Tanner's words, words that spill from him because his love and his truth just bubble up inside him and beg for release. And while drowning Sebastian finds in those words a life preserver he can grab onto and which will help him find his way.
Autoboyography is a love story but it is so much more. It is affirmation that what you are, your worth as a person, it is about your character, your actions and the way you treat those around you. Your worth isn't diminished based on your gender and the gender of the person you love and who loves you back. Family and religion can much that message up and that is explored here. Sebastian is truly a good person. He loves his family. He loves his church and he loves his God. But he also loves Tanner. And it isn't clear to him if he can love his faith and his boyfriend, or even have a boyfriend. Tanner is also a good and kind person. He is more comfortable in his own skin, with being Bi. He loves his family, friends and he loves Sebastian.
Their story is painful and scary and beautiful even when it gets ugly.
I felt like the treatment of religion and sexuality were so respectfully handled and that is really huge because this could have easily turned into a Mormon bashing tale but it didn't. It could have been almost any religion and the conflict would have fit the story. But writers tend to write from what they know and I learned from the acknowledgments that Christina worked in a junior high in Utah and met lots of kids (like Sebastian) who said their parents would rather have a dead kid than a gay one while Lauren grew up more like Tanner, in a place and with a family who allowed her the room to be herself without fear or judgement.
Thank you both for your words, I can't wait to get my hands on your new book in a few days time!!!
(Finished August 23, 2018)
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