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Emma Giordano's Reviews > Our Own Private Universe
Our Own Private Universe
by
by
Thank you to Harlequin Teen for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
I absolutely adored this book! I honestly don't even know where to start. This was such a lovely, heart-warming, emotional read. I would highly highly recommend it! I was super excited to read a new own-voices LGBTQIAP+ novel, and I was not disappointed. I'll have a more in-depth spoiler-free review on my channel soon!
As this is an LGBTQIAP+ novel featuring a relationship between two bisexual girls (view spoiler), I cannot speak to the representation. From what I have read from the LGBT+ community about representation in literature, there are certain points I found to be in line with healthy and positive points I know many people push for. This is the story of a teenage girl questioning her sexuality, and while still fearing the reaction of those she is close to, she ultimately goes through a very positive experience. There are two overwhelmingly touching coming-out scenes that elicit overall positive outcomes for those two individuals. As this takes place in a Christian community, on the topic of gay marriage, an LGBT+ individual makes a note that "it is important not equate the movement for marriage rights with the movement for equality overall." For the most part, the majority of the youth-group/congregation are all very accepting of different sexual orientations and genders. Again, my view holds less weight than those who can better relate to Aki, but it felt like this book supported a lot of my ever-growing knowledge of LGBTQIAP+ representation in books.
Although it's not my place to determine how certain tropes and stereotypes regarding sexuality affect readers, I do feel as a reviewer, it's my job to provide you guys with the most information possible to help you better understand a book before reading. I went into this book knowing there was some talk of it feeding into the stereotype that "bisexual individuals are cheaters" which is obviously a very harmful idea to promote and I had every intention of addressing this in my review, but as this topic approached that just . . . wasn't true? (In my interpretation, at least.)
I've seen reviews suggesting this trope is relevant as a bisexual person kisses another bisexual person who has a boyfriend. According to the individual in a relationship, she states on page 62,
"The thing about Steven and me is that we're taking a break for the summer". Also on page 62, "So, since I was coming down here, we decided we'd take the summer off from our relationship. So we could see other people for a little while. If we wanted to, I mean. As readers, I think we need to take our characters's words as truth unless we have a reason to question otherwise (which in this story, nothing suggests Christa was lying about being on a break from her boyfriend (view spoiler)) so I, as a reader, would not consider that cheating. If we would like to discuss the trope that "bisexual individuals are not monogamous" THAT is a different conversation. But, this is actually explicitly addressed in the story. Like, so explicit, there's no way to misinterpret the message, here. On page 171 it states, "One common myth is that bisexual people must be in simultaneous relationships with both men and women to be sexually satisfied. Another is that bisexuals are promiscuous. In fact, many bisexual people may be perfectly happy in monogamous relationships." So this trope is outright challenged and debunked within the pages of this story. I am in no way trying to determine if this book plays into those stereotypes. If you're bisexual and this is still representation you don't agree with, your feelings are totally valid! But, I haven't seen anyone who mentioned these tropes discuss how they are tackled in the story, so I feel you all deserve to know.
Another important note about this book, it discusses SAFE SEX. And not even just safe sex, but safe sex for two women! There are scenes involving the use of gloves and dental dams and they are approached in a mature, educational way. This is a theme that is imperative to include when writing about adolescents and I was so so pleased. Also, the main character actually visits a website about safe sex and their information was inclusive to trans and non-binary folk, which I was really happy to see.
Regarding church culture in this book, I felt it was fairly true to my own experiences. I spent a large chunk of my first few high school years in my own youth group, and the interactions of these teens gave me quite a bit of nostalgia. I've seen people say the drama in this story is "too much" or "too unrealistic" and to an extent, I absolutely agree. The thought of teenagers getting away with drinking on a missions trip was pretty unreasonable to me. Otherwise, the drama was exactly what my youth group was like at 16, so I didn't find significant problems with it. I'm actually really pleased to have a YA novel that deals with Christianity in such an open-minded, tolerant light.
I think the only other negative thing I disliked about this book was there was a lot of lying. Aki lies. Her brother, Drew, lies. Her best friend, Lori, lies. The love interest, Christa, lies. Random church kids lie. Even Aki's father, who is a pastor, lies. There is a lot of lying, more than I would say most people do, but it is addressed and everyone suffers the consequences of their lies, or at least owns up to it by telling the truth and apologizing, so I'm satisfied.
Overall, I loved this book. I would definitely recommend it for anyone looking for a new LGBT+ own voices read or a book about self-discovery. Tears welled up in my eyes on many occasions and I felt it was a very touching read.
I absolutely adored this book! I honestly don't even know where to start. This was such a lovely, heart-warming, emotional read. I would highly highly recommend it! I was super excited to read a new own-voices LGBTQIAP+ novel, and I was not disappointed. I'll have a more in-depth spoiler-free review on my channel soon!
