I have a few things that I consider to be true about my reading life.
- YA books generally annoy me.
- I especially don't like YA contemporary books.
- I hate, hate, hate love triangles.
I hate to have to rethink long held beliefs about myself. I'm going to have to though. I've been enjoying some YA contemporary books lately.
I loved this book. I loved it even though this is an actual love triangle. Maybe I don't hate it because no one is choosing who to love and is just agreeing to love everyone. It isn't a competition.
Taylor is a junior when she moves to a new town. She meets Theo and Josey. She is warned that they are weird but she likes Theo a lot. When they explain to her that they are polyamorous, she doesn't know what that means. In their relationship that means that they are open to other partners.
Other people misunderstand the intent behind the relationship. They feel that it is unfair for Theo to have two girls that he is using. They think that it means that Taylor is open to sleeping with any one. Taylor is nervous that her involvement will feed into stereotypes of Latinas being The Other Women.
What I found most interesting about this book is that I believed it. I wasn't mocking the author's attempts to make it seem like this was a real relationship that wasn't exploiting anyone because it felt real. I could see how this relationship could work. It worked better than a lot of two person relationships I've read about in books. There were no major misunderstandings that could be resolved just by talking to each other. There was no game playing to make someone else jealous or insecure. It felt age appropriate.
My only complaint about this book was Josey's obsession with vet school that didn't make any sense at all. I ranted about that all in this post.
This review was originally posted on Based On A True Story