Full review at The Pluviophile Reader: http://wp.me/p3VFNP-8u

3/5 stars.
Paperback, 176 pages.
Read from February 19 to 20, 2015.

This is now the second book I've been able to get through in this year's Canada Reads 2015 shortlist. This book was not what I was expecting and based on the controversy surrounding the novel, it sounds like it wasn't what a lot of people were expecting, especially for a Governor General's award in Children's Literature. The author, Raziel Reid, is one of the youngest recipients of the award at the age of 24.

Jude is a teenage boy who happens to like other boys, he also prefers to wear dresses, massive heels and outrageous make-up. In his head, he pretends he is a famous celebrity. In fact, he pictures his whole life like it's some kind a movie. His every action is just another scene while his stripper mother, promiscuous best-friend, and the boys, including his crush, Luke, who bully him are his co-stars. Even in the darkest parts of this book he masks his pain with glamour. Jude has an over-the-top personality that covers up his noxious up bringing and daily life which, make the tragic ending that much more unbearable. Jude just wants to be loved and when he asks his crush to be his valentine, there are horrible and unnecessary consequences.

Sadly, I can see people who would struggle with just Jude's character alone, which, in this day and age shouldn't be an issue. However, the real controversy isn't so much that Jude is a gender bender, it's the graphic language, sexual references and sex scenes. To be fair, the content is very crude at times but it fits with the novel and with characters.  Barbara Kay, of the National Post was particularly outraged with the book's content and wanted it to have its Governor General's award stripped, claiming that the award "wasted tax dollars on a values-void novel". For a book that's labeled as a young adult, I suppose I can see why people might get a bit heated about it but I don't think the sexual content is abnormal and shouldn't be treated as if it is.  Jude lives a tragic life, but sadly it is the norm for many homosexual teenagers and it's a demographic that needs attention. So it shouldn't be wrong to write about something that's true, regardless of how awful it can be. If you don't believe that a story like this could have any truth, than read Emily M. Keeler's article,  which is a counter piece to Barbara Kay's. It discusses how the plot of this novel mirrors the tragic and real life murder of a Larry Fobes King, a young gay teen who was killed in 2008 after asking his crush if he wanted to be his valentine. The author, Raziel, was obviously aware of this horrible and tragic event and was inspired to write a story that reflected what it may have been life living as Larry before he died.

"It’s sickening to me that the moral panic surrounding the book regards teens reading about blow jobs and not its painfully, stylishly wrought portrayal of kids being bullied to death, or growing up with fear because it’s not safe for them to be who they are." - Emily M. Keeler

I also think that the author, Raziel Reid, purposely made the content graphic for that extra shock factor. This book is supposed to be outrageous and the sexual content helped deliver that. Additionally, I think the author was also making a point that gay sex is something that everyone needs to be more comfortable with. Just as we don't shutter with all the very graphic and straight media content that teenagers are exposed to, homosexual love needs to be the same. The problem is that a lot of adults don't want their kids reading content like this, even if their kids are already thinking it or doing it, parents still don't want their kids exposed to anything that might encourage it. Especially homosexual content or anything that they might perceive as out of the ordinary. Personally, I believe that more novels need to describe the homosexual or gender bender experience so that in the future nothing about a character like Jude will ever be questioned, made fun of or undermined. If Barbara was able to get past her own gag-reflexes in terms of the sexual content of this novel, she might have been able to see a young and troubled gay youth dealing with hate the only way he knew how, with love. That there are more values in this novel than she has her whole miserable article. 

Thank you to Raziel Reid for bravely writing this piece and for writer's like Emily that say it like it is. This piece is worthy of its award and its novels like this that are truly breaking barriers in a still very conservative society. With the two books I've read so far for Canada Reads 2015, this one has my vote at the moment.  Barriers smashed.

I didn’t dislike the book, even with its heavy subject matter. However, I just wasn’t able to believe these were 8th graders, and maybe that’s because I was sheltered but it really pulled me away from the story.

Late! But FB reminded me about how much I loved this book, how important it is, so reposting my old review here....

What Next? A Review of When Everything Feels Like the Movies by Raziel Reid

“Later, the doctors worried that he’d injured the ventromedial prefrontal cortex of my brain, which can leave you without morals or compassion. I was disappointed that it wasn’t damaged, because wouldn’t it be nice not to give a shit?”

It’s taken me awhile to write this post. When Everything Feels like the Movies (WEFLTM) has gotten a lot of press of late (good, bad, and terrible!) and I don’t want to spend this post rehashing the points for or against this book. What I am going to do, what I need to do, is to try and understand my own very visceral reaction to this book and why I have not been able to get it out of my head since I turned the last page….

Jude is a very popular boy. At least that’s what he would have you believe. But if you were talked
about as much as he is, wouldn’t you be a celebrity too?

Winner of the 2014 Governor General’s Literary Award and Canada Reads 2015 runner-up, Raziel Reid’s debut novel touches on themes of victim-blaming, homosexuality, transgenderism, cyberbullying, drug use, and a myriad of other issues facing teens and our society today. But these are all just things you can pick out from the surface; things the media latches on to and spins out of context, leading to cries of moral outrage and generalized, narrow-minded attacks.

