Autoboyography

Tanner and his family have moved back to his mother's hometown in Utah, a small Mormon village where he can't be the queer self he'd never really hidden. Back in the closet, he can't wait until school is over and he can head out to LA for college. When he signs up for The Seminar, a class where you have to write a whole book in four months, he never expects to fall head over heels for the TA Sebastian Brother.

Sebastian Brother is on the verge of his first book release, the draft of which he wrote when he took The Seminar the year before, and is waiting for his first mission with the church. When he finds out that Tanner is struggling with starting his novel, he quickly offers help. And then when he finds out Tanner is gay he's opened up to a whole new world of possibilities. Closed off and repressed he starts to explore his own feelings of homosexuality with Tanner by his side.

So in a secret relationship, hidden from the church and Sebs LDS family, these two boys discover what it means to be them, what it means to be queer, and wonder if their love can beat the restrictive views of the Mormon faith.

Autoboyography is the perfect LGBTQIA novel, you will laugh, cry, and be forced to think. Christina Lauren does a great job of balancing themes of denial and religion with those of acceptance and love. She explores religion with a balanced point of view which gives the character an authentic feel. Each character feels real as if they've lived a life before the first page. 

Most of this book is great.

If there was one thing I hated it would be the drama-riddled ending of this book. Just as you think they'd sorted out their issues, another comes along. It honestly got a bit tiring in the end, and I was mad at both of them. But not enough for me to stop reading. 

And, spoiler alert, Tanner sleeping with Autumn was a bit weird for me. He'd spent most of the book saying how much their kiss hadn't been a big thing. It felt more like to prove he was bi.

I gave this book 4.5/5