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A review by briannareadsbooks
Kings, Queens, and In-Betweens by Tanya Boteju
1.0
ARC provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
I'm sorry, but I just was not a big fan of this book. I--along with many others--was first interested in the book because of the diversity and amazing representation. This book features a cast of characters of different sexual orientations, gender identities, and ethnicities. The main character is a half-Sri Lankan queer girl, who's friends and love interest are queer people of colour. As a queer girl of colour myself, who binge-watches RuPaul's Drag Race on the regular, I was super excited for this book!
Unfortunately, the representation was the only thing it had going for it. (A few spoilers ahead!!) The writing was fine--I think decent for a debut novel. But some parts were just boring and weren't woven into the story correctly. An example that comes to mind is when Nima had to go to the car wash, and she went into the school to get supplies and spotted Gordon. Obviously, that whole scene was a set up to introduce Gordon's identity struggles, but why did the car wash have to be a thing? It wasn't needed. Scenes that barely contributed to the story were just so long (the whole festival before Winnow is introduced, everything with Ginny considering how insignificant Ginny was, etc). Also, I wasn't particularly drawn to any of the characters. It made me so so uncomfortable that Nima allowed someone literally over ten years older than her to stay at her house overnight after meeting them once! Deidre's age was never revealed until later on in the book, but I don't know, that set off a lot of red flags. I don't care how cool and understanding Deirdre was! A seventeen-year-old doesn't let a 35-year-old stay at their house after meeting them once!!
I didn't enjoy the relationship between Winnow and Nima. Similarly, with Deirdre, the age difference between Nima and Winnow made me uncomfortable. And, to be honest, it wasn't exactly the age difference (it was only four years), but the fact that Winnow was so much more experiences than Nima. The scene where Nima gets drunk with Winnow's friend because she's trying to keep up with the "cool, older kids" really stressed me out because I just felt so bad for the girl. As someone who was just coming to terms with her identity, I don't think it would be beneficial for her to date an older, more experienced girl, who is already sure of herself and her community. While I do think it's an important and common story that a lot of LGBT individuals assimilate into the community by meeting someone older, or more experienced... I really do not see that working for Nima. I think it's great to have an older mentor (like Gordon has with Deirdre), but I wish that Gordon and Nima would have maybe joined together to explore the LGBT community more, rather than Nima dating Winnow.
I knew that Gordon was going to be queer. But, I wanted more out of the whole Gordon plot. Gordon's identity issues were never addressed and quickly glossed over, as if the author hoped the audience would just understand that Gordon was trans?? I honestly don't even know if he is trans because it was not explained at all? It was kind of just hinted. It's really weird how the words "trans" or "transgender" were not used in the story at all considering two important characters are trans! And the thing was, I didn't even realize Dierdre was trans until literally 60% into the story. I don't understand why the identities of the trans people weren't just explained quickly (the readers would have understood!) and instead were just up for interpretation
Lastly, there was so much that was just not resolved. The plot line of Winnow's mother seemed like a bunch of loose ends, the fact that her dad and Jill never got closure, the fact that Ginny-who was apparently one of her best friends in the beginning- kind of disappeared throughout the book, the fact that Gordon's identity issues were not fully explained... these all just seemed like random story points that never got solved.
Besides that, what I did love was Nima's curiosity as she began to find herself and her community. I could definitely understand being in Nima's shoes, and I'm happy she found a chosen family to help her along the way!
I'm sorry, but I just was not a big fan of this book. I--along with many others--was first interested in the book because of the diversity and amazing representation. This book features a cast of characters of different sexual orientations, gender identities, and ethnicities. The main character is a half-Sri Lankan queer girl, who's friends and love interest are queer people of colour. As a queer girl of colour myself, who binge-watches RuPaul's Drag Race on the regular, I was super excited for this book!
Unfortunately, the representation was the only thing it had going for it. (A few spoilers ahead!!) The writing was fine--I think decent for a debut novel. But some parts were just boring and weren't woven into the story correctly. An example that comes to mind is when Nima had to go to the car wash, and she went into the school to get supplies and spotted Gordon. Obviously, that whole scene was a set up to introduce Gordon's identity struggles, but why did the car wash have to be a thing? It wasn't needed. Scenes that barely contributed to the story were just so long (the whole festival before Winnow is introduced, everything with Ginny considering how insignificant Ginny was, etc). Also, I wasn't particularly drawn to any of the characters. It made me so so uncomfortable that Nima allowed someone literally over ten years older than her to stay at her house overnight after meeting them once! Deidre's age was never revealed until later on in the book, but I don't know, that set off a lot of red flags. I don't care how cool and understanding Deirdre was! A seventeen-year-old doesn't let a 35-year-old stay at their house after meeting them once!!
I didn't enjoy the relationship between Winnow and Nima. Similarly, with Deirdre, the age difference between Nima and Winnow made me uncomfortable. And, to be honest, it wasn't exactly the age difference (it was only four years), but the fact that Winnow was so much more experiences than Nima. The scene where Nima gets drunk with Winnow's friend because she's trying to keep up with the "cool, older kids" really stressed me out because I just felt so bad for the girl. As someone who was just coming to terms with her identity, I don't think it would be beneficial for her to date an older, more experienced girl, who is already sure of herself and her community. While I do think it's an important and common story that a lot of LGBT individuals assimilate into the community by meeting someone older, or more experienced... I really do not see that working for Nima. I think it's great to have an older mentor (like Gordon has with Deirdre), but I wish that Gordon and Nima would have maybe joined together to explore the LGBT community more, rather than Nima dating Winnow.
I knew that Gordon was going to be queer. But, I wanted more out of the whole Gordon plot. Gordon's identity issues were never addressed and quickly glossed over, as if the author hoped the audience would just understand that Gordon was trans?? I honestly don't even know if he is trans because it was not explained at all? It was kind of just hinted. It's really weird how the words "trans" or "transgender" were not used in the story at all considering two important characters are trans! And the thing was, I didn't even realize Dierdre was trans until literally 60% into the story. I don't understand why the identities of the trans people weren't just explained quickly (the readers would have understood!) and instead were just up for interpretation
Lastly, there was so much that was just not resolved. The plot line of Winnow's mother seemed like a bunch of loose ends, the fact that her dad and Jill never got closure, the fact that Ginny-who was apparently one of her best friends in the beginning- kind of disappeared throughout the book, the fact that Gordon's identity issues were not fully explained... these all just seemed like random story points that never got solved.
Besides that, what I did love was Nima's curiosity as she began to find herself and her community. I could definitely understand being in Nima's shoes, and I'm happy she found a chosen family to help her along the way!