This month’s Across the Page features two novels that focus on the complex, sometimes funny and usually terrifying experience of coming out: Lauren Bjorkman’s My Invented Life and Paula Boock’s Dare, Truth or Promise.
My Invented Life by Lauren Bjorkman (Henry Holt)
Due out this fall, Lauren Bjorkman’s My Invented Life is a hilarious, thoughtful and engaging novel about the power of perception.
Roz admires her older sister Eva so much that it borders on envy. Eva is a beautiful, sophisticated, and popular cheerleader who’s dating Bryan, Roz’s crush. But everything changes when Roz discovers a “lesbian” novel in Eva’s room and becomes convinced that her sister is gay.
Eva dismisses the idea and says that the book belongs to “Eyeliner Andie,” a goth chic from the school play, As You Like It, that both sisters are working on. But Eva’s answers to Roz’s questions are suspicious, particularly when the name of Carmen, her best friend and cheerleading partner, comes up:
“‘As if a cheerleading babe could be a dyke,'” Eva says at one point, and Roz notes that usually she would simply joke about the accusation: “The old Eva would’ve made a joke of it. Now you know. Just between you and me and the tabloids, Britney Spears and I are lovers.”
On the other hand, Roz has reasons for wanting to believe that Eva is a lesbian. For one, she thinks it would make the family more interesting, and then, of course, there’s her crush on Bryan.
Roz continues to pursue her suspicions. Part of her charm as a narrator is not only that she is extremely funny, but that she makes a mess of just about everything she touches. In an attempt to help Eva though the difficult coming out process, Roz decides to tell everyone at school that she herself is a lesbian. The announcement ricochets through the theater group, especially after Roz gets the lead role of Rosalind.
Though Eva is still unwilling to admit anything to her sister, she watches the other students’ reaction to Roz’s “lesbianism” very carefully. The lie actually begins to bring the competitive sisters closer as Roz files briefings to Eva called the “L Reports.”
In the “reports,” Roz chronicles her experience at school (student reactions, a surprising crush she develops on “Eyeliner Andie”) and her research (reading coming out stories online and learning about the challenges of gay teens). Her false coming out initially angered Eva, but it eventually forces many of the characters’ secrets to come out of the closet.
Though My Invented Life, Bjorkman first novel, reveals the difficulties many LGBT teens face at both school and home, it is ultimately an uplifting story that offers insight and hope with a nice dash of humor. Highly recommended.
Dare, Truth or Promise by Paula Boock (Graphia)
Paula Boock’s Dare, Truth or Promise features two teenager girls, Willa and Louie, from a small town in New Zealand, who fall in love despite numerous challenges and interferences.
When Louie first meets Willa she has no idea that this beautiful redheaded girl is going to change everything she knows about family, friendship, love and life.
Willa, in contrast, is a bit more jaded. She lives above a bar with her hippie mother and recently switched schools after the administration discovered that her relationship with another girl, Cathy, was more than just platonic.
While Louie is trusted and admired by her parents and teachers alike, Willa is still reeling from her breakup with Cathy and soon odd letters begin to show up around her house. The notes are intimidating and often contradictory – from “I love you” to “Die, bitch.”
The novel is told in multiple points of view, which offers the reader an inside look into both character’s perspectives. As their friendship emerges into something more complex and intimate than either had expected, Willa slowly begins to trust again and Louie struggles with keeping the relationship a secret.
Louie’s family meets Willa as her “friend” and while they eat dinner everyone takes turns asking her questions to help get to know her better. The questions are playful and harmless, but Willa can see that Louie’s mother understands that there is something different about her daughter’s relationship with this new girl.
When it’s Louie’s mother’s turn to ask a question, she wants Willa to describe her Ideal Man. “I think people just happen,” Willa cleverly responds, “Love just happens. And then everything is changed, forever.
Her answer does little to relieve Louie’s mother’s suspicion and when she later discovers the girls in an intimate moment, she forces them to breakup. Louie is devastated and confused. The breakup feels like déjà vu for Willa: “Sicko Willa, corrupting poor straight Louie. That’s what her family would tell her, that’s what Louie would believe, and maybe, maybe that was the truth?”
During Willa and Louie’s separation, Cathy re-emerges from the past and while all of the characters learn a lesson about the consequences of denying your identity, Willa finally gets some surprising answers about the writer of the notes she’s been receiving over the last few months.
But ultimately it takes an event more personal and dramatic to put Louie and Willa’s relationship into perspective.
p>Dare, Truth or Promise is a beautifully written story about growing up, falling in love, and that tricky journey of teaching your parents a lessonor two.
