Scan barcode
A review by sherwoodreads
Riley Weaver Needs a Date to the Gaybutante Ball by Jason June
Gay-friendly and queer-inclusive (except could be clearer on trans inclusivity),
Riley Weaver is excited to finally be a high school junior, which means he can join his school's LGBTQ+ club and attend their Gaybutante Ball, which helps LGBTQ folk network for future jobs. And he wants to get out of his otherwise nurturing small down.
However, there's a local bully jock--a gay one, this time, who sneers at femme gays. Riley lays a wager he can find a date for the club's annual ball, and hijinks ensue.
I use the word "hijinks" deliberately here, as there is a kind of comic tone to the constant one-liners and to the somewhat superficial treatment of characters. Riley gets away with an awful lot, but as the book's protagonist, he has the plot armor you expect in a slightly comic story. That plus some unexamined assumptions that poked at me here and there relating to trans inclusivity raised a couple of eyebrows or three. Though all in all, let's Get More Gay out there for kids to read. They can discuss issues themselves, if they get enough books to compare them!