Release Day Review by DMac: Autoboyography, by Christina Lauren

Autoboyography, by Christina Lauren
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Release Date: September 12, 2017

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Fangirl meets Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda in this funny and poignant coming-of-age novel from New York Times bestselling author Christina Lauren about two boys who fall in love in a writing class—one from a progressive family and the other from a conservative religious community.

Three years ago, Tanner Scott’s family relocated from California to Utah, a move that nudged the bisexual teen temporarily back into the closet. Now, with one semester of high school to go, and no obstacles between him and out-of-state college freedom, Tanner plans to coast through his remaining classes and clear out of Utah.

But when his best friend Autumn dares him to take Provo High’s prestigious Seminar—where honor roll students diligently toil to draft a book in a semester—Tanner can’t resist going against his better judgment and having a go, if only to prove to Autumn how silly the whole thing is. Writing a book in four months sounds simple. Four months is an eternity.

It turns out, Tanner is only partly right: four months is a long time. After all, it takes only one second for him to notice Sebastian Brother, the Mormon prodigy who sold his own Seminar novel the year before and who now mentors the class. And it takes less than a month for Tanner to fall completely in love with him.

M/M Pairing
Bisexual Character
Contemporary
Young Adult
Romance
Religion
Self-Discovery
Coming-of-age

Content Warning for:
Homophobia

(You don’t know how many times I typed the title as Auyobotography. The struggle is real….)

I know this is about the fifth book in a row I rated fives stars but it’s only because I lucked out picking five great books. I’m incredibly picky about what I give five star books to because it has to pass the threshold of “oh hey this book is great” to “I would read this 80 more times and yell at people about it.” Does that make sense?

This book was an emotional yo-yo because of teenagers, but mostly because of someone’s religion not being into the whole homosexuality thing. Which stressed me out a lot, but the book was really well written and I think that it gives a realistic portrayal of what trying to figure yourself out in high school (what love means, being bi, being gay). I think that the next time I read it I will enjoy it a lot more because I know what happens etc etc (no spoilers!)

Fair warning this has A LOT about the mormon religion in it because one of the MCs is Mormon. Personally, I was 100% bored out of my mind when the characters started going into detail about it. However, it fit in with the narrative and actually had a point within the novel so it wasn’t preachy or anything. It was just giving us perspective on a character.

This book was stunning in it’s portrayal of the ups and downs of being in a complicated relationship. Yeah they are teenagers, but it doesn’t dumb down their experiences or the language used to talk about them. This is always something I appreciate when reading YA because it shows that the writer has the maturity to recognize and write teenagers as young adults.

I loved Tanner a lot. Teenage boys can sometimes be the worst but he was fascinating. He’s kind of oblivious until he realizes something is going on and then goes at it 100%. Not quite a nerd, not a jock, but a regular kid who just wants to GTFO of his majority mormon school and town so he can go back to being out of the closet. He also had an interesting lady best friend and I was worried she was going to turn into a trope (girl in love with her best friend). Man, they really messed with a lot of stereotypes and tropes in this without making it seem like they were trying to do an anti-trope (is that a thing?).

Sebastian. I literally cannot tell you much of anything about Sebastian without it spoiling a lot of stuff. He’s one complex dude with one complex storyline. I wanted to straight up punch him in the face for most of the book but I also understood his perspective. I hope this lures you into reading the book instead of putting you off!!!!!! I promise he’s a good guy just really dumb about some stuff.

The only weird thing that made me annoyed was that most of the book is written from Tanner’s POV but in the last chapter it switches between their perspectives all of a sudden. I understood why they did it but it was also confusing at the time. Not a huge deal but I was like WAIT WHAT and had to reread some stuff even though it was labeled (Don’t @ me!).

EUGH THIS BOOK IS SO GOOD AND I CAN’T TELL YOU EXACTLY WHY AND I’M SO ANNOYED. I promise it’s good so go read it and come flail at me!

Christina Lauren is the combined pen name of long-time writing partners/besties/soulmates/brain-twins Christina Hobbs and Lauren Billings. The coauthor duo writes both Young Adult and Adult Fiction, and together has produced fourteen New York Times bestselling novels. Their books have been translated into 31+ languages. (Some of these books have kissing. Some of these books have A LOT of kissing.)

Website: http://www.christinalaurenbooks.com/

Twitter: christinalauren