BOOK REVIEW: The Lesbiana’s Guide to Catholic School

***this review contains some mild spoilers, nothing that will ruin the story for you but will tell you how some of the plot points end***

Boasting a 4+ star rating on both goodreads and storygraph with reviews from some of my favourite blogs (The Lesbian Review and Feminist Book Club) I was excited to see what Sonora Reyes had in store for me despite often not being able to connect with YA novels as I’ve gotten older. The Lesbiana’s Guide to Catholic School was my 18th book for this year and quickly has become one of my favourites. A quick note here that this book does cover some pretty triggering things such as homophobia, racism, immigration and suicidal ideation. If these topics can be confronting or triggering for you it may be worth seeking support or further clarity on how each of these topics are explored before diving into this book. Despite some of the heavy topics in this book, this YA friends to lovers romance had me giggling and kicking my feet at times – at one point I even had butterflies! (iykyk).

The Lesbiana’s Guide to Catholic School features many characters but some of the most focal are Yami, her brother Cesar and her love interest – Bo. We see a lot of growth through following each of these characters in their story with Yami. We watch Cesar battle with his sexuality and mental health, we see the vulnerability that Bo experiences as a chinese american who is adopted into a white family and we experience Yami’s struggles with her religious guilt and the racism that she faces. With all of this in mind, it would be unfair to not acknowledge the significant part that Yami’s and Bo’s parents play in the transformation of our three central characters throughout the novel.

This coming of age story allows the reader to follow along as we watch Yami, along with Cesar and Bo navigate the complexities of family dynamics, teenage relationships, racism and religious guilt. As a queer gal who grew up in the Catholic Church and spent the first 10 years of my schooling in a private Catholic school, I can categorically say that with my own experience in mind Reyes has perfectly encapsulated the struggle of knowing you’re queer when you’ve been raised in a heteronormative, non-queer friendly environment. Throughout this book the reader is presented with a number of opportunities to ‘ride-along’ with Yani as she goes through the gay panic that a lot of us experienced, but also fights like hell to hide who she truly is out of shame and fear. The reader then gets to experience Yani coming into herself and fighting like hell for equality after things go pear-shaped with her brother and she gets to experience her first queer relationship.

Reyes also outlines the experiences of people of colour who live, work or learn in a majority white community. They depict not only clear racism but also the impact that macro or microaggressions can have, whilst also presenting strong and culturally proud characters. I’m not someone who is able to speak to the impact or experiences in relation to this issue, however latinxpublishing touches on it in their review and xolo books has a table at the bottom of their review highlighting some key concerns often held about non-white characters.

What I love most about this novel is that whilst it touches on the difficulties that come with religious indoctrination, racism, homophobia and family dynamics it focuses on the best possible outcomes. Unfortunately there’s no way to alleviate the fears that come along with all of this and negate the negative experiences, but Reyes presents the reader with the light at the end of the tunnel. The Lesbiana’s Guide to Catholic School contrasts the best and worst of experiences, healing that inner child in me who needed to know that things WOULD be okay when she was 13 and terrified of being gay. Supportive and loving family members and found family in the midst of being disowned or punished due to cultural or religious beliefs, humanity shining through in dark times and the eternal good fight for everybody to have better experiences not just in spite of but because of their differences.