Quite simply, WEFLTM broke my heart. I felt (and feel) so sad for Jude. He’s just a kid who has absolutely nowhere and no one to turn to. Jude is openly gay and likes to wear makeup, but all he wants is the freedom to be himself. Yet throughout the entire novel he is an unwilling target for other people’s fears and insecurities, their problems and repressed feelings. He is told (and shown) that he is unwanted, unloved, and somehow in the wrong to be who he is.

To deal with it all Jude creates an elaborate fantasy world, telling himself that is famous (or well on his way), dismissing the taunts of his classmates as call-outs from the paparazzi. Some have said that Jude lacks morals and has no depth, but he struck me as being very brave for putting himself out there and taking things in stride as much as he could. For all the abuse that Jude takes, physically and mentally, he cares deeply for those he loves, namely his best friend and younger brother—and Luke, the object of his affection (but more on that in a second). Jude never stops caring, even if he believes that he is undeserving, somehow, of any type of love.

Jude’s voice rang very true to me. Much has been said about the graphic nature of this novel, in content and dialogue, but that is what is so powerful about it. It is the voice of teens today, of those who find themselves in the same situation as Jude. It is the type of book that people will connect to because they see themselves reflected in it, and that is so important to reaching a place of equality and tolerance. It is the type of book people will push away because all they are willing to see is the surface, the profanity and descriptions of blow jobs… maybe they need it the most. Because what I haven’t yet touched on is the fact that Raziel Reid wrote this novel in response to a real incident that occurred in 2008. In WEFLTM Jude asks Luke to the Valentine’s Day dance. Luke is straight, and wants to make sure everyone knows it. It is the culminating event of the novel; the point where Jude is so desperate to be acknowledged, loved, and accepted, that he asks Luke out in front of everyone. Something he knows, deep down, will only make him a bigger target than he already is. And Jude is killed for it. Just as Larry Fobes King was, in 2008. That is not fiction; Larry was a boy who existed in this world, who was gay, and who only wanted to live his life. And he was murdered for it.

To deny this novel is important and needed is sickening to me. I simply don’t understand those who want to see this book stripped of its awards, to be placed out of reach of those who need it most. WEFLTM should be placed in the hands of every teen, of every person, if only to show us the brutal reality that so many others face. If it makes you uncomfortable, so what? Don’t read it then. But don’t take it away from everyone else. Maybe those who rip on it are protecting themselves, but from what I don’t know.

Even having written this down, I can feel the sting of tears. The last chapter I read while I sobbed. I sobbed while wanting to break things, to lash out against every injustice, vomit with detest at the self-serving reactions of those who condemn it, condemn those for whom the world of When Everything Feels Like the Movies is reality. I feel helpless. I want to do something. But what?
As I asked in the title to this post, Where can I turn now? I don’t exactly know. But I can start. I can change the way I judge people; the way I think about them; the language I use. I can donate to the Canadian Centre for Gender and Sexual Identity, which I have—and I invite you to do the same, or find a local charity who works with gay and marginalized youth. It may just be a drop in the bucket, but it’s better than letting the tap run dry.

When Everything Feels Like the Movies is published by Arsenal Pulp Press in Vancouver, Canada. You can purchase this title directly from the publisher, Chapters.ca, or your local independent. ISBN 9781551525747.

I’m overwhelmed...

A truly lovely and heartbreaking YA novel. Jude is stuck in a backwards, homophobic town, where he escapes from bullying and a bad home life imagining himself in the role of celebrity. The bullies are merely jealous of his fame and gossiping about him because he's so famous! What a great idea for a novel and the execution is spot-on, with up-to-date references to celebrity and internet culture pervading the narrative. Of course, the story is so sad, as we watch Jude's joie-de-vivre eroded by a terrible town.

I was interested around the controversy surrounding this novel's win of the Governor General's Award for Children's Literature last year. I'm definitely not an advocate of banning books from schools, but all I'll say is that some of the explicit sexual references and violence in the book shocked me now, at 29, and I definitely would've been VERY shocked at age 12-15. But I've always been easily shocked :P

It's hard to think of this as a YA book. It's really well written and it's unlike anything I've ever read before. I thought it was amazing; it's the type of book that leaves a really strong imprint on you.
Reminded me of both SE Hinton and the way she wrote teenagers (with respect, nonjudgement and warmth; and the way she could write the impatient boredom and imagination of adolescence) and also of JT Leroy with a sort of world weary flippant quality that shocks you with casual violence/cruelty and poverty. The references are interesting--they aren't a teenagers at all. In Jude's perception of his life as a movie he's an icon, and refers to Marilyn Monroe, James Dean, the Kennedys, 90210; and also more modern stuff. It's like he's speaking a pop culture language that asks a lot of the reader to interpret; which I love. It's a great book--definitely not of the LGBT 'it gets better' cannon. In this kid's case, it gets worse.

Did not like. I found the protagonist incredible off-putting, which made me unable to relate to or sympathize with his plight. My main issue is the presentation of this book as a YA novel -- similar to Lullabies for Little Criminals, I think it's more suited for adults despite its teenage characters. If I'd come across it as an adult book, I still wouldn't have liked it, but at least I'd have less issue with its classification.

I don't know. Just not my thing.