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What Members Thought

I should have liked this book more than I did. Precocious female narrator who likes history and getting lost in the woods? Gets along much better with gay men than straight ones? Lots of nods to musical theater fans with tons of references to South Pacific, sister relationships... There are lots of themes here I can relate to. I just couldn't hook into June's voice that well; I found her a little too cloying, I think. There were also lots of little things taking me out of the narration; too many
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This reminded me a lot of The Prettiest Star, but also of A Crooked Tree with the kids of a certain era having copious amounts of unsupervised time. I liked both of those books a bit better, but this was very good in many places and I think would make for a good book club book. June, who loves all things medieval, has experienced a loss that she and the world is unprepared for. She was sweet and I felt a lot for her little weird self. I also liked the role of the painting that it plays in the li
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I gave this book 4,5 stars actually, but decided not to round it up to 5 stars due to some reasons. But this book is definitely one of the best YA I've ever read. Tackling the issues of AIDS and LGBT in the 80s, dark past of a family, and sibling competition beautifully in a very well written storyline. The setting of NYC is also very believable, taking us back to the cool but sometimes scary era. I almost forgot how ignorant people were in the 80s on the issue of AIDS. And also how inconvenient
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For a rather sad book, there was also something light and lovely about this book. The nutshell is that an isolated teenager deals with the aftermath of her uncle's death. This is a coming of age story set in the 80s that hovers around the emergence of AIDS.
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Feb 25, 2013
Aimee
marked it as to-read

Mar 20, 2013
Tria
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Jan 12, 2015
Abby Mannelin
is currently reading it

Feb 24, 2015
Katy
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Apr 20, 2015
Booktart
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Jun 05, 2017
gremlinkitten
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Jan 17, 2019
Paulette
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Meg
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Aug 11, 2020
Lucinda
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Oct 27, 2020
Michelle Marie
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Jan 14, 2024
Shelby
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Jan 09, 2025
Karen
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