So Hard to Say by Alex Sanchez Audiobook

Review: So Hard to Say, by Alex Sanchez

When Frederick starts 8th grade in a new state, he falls in with a group of Latinas who call themselves Las Sexy Seis. His new best friend, Xio, has the hots for him, but he only feels tingly when he hangs out with his new soccer buddy Victor. Could that mean he’s gay?

Alex Sanchez is one of the go-to authors for gay YA, and I’d never read anything by him. This book is fairly workmanlike, but it gave me the warm fuzzies. It’s told in alternating points of view, Xio’s and Frederick’s. I loved that Xio is Mexican (along with everyone Frederick hangs out with in his new California town) and Frederick is Wisconsin white, and you get to see the ways their lives are culturally different, but it’s never a Big Deal. The parents are three-dimensional. There’s a gay kid who gets picked on, so Frederick knows what’s in store if he comes out, and the book doesn’t try to pretend that Frederick will somehow escape that treatment — some kids (and adults) will be jerks, but both Frederick and Iggy still have friends.

This is as much about Xio figuring out who she is — her absent father, her newly-dating mother, her friends, all her dramatic 13-year-old emotions — as it is about Frederick, so I think even kids (like a lot of my girls) who are a little embarrassed about reading A Gay Book will find a lot to enjoy here.

Here’s a column by Sanchez about writing controversial books for teens.

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So Hard to Say by Alex Sanchez Audiobook