which includes YA) will start with my enthusiastic recommendation of this book in tomorrow's session. I really enjoyed how much gets covered (and more importantly HOW all of that happens), and I expect that many readers will see themselves and develop empathy through reading this meaningful work. Can't wait for the next installment from this author!

**Reyes closes the novel with a note on TWs, and I'll borrow from that here: "racism, homophobia, immigration, and the suicidal ideation and hospitalization of a character."

This is one to watch out for. I loved every second of this and can’t wait for pub day so I can get a copy of my own. This is a must read.

An absolutely gorgeous YA contemporary, a heroine at its center with incredible heart, grit, and voice. Yamilet is a YA heroine for the ages, incredibly real and deeply relatable, and the writing itself is piercing and true. Many tears were shed. At once hilarious and heartbreaking, I'll be yelling about this book for a long time to come—what a beautiful story.

I received a digital advance copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was cheesy, sweet, wonderful, and the characters were incredibly relatable. I loved the relationships (family and otherwise) because they were honest without being fake. LOVED.

I received a complimentary copy of this book through NetGalley. The opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

This book, simply put, is incredible.

This book is a cleverly written YA story about not only discovering who you are, but learning to share it with other people and take pride in it. It's about being true to yourself and your relationships, confronting those previously held notions about the self and others, and realizing what is healthy and unhealthy in your relationships. There is clear love and genuine connection in the familial, platonic, AND romantic relationships in this book.

The book also speaks to the interconnectivity of religious and familial tensions as opposed to other facets of one's identity like sexuality or mental health. This book is just full of so much feeling and heart, and I absolutely adored all of it.

DNF. I really liked the premise but the writing did not work for me at all. It wouldn't be fair to the book if I finished reading and gave it a low rating.

THE LESBIANA'S GUIDE TO CATHOLIC SCHOOL by Sonora Reyes is fantastic! Definitely one of my tops reads of the 2022 so far. Yamilet's voice is so funny and honest that it's impossible to *not* root for her or relate to her. In general, the characters feel lived in and rooted to the world of the story. Some of Yami's mistakes are hilarious and a few are heartbreaking (and understandable for her age).

Despite the book's hilarious voice, it takes on some significant, serious topics, like suicidal ideation and parental homophobia. In writing this story, Reyes shows peers and family members ways to reach out for help and/or offer help -- and she does this all without being didactic. That's impressive and very needed. The author also offers some surprise reactions and I found myself tearing up during some of the funniest scenes.

The combination of heart and humor is outstanding. It's hard to fully gush about this book without creating spoilers, so I won't do that. However, I will be talking about this book to my creative writing students and encouraging them all to read it. As I build workshops for the summer and fall, I'll definitely be looking to THE LESBIANA'S GUIDE TO CATHOLIC SCHOOL as a way to teach character voice as well as creating authentic fictional relationships.

TW: racism, homophobia, immigration, and the suicidal ideation, and hospitalization of a chatacter.

I wish these trigger warnings were at the beginning of the book, so I knew what I was getting myself into. Even though these topics are heavy, the author depicts these topics with care and sensitivity, and are portrayed as accurately as possible.

This book was high on my list of books that are being published this year. I was so damn excited to read this book. Thank you to Sonora Reyes, Netgalley, and Balzer & Bray for approving me for this ARC. This book has no real plot. It's about growing up, growing out of friends, making new friends, falling in love, and being brave. Yamilet and her brother start attending a new school when her brother, Caesar, starts getting into trouble at their old school. Unfortunately, this new school is Catholic school that doesn't accept LGBTQ+ students. I, thankfully, went to a Catholic school that accepted their students as they were, but this is an ongoing problem in Catholic schools and schools in general. The author has captured the highs and lows of teenagers falling in love and navigating life together. She has also captured the highs and lows of coming out to your parents and friends and seeing the true reactions of how people feel about you. Bo and Yami's relationship fell flat during a few parts. Reading about Yami staying with Bo felt like it dragged on for ages and I was glad when it wrapped up. Overall, this book isn't geared towards me, but I HIGHLY enjoyed it. I think I might have to pick up a copy, because I absolutely love this cover.

