One of the few bright spots in the book world–aside from cookbooks–is youth fiction. Youth fiction–or YAF–hasn’t always gotten the respect that it deserves. But the publishing world’s attitude has changed significantly with the phenomenal success of the Stephenie Meyer books, Hunger Games and others. The good news here is, of course: the kids are reading. What sometimes gets lost in the story is the number of youth novels which include well-adjusted, three dimensional, teen-aged gay characters. Perhaps the best example of this is Patrick Ryan’s Gemini Bites which is published today.
As the title suggests, Gemini Bites is about a set of twins who find themselves involved with someone who just might be a vampire. These teenaged twins are fraternal–one is a straight female, the other is a gay male. They are part of a large family. The potential vampire is a goth sixteen year-old who finds himself staying in their attic for a while. Mortal or not, this houseguest is irresistible to both of the twins. The genius of this book, is its voice –or rather its voices. The novel is written in the voices of the two twins–alternating from chapter to chapter. And Mr. Ryan brilliantly captures the voices of these two alike–but not at all alike–characters. He even manages to humorously weave in the two characters’ misconceptions of each other. I should add that there is also a hilarious subplot throughout the book: one of the twins becomes so obsessed with a boy at school who is a born-again Christian, that she pretends to be born-again herself.
If all this sounds just a little bit light, it is. Light and sweet. Like a perfect pastry. I recommend this book to queer readers of all ages.
Gemini Bites is published by Scholastic.