As this is an LGBTQIAP+ novel featuring a relationship between two bisexual girls (view spoiler), I cannot speak to the representation. From what I have read from the LGBT+ community about representation in literature, there are certain points I found to be in line with healthy and positive points I know many people push for. This is the story of a teenage girl questioning her sexuality, and while still fearing the reaction of those she is close to, she ultimately goes through a very positive experience. There are two overwhelmingly touching coming-out scenes that elicit overall positive outcomes for those two individuals. As this takes place in a Christian community, on the topic of gay marriage, an LGBT+ individual makes a note that "it is important not equate the movement for marriage rights with the movement for equality overall." For the most part, the majority of the youth-group/congregation are all very accepting of different sexual orientations and genders. Again, my view holds less weight than those who can better relate to Aki, but it felt like this book supported a lot of my ever-growing knowledge of LGBTQIAP+ representation in books.
Although it's not my place to determine how certain tropes and stereotypes regarding sexuality affect readers, I do feel as a reviewer, it's my job to provide you guys with the most information possible to help you better understand a book before reading. I went into this book knowing there was some talk of it feeding into the stereotype that "bisexual individuals are cheaters" which is obviously a very harmful idea to promote and I had every intention of addressing this in my review, but as this topic approached that just . . . wasn't true? (In my interpretation, at least.)
I've seen reviews suggesting this trope is relevant as a bisexual person kisses another bisexual person who has a boyfriend. According to the individual in a relationship, she states on page 62,
"The thing about Steven and me is that we're taking a break for the summer". Also on page 62, "So, since I was coming down here, we decided we'd take the summer off from our relationship. So we could see other people for a little while. If we wanted to, I mean. As readers, I think we need to take our characters's words as truth unless we have a reason to question otherwise (which in this story, nothing suggests Christa was lying about being on a break from her boyfriend (view spoiler)) so I, as a reader, would not consider that cheating. If we would like to discuss the trope that "bisexual individuals are not monogamous" THAT is a different conversation. But, this is actually explicitly addressed in the story. Like, so explicit, there's no way to misinterpret the message, here. On page 171 it states, "One common myth is that bisexual people must be in simultaneous relationships with both men and women to be sexually satisfied. Another is that bisexuals are promiscuous. In fact, many bisexual people may be perfectly happy in monogamous relationships." So this trope is outright challenged and debunked within the pages of this story. I am in no way trying to determine if this book plays into those stereotypes. If you're bisexual and this is still representation you don't agree with, your feelings are totally valid! But, I haven't seen anyone who mentioned these tropes discuss how they are tackled in the story, so I feel you all deserve to know.
Another important note about this book, it discusses SAFE SEX. And not even just safe sex, but safe sex for two women! There are scenes involving the use of gloves and dental dams and they are approached in a mature, educational way. This is a theme that is imperative to include when writing about adolescents and I was so so pleased. Also, the main character actually visits a website about safe sex and their information was inclusive to trans and non-binary folk, which I was really happy to see.
Regarding church culture in this book, I felt it was fairly true to my own experiences. I spent a large chunk of my first few high school years in my own youth group, and the interactions of these teens gave me quite a bit of nostalgia. I've seen people say the drama in this story is "too much" or "too unrealistic" and to an extent, I absolutely agree. The thought of teenagers getting away with drinking on a missions trip was pretty unreasonable to me. Otherwise, the drama was exactly what my youth group was like at 16, so I didn't find significant problems with it. I'm actually really pleased to have a YA novel that deals with Christianity in such an open-minded, tolerant light.
I think the only other negative thing I disliked about this book was there was a lot of lying. Aki lies. Her brother, Drew, lies. Her best friend, Lori, lies. The love interest, Christa, lies. Random church kids lie. Even Aki's father, who is a pastor, lies. There is a lot of lying, more than I would say most people do, but it is addressed and everyone suffers the consequences of their lies, or at least owns up to it by telling the truth and apologizing, so I'm satisfied.
Overall, I loved this book. I would definitely recommend it for anyone looking for a new LGBT+ own voices read or a book about self-discovery. Tears welled up in my eyes on many occasions and I felt it was a very touching read.
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Our Own Private Universe.
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Reading Progress
February 17, 2017
–
Started Reading
February 17, 2017
– Shelved
February 17, 2017
–
17.45%
"I've seen a lot of talk that this book plays into the stereotype of "bisexuals being cheaters." To my understanding, the character in question essentially states they are non monogamous & also currently on a break from their relationship. I'm obviously not far into the book (so please no spoilers) but I am a little confused since this was made so clear before anything happened between the two characters."
page
67
February 19, 2017
–
44.53%
"As a follow up to my last update, "One common myth is that bisexual people must be in simultaneous relationships with both men and women to be sexually satisfied. Another is that bisexuals are promiscuous. In fact, many bisexual people may be perfectly happy in monogamous relationships." So this trope I previously mentioned is most definitely challenged in the book."
page
171
February 20, 2017
–
Finished Reading