I loved everything about this book; it's another in the current world of YA that I would have absolutely treasured having when I was growing up. The story of Yamilet's adjustment to Catholic school as she watches over her brother, tries to earn money, and struggles with accepting that she's a lesbian is beautifully told and highly relatable for high schoolers and former-high-schoolers alike. The weight of the world is on her shoulders, and she does the best she can to make good choices, care for everyone around her, and explore herself without sacrificing her key relationships.

This book managed to feel realistic while exploring the daily lives of high schoolers--and particularly queer Catholic Latinx high schoolers--with enough sheen and safety that it felt neither perilous nor quotidien. It deals with very real challenges of growing up in a Catholic immigrant family, and it does so in a way that teens from other backgrounds will also see themselves in. There's power to having these experiences reflected back on the page.

I loved the characters, the relationships, the development that each character experienced, and the nuance imbued within the interpersonal dynamics. It captured the messiness of teenage years in a way that both resonated and felt manageable. I'm thrilled for this debut, and cannot wait to read everything Sonora Reyes continues to do.

This book wasn’t really for me, although I am excited for other sapphic non-men to read this! This book simply reminded me too much of how I used to change so much of myself when I was younger.
Yami and Bo’s relationship was so cute to me but there was times where their characters felt flat to me because I felt as if there was not enough development for me to feel anything. The issue with the depth of their relationship is that although the romance was more of a secondary storyline, a majority of the time there would be a bit of description between what happened between either Bo and Yami, or other characters, and it would not be very long or with much description and end abruptly.
I really loved Bo because her personality is so great and I love how she spoke on so much, her father is also really funny! Bo reminded me so much of myself, it was so nice to see a character that was not afraid to be themself. I really really liked Bo but I felt as if her character did not have as much depth as Cesar because he was the most detailed character. Cesar was definitely my favorite part because his character was very well-written and so complex yet so chistoso.
Yami’s character was very real and human, which I loved that Reyes included. Yami was very representative of a typical queer Mexican teenager, every time she spoke in Spanish or Spanglish it felt pretty fitting. There wasn’t very much talk on being an indigenous Mexican that I thought would be a given although the author wrote the cultural aspect in the book amazingly. I think that Bo’s ethnicity was handled with respect as well because the author challenged any of Bo’s thoughts on her culture as an adopted Chinese-American. I advise anyone wanting to read this book to listen to Chinese readers thoughts on Bo!
Overall, the book was super cute and very tense considering the frequent thought of homophobic parents.

A funny, real and raw YA contemporary with a swoon-worthy first romance that students will gobble up. Reyes writing voice is reminiscent of Julia in I am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter and it is highly likely the target audience will be drawn in by this authentic portrayal of Yoli as she navigates being at a rather conservative Catholic school as well as discovering her sexuality, family expectations, and boundaries in friendships.

If you want to read something that is about finding community and hope. That contains a cute nerdy love interest, witty, funny, commentary, and a vibe that tells you to live like the world is yours. This book is for you.
I want to give so many spoilers to best describe how phenomenal and singular this book was for me. Don’t worry, I won’t. First off I loved the unique combination of humor and hardship. Let's be real, Yami is a Latina closeted queer girl who goes to catholic school. There are entitled Karens that deserve an uppercut every time they open their mouths. Having the chapter titles be witty and allowing internal comedic retorts dampened the blow. It also allowed my heart to survive and to savor the revenge they were served.

I adored this book. It truly has my whole heart. I love that this tells a unique story (of a queer teenager from an Indigenous Mexican family who is struggling with a crush and whether she can safely come out). I loved the story itself, and the characters. Sonora Reyes beautifully describes the challenges of being a queer teenager whose parents are Catholic and appear to be homophobic. She also delves into issues such as having a father who was deported (and staying in touch with him and missing him), and (for Bo), being an Asian adoptee into a white family who is supportive of her being queer, but doesn't quite know how to behave in terms of letting her embrace her culture. I loved the romance to pieces. I loved the friendships. And I adored Yami's relationship with her brother, who is also coming to terms with his sexuality. This also delves into important issues such as racism towards one of the only students of color in their school and how Yami handles that. Absolutely one of my favorite reads of the year and one of my favorite YA reads in recent memory.